Speaking on capital punishment debates that are on agenda after a woman, Emine Bulut was brutally murdered by her ex-husband in Turkey, Lawyer Mehmet Hüseyin Yılmaz stressed that violence and murders cannot be prevented by imposing the death penalty alone.
Stating that Islamic law should be applied as a whole in order to be effective, Yılmaz noted that all roads leading to theft, immorality, violence, prostitution should be closed. "Islamic criminal law can be applied only after the application of the Islamic economy, and Islamic civil law."
Referring to the underlying perceptions of gender, insidious rhetoric such as "male violence" or "female murder," Yılmaz said murder and violence are criminal cases with different social dimensions.
Yılmaz underlined that neither a woman nor a man had ever been murdered because of his/her gender.
"If you impose even the most severe punishment in a society where there are no moral, social or religious values that support that penal code, the mere fact that it is a severe punishment alone does not prevent the crime from being committed," Yılmaz said.
For example, capital punishment is common in China. People can be sentenced to death for very simple reasons. And yet they can't stop crimes," Yılmaz noted and continued as follows:
"Some say that 'retribution must be introduced to prevent such killings' or that the death penalty should be imposed. Some say, 'this would not have happened if there was the Islamic criminal law.' However, they are ignoring this; in order for Islamic law to be effective, it must be applied as a whole.
You cannot prevent it by just bringing in lex talionisor or the death penalty. In other words, you have to close all the roads leading to theft, immorality, and prostitution; you have to apply the Islamic economy, the Islamic civil law so that you can apply the Islamic criminal law.
So in short, first of all, you have to apply a fair administration and a fair legal system. Instead of applying them, when you just want to apply the death penalty, I think it will be cruelty.
Why? Because it is only cruel according to Islam when you apply criminal punishment but do not block the bad roads that lead to crimes. This is not an accurate determination from that point of view. It would be wrong to bring the death penalty without establishing justice." (ILKHA)