Man handed prison term for molesting his daughters By Rana Husseini
AMMAN  The Criminal Court has sentenced a 50-year-old Arab national to nine years and eight months in prison after convicting him of molesting his two daughters for the past 14 years.
The defendant, pharmacy who was arrested in January 2006, online was convicted of molesting his two daughters 1, malady 085 times.
The factory employee told his daughters that what he was doing with them was normal, according to court papers.
The girls informed their mother about the molestation a few months before the defendant was arrested and she confronted her husband, the court said.
“At first, the defendant denied any wrongdoing but later admitted to his wife that he was molesting his children and promised not to repeat it,†the court said.
Court transcripts said the defendant also used to physically abuse his wife and daughters and beat them with his hands and a wooden stick.
On January 20, the defendant had a fight with his wife and threatened to kill her with his shotgun, the court said.
Question: Is 9.8 years enough for 14 years worth of molestation?
Serves him right.. Now I don’t think u can imrpison him for life for being one sick a**hole, but there should be some kind of offender registry or rehabilitation program to deal with him once he gets out of prison so that he REALLY never do it again
It’s better than what they get in North America; they get like 3 or 4 years here.
But they do have an offender registry which is good.
Wow …so we do have actual stories about fathers and male family members molesting children. I love it how many would say this only happens in the west. Who knows how many other cases are out there? If the father had killed his daughters in the name of his honor he would’ve gotten out in a few months and baried them with his dirty dark secret.
Not that it matters but how do they quantify it so accuretly ?1085?
I think he should be hanged or even he should sit on an old style 7’azoog!!
Naseem, now if this story in our Jordanian Newspapers, I think they are exagerating the details– molesting the girls for 14 years and doing it 1,058 times??? Were the girls deaf all that time, or what? It is just hard to believe! However, No No No, that punishment is not enough even if he has done it once! any punishment less than death is not enough for this sick brute!!
secratea: its the jordan times and they really have no reason to exaggerate a story where the information on the case is pretty much handed to them by the courts.
No disrespect to the commenters, but I disagree. While his crime is abhorrent, I do not see it justifying anyone’s wish to see the man dead.
Why can’t our reactions be more measured? Isn’t this the same reason we have other problems in our society that just today we talked about on this very same blog? I’m talking about honor crimes. Aren’t honor crimes just an example of our inability to produce well measured responses to what we (by logic, culture or social norms) perceive as an abominable act, be it adultry or child molestation? Both acts are equally repugnant, yet neither should justify the killing of their perpetrator by anyone.
i wonder if someone killed him would it be considered a crime of honor ??
well this man shouldnt die … but he should be locked up for at least 15 years … it would be good if they castrated him though … not in a savage way … but i think its a good idea to dismantle a rapist sex drive … it would hurt him more than anything …
freakin lunatic psycho …
MAHA : i bit ya he didnt think abt that or he would of done it … but i imagine it happened before …
we as Jordanians must do sth abt Crimes of Honor !!!!! It has to STOP !!!
My unchristian, unmerciful verdict: Castration. period.
Maha and Secratea, I work with victims of sexual abuse in Jordan, and believe me, I think the rates are higher here. It is a a result of evil in human nature, irrespective of culture or religion. Go talk to the Family Protection Unit and hear stories of incest that make your skin crawl. Fathers, brothers, uncles, cousins. Why did the girls not say anything earilier? They were taught it was normal, ans probably threatened. Even more, it was probably the only form of affection of they ever received after childhood.
How to calculate the numbers? 1,085 is actually probably low, do the math, two girls over 14 years? Factor Viagra in and it is probably higher.
Hamzeh, many abusing relatives will rape a girl n the family, then use the ‘honor’ clause to kill her to cover THEIR dishonor. this was the situation with Rana Husseini’s landmark case in Hashmi Shemali over a decade ago. Many girls I work with couldn’t tell anyone because they knew they would be killed, no matter WHO the perpetrator was. As long as the punishment for them is death, why shouldn’t the one condemning them to death have the same fate?
OK, I am back to my more merciful, Christian self.
I am not for the death penalty for abusers, unless they kill the child to cover their crime.
Repeat offenders have the lowest rate of rehabilitation of all crimes, and need to be considered dangerous for life.
One important note, the statisics of abused men who become abusers is very high. An abused boy will probably become an abuser. Abusers need help, as well as justice.
I just do not think it is fair to equate adultery with Child molestation because they simply are not the same crime and therefore the violators should not be punished equally. In the former, there is consent to engage in the action, whereas in the latter there is force to commit the action, and that creates the whole difference.
adultery and Child molestation is the same thing, its just the social perception and line drawn to label a person as an adult or a child. a 13 year old child today a ripe marriage material 60 years ago (any where in the world).
