A mosque at Ground Zero: not here, not ever

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Islam is a religion of peace and mercy, part 47. Today in Saudi Arabia, the richest and most influential Islamic state in the world, a Saudi man who was convicted in court of paralysing a fellow countryman is being threatened by the judicial authorities with having his spinal cord cut as an official punishment. It is Islamic law and Saudi Arabia enforces it: an eye for an eye. As I write this, the case judge in the north-western province of Tabuk is waiting for replies to the letter he has sent out to several hospitals asking for their advice on whether it is medically possible to slice the spine. Is the judicial mutilation going to happen? We will have to wait and see. But we do know that ten years ago an Egyptian worker had an eye surgically removed in a Saudi hospital as punishment for disfiguring a fellow worker in an acid attack.