Saturday, June 23, 2012

Mali Muslims beat couple for having child out of wedlock

From The Global Dispatch: The Islamists occupying northern Mali on Wednesday gave a couple 100 lashes of a whip for having a child out of wedlock, Sowetan Live reports. “At Sankore Square in Timbuktu, a man and a women got 100 lashes for having had a child outside of marriage,” said local official Mohamed Ould Baby. “People were watching it was like a show. I was there, I saw the youths arriving at the square, I saw them being whipped, it is the first time I have seen something like that.” The official said Islamist group Ansar Dine, call themselves Defenders of Faith, carried out the punishment. Ansar Dine claimed control of Mali’s vast northeast regions in March. The AFP reported that Ansar Dine claimed to occupy the towns of Tinzaouaten, Tessalit and Aguelhok, all close to the Algerian border, and that they had captured at least 110 civilian and military prisoners.