As for this case its incest, even more abhoring. but the misery of this whole thing, that this family is set of a course of chaos from now on.
its not like the society will run to their aid more like they will be ostrecized and impovrished, and will still be dependant on the husband and his family. hence the repeat offender dilemma.
the numbers there are dubious ! the 1085 is about 3 times a month for each girl ……. kinda low don’t u think ? and the mother not knowing about it for 14 YEARS ! how old are those girls ….
and the judge decision for 9 years is funny, i think he should atleast suffer the same amount of years he made those girls suffer
28 year that way by the time he is released back to society he is either dead, broken, or too weak to act on his impulses.
(death penalty is the easy way out, in a way its more humane than the prison system itself. evident by the prevailance of suicide attempts. )
I think you missunderstood my point, or I’m not understanding your question. My comment said nothing about the punishment for the perpetrator of an honor killing. My comment said that honor killings are a form of extreme response to something that is considered by people (due to religion, culture or social norms) as an abhorrent act deserving punishment. It is this notion in our society (that we can respond to something with murder or the call to kill) that is a problem, and I see a hint of the same problem in the comments that said the man who molested his two daughters should be killed.
I believe they are equal in at least one aspect, which is that the perpetrator still deserves to live. And while some people feel it is ok to kill an adulterer in the name of honor and they must be fought and resisted, some others believe a child molestor should be killed as well, and even to my own disliking, something should be said in defence of that person’s right to live even after committing such a heinous crime.
The moment this male THING chose to violate his precious gifts from God by forcing them to have sex with him, he gave up his HUMANITY and became nothing more than a disgusting insect worthy of no more respect or honor than a common cockroach.
He deserves nothing more than what would be given to a cockroach that hurt your child – immediate and painful death.
Shame on those who are even SLIGHTLY defending this monster’s actions.
Bam:
What would the people that existed before 60 years do if they found out what this guy did? Even death is not enough for me, peopel he raped all the children of the world!!just imagine someone doing this to your kid our your little sister!!I would not only kill him I will have fun torturing him before!!It is the beauty of child hood that was raped, don’t look at those children as regular people, they are the birds of the heaven, they are the most beautiful thing in life!!
When you kid gets sick, you give him medicine to kill the illness, this guy is an illness that raped his own children so what is the medicine?
KILLING HIS A$$!!!
Hamzeh, yes, I agree that if ‘honor’ killing is wrong for one it is wrong for both. I see your point.
If the perpetrator is willing to receive therapy, and is not a repeat offender, then incarceration could be enough. If they repeat, then their right to live freely vs. the cost of innocent children’s right to live should be reconsidered. imho
Mohannad, according to the story, the man did not rape his daughters.
Kinzi, no disagreement with what you said.
Hamzeh,
So you don’t consider the molesting of his 2 daughters to be rape? Dude, I just want you to imagine this happening to your kid or your baby sister!! so now there is a difference between molesting a child and raping!!Give me the difference please and while you do that I think you will notice that they are the same!!so he touched his baby girl breast and masturbated!!he let her touch his male parts and close his eyes!!Dude I want to throw up!!Seriously what does this man will benefit the community!! You are not more merciful and just that god!!No one can be merciful more than god, and god said that there should be no mercy on this kind of people!!
I am really surprised by what I heared from some the people here, I dont’ know if it will be ok with them if he serves jail time when he molests his/her children!!
No I don’t, and if you do, then I can inform you that you are wrong. Open the dictionary or go to dictionary.com and lookup the definition. Rape is forcing someone to have sexual intercourse. Molestation can be carried without sexual intercourse.
Where does God say that child molestors should be killed (even tortured)? I am not aware of such verdict at least in Islam.
So the definition of rape is force, and if you read the article correclty you can see that he has been telling his daughters that this natural!! So for this to become rape he must force them to have sex with him, don’t you see how wrong your statment is!!Dude he is their father for gods sake!!And yes child molesters must be killed in islam, you can do some research and you will find the answer…
I am really really surprised!!The force that he used was mental and parental force!!if you define that as force!!
I will say no more because you will not change your position and I WILL NEVER CHANGE MINE!!
You didn’t answer my question if that happened to your daughter or little baby sister?Will jail be enough?
“Molestation can be carried without sexual intercourse.”
Dude I wanna throw up when I read this statment!!so letting his daughter give him a blowjob is cool with you, or as you say it is not the same as rape..For rape you must have an intercourse as you stated, so there is no such thing as raped childhood or raped land..
