Somalian Mohamed Abukar Ibrahim stoned to death for adultery by insurgent group: Disturbing online reaction

Last week, the Daily Mail reported on the stoning to death of 48-year-old Mohamed Abukar Ibrahim by Hizbul Islam, an Islamist insurgent group, as well as the shooting of an (unnamed) man accused of murder.

The paper has published graphic photos showing the barbarity of the killings, which took place in Afgoye, 20 miles from the capital Mogadishu in front of hundreds of residents.

Osman Siidow Hasan, acting as a "rebel judge", told the crowd: "This is their day of justice...We investigated and they confessed."

Hizbul Islam's leader, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, called for suicide attacks against African Union peacekeepers operating in Mogadishu in September.


Disturbing reaction by online commentators:

The "Speak You're Branes" (yes, that is the correct title) blog yesterday highlighted some of the comments left on the Daily Mail story.

Some of them appear to be supportive of the murders, while others seem to be arguing for some kind of gender balance. From the "Speak You're Branes" post:

I know, it’s vile and cruel for someone to have to go through something like that. On the other hand, however, why wasn’t the woman involved stoned to death? I can understand why, to an extent, but I personally think both parties involved should have the SAME sentence, as adultery is a very wrong thing to do. Not punishable by a very…ah… painful death, but most certainly something painful. It’s also quite humiliating for the poor man who was stoned to death to have photos taken of him while it happened. In my opinion, those photos shouldn’t have been taken.
Charlotte Delooze, Ashton, Manchester.

The usual "Vote BNP" comments also appear, as well as this comment which has been "red flagged" 349 times:

"It would be a good punishment in this country for paedophiles and some of the sickest murderers, etc...Anyone who red flags this, must either be a paedophile themselves or a supporter of such monsters."

I find it very disturbing that the reaction to someone being stoned to death by many of the readers is "How can we use this to promote our own causes/political views?"

Do people need to be better educated? Or are the sort of people who left the above comments simply selfish and dogmatic? It should be noted that some of the comments do have some merit and add to the debate.

No doubt some people will also have read the article and thought "How dare we in the West dicate to a Somalian Islamist group how to behave." The sort of people who would hold artifical borders above human rights.