well it is a compassionate religion but there are capital punishments for certain crimes. That includes execution of rapist, murderer, adulterer, fornication. Also whipping of a fornicator (premarital sex), public alcohol consumption and chopping hand off a thief
You may find these as 'harsh' or 'barbaric' or not compassionate, however Islam is not just an individual thing, it is not just a set of rituals, it is meant to perfect individuals and perfect society as a whole.
They are deterrant laws. Do you honestly think people will want to steal if their hands are in question? You don't grow them back.
Alcohol is a poison, we all know it, it intoxicates the mind, liver, the whole body. The way Islam looks at it God mentions in the quran that the harms of it outweigh any potential benefit of it. And I know... from alot of my cop friends they say it too.. the majority of crimes they deal with have alcohol use involved. Date rape? Alcohol use involved. The list goes on.
There is a reason these things are in place.
Islam is pro-sex/pro-marriage (channel your desires properly) and in fact the early caliphates would give money, homes to early new-weds and help those that cannot get married to get married. However premarital sex is corruption of society.. alcohol is corruption of society... homosexuality is a given, it is well known from old times that it is a way to spread disease and as such it is a corruption and misguidance for mankind. It may seem harsh but then we have been indoctrinated to see these things as harsh too. Going to christian school I was thought capital punishments should be stopped, an irony really knowing now christian history, but it was trying to give a 'christian twist' to it (talking about capital punishment in some states that still execute criminals).
I am not against capital punishment once I think about it. We all know statistically rapists rape again when let out of jail... and a woman cannot wipe out the memory of rape it will always remain with her, it is a brutal and violent experience. These people deserve punishment for it. Tucking them in a jail with playstation and feeding them at tax payer's expense is not justice to a woman who was raped.
We may agree to disagree, but yes, Islam does have these strict punishments that however does not mean Islam came to be just about these few laws of punishments. Seriously, most people emphasize about these punishments as the end of the world trying to undermine islam somehow (
), while in fact Islam was revealed to guide mankind.
Do you think this mehmet 2 dude didn't deserve the death penalty for raping boys? I think he does and did and if it wasn't a corrupt 'caliphate' under his rule, he would be executed in no time's notice.
The bottom line is, islam does not outright provoke and advocate violence as islamophobes attribute. The bible does that. And on the contrary it is the quran that uses the words love, mercy, peace, a million times more than the bible EVER does... you have to read it for yourself to understand that and understand that islam indeed is a religion of mercy and salaam, peace. However there are punishments like under any system. The difference is, islam is of principle, it does not swing in the wind where the people's desires go. If a majority of people decide today they all wana have a gay island and die off there without ever procreating, thats not principle, thats just people choosing to be idiots and mankind dying off in a pathetic state.