Practices under Islamic Sharia Law and it's penalties (the facts)

• A Muslim man can marry only a Muslim, Christian or Jewish woman. He cannot marry an atheist, agnostic or polytheist.

• A Muslim woman can marry only a Muslim man. She cannot marry a Christian, Jew, atheist, agnostic or polytheist.

• The minimum age of marriage for females is nine, for males is twelve.

• A Muslim minor girl's father or guardian may arrange the marriage of a girl, without her consent, before she reaches adulthood.

• An adult man cannot marry an adult woman without her consent. An adult woman requires her wali's - father or male guardian - consent to marry, in following schools of sharia: Maliki, Shafi'i, Hanbali and Jafari.

• A marriage is a contract that requires the man to pay, or promise to pay some Mahr (property as brideprice) to the woman. The married woman owns this property.

• A man can divorce his wife any time he wants, without reason. A woman cannot divorce her husband without reason. She may file for divorce for reason, such as he is impotent, missing or biologically related to her.

• A Muslim man can marry four Muslim women with their permission, only if he can support them financially and equally. A Muslim woman can marry only one Muslim man.

Crime and punishment

Sharia recognizes three categories of crime:

1 Hudud: crimes against God with fixed punishment

2 Qisas: crimes against Muslims where equal retaliation is allowed

3 Tazir: crimes against Muslims or non-Muslims where a Muslim judge uses his discretion in sentencing

Hudud crimes are seven: theft, highway robbery, Zina (illicit sex), sexual slander (accusing someone of zina but failing to produce four witnesses), drinking alcohol, publicly disputing Islam, and apostasy (leaving Islam and converting to another religion or becoming an atheist).

Sharia requires that there be four adult male Muslim witnesses to a hudud crime, or a confession repeated four times, before someone can be punished for a Hudud crime.

Murder, bodily injury and property damage - intentional or unintentional - is considered a civil dispute under sharia law. The victim, victim's heir(s) or guardian is given the option to either forgive the murderer, demand Qisas (equal retaliation) or accept a compensation (Diyya) in lieu of the murder, bodily injury or property damage. Under sharia law, the Diyya compensation received by the victim or victim's family is in cash, and the amount depends on the gender and religion of the victim, for an equivalent crime and circumstances. Muslim women receive less compensation than Muslim man, and non-Muslims receive less compensation than Muslims.

The penalty for theft

Theft (stealing) is a hudud crime in sharia, with a fixed punishment. The punishment is amputating (cutting off) the hands or feet. However, before a person is punished, two eyewitnesses must testify that they saw the person stealing.

The penalty for zina

Sharia law states that if either an unmarried man or an unmarried woman has pre-marital sex, the punishment should be 100 lashes. If a married man or a married woman commit adultery, the punishment should be 100 lashes and then stoning to death. There are some requirements that need to be met before this punishment can happen. For example, the punishment cannot happen unless the person confesses, or unless four male eyewitnesses each saw, at the same time, the man and the women in the action of illicit sex. Those who accuse someone of illicit sex but fail to produce four eyewitnesses are guilty of false accusation and their punishment is 80 lashes. Maliki school of sharia considers pregnancy in an unmarried woman as sufficient evidence that she committed the hudud crime of zina. The Hadiths consider homosexuality as zina, to be punished with death.

The penalty for apostasy

Sharia law does not allow Muslims to leave Islam, in order to become atheist or covert to other religions. This is strictly forbidden, and is called apostasy. In Muslim theology apostasy is a crime against God. The punishment for apostasy is death for Muslim male apostates. The major schools of sharia law differ in their punishment for female apostates: Maliki, Shafi'i and Hanbali sharia requires execution of female apostates, while Hanafi and Jafari sharia requires arrest, solitary confinement and punishment till she recants and returns to Islam.

In many Muslim countries, some people may be accused of apostasy even if they have non-conventional (non-traditional or unusual) interpretations of the Quran. Sunni and Shia Muslims have historically accused each other of apostasy, since the early days of Islam. Similarly Sufi, Ahmadiyya and other minority groups of Muslims have been accused of apostasy by majority Islamic sects.