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What do you make of this from Emirates Today:

A total of 173 inmates at the Central Department jail in Dubai who memorised all or parts of the Holy Quran were yesterday either allowed to walk free or had their sentences reduced.
The inmates were honoured at the sixth award ceremony organised by The Dubai International Holy Quran Award (DIHQA) at the Dubai Police club."


Ebrahim Bu Milha, Chairman of the organising committee, said: “It is a unique step to give proper guidance to the inmates. Not only are we reforming the lives of these inmates by guiding them religiously, we are also giving them a chance to live a normal life, away from the prison.” Those who memorise the full Quran will be exempted for 20 years, irrespective of their crime, but prisoners taking part in the project say it is a task that feels almost impossible at times.

Since the inception of the project nine have fully memorised the Quran and have been exempted for 20 years from their term.

There are nearly 2,000 inmates in the various prisons in Dubai. From the programme 22 will be released today.

Now worthy as it may be to learn such a text I'm not sure it's any guarantee that these criminals will be back on the straight and narrow. I'm damn sure I would study like hell and memorise anything word for word if it was going to lop 20 years off my sentence!

Prison is both to punish and to reform. To punish serves as a deterrent and to reform is to stop people re-offending.

Memorising the whole of the Quran is no mean feat - it does show perseverance and dedication. Does it reform the person? I guess it would depend - but it doesn't sound like a daft/stupid idea. In the UK there was pres uproar a few years ago at programmes that had young offenders being sent on adventure 'holidays' abroad.

I personally am in favour of creative punishments - if they have the outcome of reformation and benefit society at the end.

All things being equal, a person who will have memorised the whole of the Quran should be a better person at the end of it and will probably not want to reoffend. It's not just the subject matter, but the length. It could take over a year to memorise all 114 chapters.. no wonder the inmates say it is a daunting task. The authorities are obviously hoping that the memorisation of the holy text will have a beneficial effect on the inmates..and I would agree with this.

It may be a concept that seems outrageous to anyone who hasn't read the Quran - but bear in mind people have converted after only hearing small portions. Those that have memorised the whole Quran would necessarily be more god-fearing and more likely to be reformed characters at the end of it.

I also presume that there is some discretion here and that reformation is tested in some way - in the same way parole hearings seek to judge whether a person should be released or not.

Wasalaam,
Shafique

Some fair points shafique and, yes, hopefully it is tied in closely with generally good behavior, remorse for their crimes and a redemption.

However, I'm not sure you would feel the same if you were the victim of some terrible crime and the perpetrator was being allowed to walk free up to 20 years early for memorising all or parts of a religious text.

mmmmmmmmmmm difficult this one.

On both hands, GB and Shaf have a fair point

GB I totally agree with your last point. Islam generally gives more rights to victims than the judicial systems of the US or Europe - the victims usually have the right to pardon or object to early release. (Parole hearings in the US also allow representations from victims or their representatives.)

As I said, this is the first I'm hearing of this proposal and think it is an interesting one.

wasalaam,

Shafique

GoodBai wrote:Some fair points shafique and, yes, hopefully it is tied in closely with generally good behavior, remorse for their crimes and a redemption.

However, I'm not sure you would feel the same if you were the victim of some terrible crime and the perpetrator was being allowed to walk free up to 20 years early for memorising all or parts of a religious text.

Well it depends, if the patient is mentally ill and the crimes severe, I dont think they would be under this clemency rule.