Stoning

Yesterday evening I did the mistake by watching the film "The stoning of Soraya M". Mistake in that way that after I've seen the film I could not sleep.

The scene were Soraya get stoned, buried in to the ground was horrible. Unbelievable authentic. The blood, the sound, the fear in her eyes. Perhaps the most horrible scene in a film I've even seen, and whats even more scary is that this film is based on a true story.

Back in 1986 a French-Iranian Journalist get stuck in a remote village in Iran. He meets a woman who tells him this story about a women sentence to this cruel penalty for a adultery she did not even commit.

Back in history stoning was a punishment that was rather common and still today stoning is a punishment that takes place in Iran.

A very famous story from the bible, in John 8, a woman is caught and the mob want to punish her for her adultery. They turns to Jesus and asks:


" Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?”
But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

“No one, sir,” she said.

“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

Two things here are very important.

No one could through stones since they were all sinful. That's true we are all sinners in the eyes of God, but our sins are forgiven. Jesus died on the cross for us, for you and for me.
Jesus did not tell the woman that it was OK for her to commit this adultery, he says Go now and leave your life of sin. Jesus is telling her that she indeed is sinful.
Islam respects Jesus as an important prophet figure, but obviously they don't listen to Jesus' words about the adulteress. They took that out from The Koran.

If they didn't they would also understand.