Saudi Gazette report RIYADH — Children such as Wisam, Shimoukh, Luma, Ahmed did not know that they would meet their end at the hands of their own fathers who should be protecting them instead of killing them. These children were not the first to be murdered by their fathers and will not probably be the last. Years before them, Ghisoun, Sharaa, Areej and Balqees met the same fate. The soap opera of fathers killing own children will continue if a system is not devised to protect these children from the brutality of their parents, legal experts say. The existing penalty of five years in jail for fathers who murder their children is not enough to deter them. Speaking to Al-Watan daily recently, the deputy chairman of the committee of lawyers at the Asir Chamber of Commerce and Industry, lawyer Mohammed Al-Qahtani, called for drafting laws and systems to tackle cases of domestic violence. He said: “The previous sentences issued against murderous fathers should be revised to make them harsher to prevent the repetition of such cases in our society.” He said the mother has the legal right to demand qisas (capital punishment) against a father who murders her son or daughter. Former judge and lawyer Abdulaziz Al-Qasim said the Kingdom was still applying a law issued more than 70 years ago, stipulating that qisas should not be applied to parents who deliberately murder their children. According to the law, a father who is convicted of killing his child would be handed a maximum imprisonment sentence of five years. Al-Qasim said: “This law should be reviewed and a harsher sentence issued to parents who murder their children.” Al-Qasim said a number of scholars who objected to issuing the qisas punishment for parents who murder their own children depended on a weak Islamic teaching (hadith). He said some scholars believed that because the parents brought the children into this world, they should not be killed if they murder them. He, however, said a number of other scholars called for applying the qisas punishment on murderer fathers because they believed the Islamic teaching used by the first group of scholars was weak. Legal consultant Mashari Al-Maqati said scholars had conflicting viewpoints on the Prophet's (peace be upon him) teaching that a “father should not be killed for his own son”. He said: “While some of the scholars considered this Hadith to be weak and unbinding, others believed that it was valid and should be taken into account when trying a killer father.” Al-Maqati said each group of scholars used Qur'anic verses and cited incidents that happened during the time of the Prophet (pbuh) to support their viewpoints. He said a third group of scholars were of the opinion that the father should only be beheaded if he murdered his son by slaughtering him like a sheep. Al-Maqati himself believes that whoever kills a human being should be killed for his crime. He said: “Islam prohibits aggression against human beings whether they are old or young, black or white, relatives or strangers.” Director of the Ministry of Social Affairs' family protection unit in Riyadh Dr. Muda Al-Zahrani said all fathers and mothers who murder their children should be beheaded for their heinous crimes. She said: “Islam is a religion of justice and mercy, especially for the weak and powerless like children.” She asked mothers not to keep silent when they see their children being abused by their fathers and said in such cases the mothers should be treated as accomplices. She said many fathers had the wrong notion that they were free to do whatever they wanted to do with their children. “These fathers are not stable. No one, even the fathers, have any right to torture and murder children.” Judicial and psychological consultant Dr. Saleh Allihaidan said murder is prohibited by the Holy Qur'an and the Prophet's (pbuh) teachings. He said: “People of sound minds and stable personalities will never think of taking the lives of their own children with their own hands.” He added that even people who did not believe in God would not approve of such crimes. Allihaidan called for in-depth judicial studies into cases of parents killing their children and vice versa. He said imprisoning parents who murder their children was not a sufficient punishment and said they should be subject to capital punishment.