Thank you nas for this post that showed how some people think!!
Dude, stop saying you want to throw up and do it already. They say you always feel better after throwing up anyway.
It’s a matter of basic English. Open the dictionary and look up both words: rape and molest. I hope I don’t have to explain to you what the concept of “context” means. In the context of sexual abuse, rape doesn’t describe all acts of sexual abuse (which also include both molestation and molestation), it only describes the act of forcing someone to have sexual intercourse. This is mentioned in very specific words in the dictionary.
If the father had raped his daughters, why wasn’t the story reported as a rape case? I think it should be clear now that this story is not about rape, but child molestation.
Regarding Islam’s verdict on child molestation (not rape), it seems that you have done the research so kindly provide the references. I personally searched Islam Online’s “Ask the scholar” archives and didn’t find anything on child molestation.
Exactly how did you come up with this fantastic conclusion?
Indeed!
err, that should read “(which also include molestation)”.
This is so bad.
I am glad you Kinzi got back to your merciful state.
I kind of agree with Hamza.
No one can deny how awful it is what this mand did to his daughters. The amount of pain they have to indure because of his sickness cannot be described. But as you people stated above, he is a SICK man. If he is a normal man, he wouldn’t harm his daughters this way.
Now my question to you. Did he choose to be sick? Would any sane man choose to be sick and hurt his family this way?
I am not defending his actions, and I understand that it is insance to ask merciful for anyone acting this way. But try to look at it objectively (and I know that I wouldn’t see it this way if the one molested is a relative of mine), this man is sick, he is a victim of his sickness as much as his daughter. Being locked in prison is a good option to prevent him from causing more damage to other people. If there is no cure to such sickness, then a full life in prison would be the answer. There should be no incarceration, there should be no death penalty, there should be no physical abuse. There should be treatment, if it didnt work, then a seperation from children.
It is awful, but killing isn’t the answer.
for the sake of minor conflict resolution:
i think the two sides here are of the same coin. hamzeh is pointing to the terminology, the specific use of the words: “rape” and “molestation”. To focus on this terminology can be important because we have to keep in mind they are weighed down by legal definitions and legal consequences, as well they should. There is a direct difference between the two and if we simply merge them then we are opening a door to include a lot of people who would not necessarily be or should be included.
that being said: mohanned is looking at this from the broader social perspective. and i would also agree with his view that they can be the same thing: a form of sexual abuse. rape being a physical violation. in essence we may look down on both acts with disgust and thus blur their meanings but then we’re not taking into account for example a little girl that does not know she is being violated, as opposed to a grown women jumped in an alleyway.
so although we can judge them both as similar acts the legal definitions are important: they allocate proper forms of justice.
in other words, there’s a way to agree with both perspectives, on a social and legal level.
that’s just my opinion, but i wanted to make sure that everyone involved in this discussion can see they are really talking about the same coin.
thanks
Observer and Nas, my argument is simple, molestation is not the same as rape (I have already indicated they’re both sex offenses), and the punishment for a molestor should not be automatically death.
So I’m not saying child molesters are all sick and in need for treatment and that that’s the reason they should not be killed, and I’m not saying there is absolutely no common ground to agree on with what Mohannad is saying. My argument is focussed and directed towards the punishment part and how it doesn’t need to be death.
By the way, here’s a fatwa about the punishment for rape:
http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?pagename=IslamOnline-English-Ask_Scholar/FatwaE/FatwaE&cid=1125407868541
Mr.Hamzeh,
Now I cooled off a little bit, lets now focus on rape, there is a hadd in islam about kat3 el 6atareeg and terrorizing people which is cutting the hand and the leg of the person who did that, lets say that an adult woman was raped, does this action caused terror for her and for other women?Yes, so his punishment in my opinion shouldn’t be less than cutting the leg and hand and the whipping also.
Now molestation: Thers is something called phsychological force which the father used on his daughters so in my opinion this is also a rape which terrorized and desrtoyed the two poor girls and even terrorized anyone with common sence.. Now you would say that he didn’t terrorize us, I Would say that in amman explosions all jordan was terrorized even though only hundreds of people were actually harmed, so this molestation act is terrorizng the whole community and his punishment also should not be less than the previous one that I said.
Also, what do these two little girls represent?Do you look at them just like two random humans or like the beuty of life and what life is all about?Children is the essence of life, they must be sacred and never ever harmed, I look at children as the most valuable thing in life, they are more valuable than my life and yours because they are the love of GOD!!
In all from what I read in your comments I see that you look at it from a legal perspective, which by the way is far from islam. Anyway sorry for wasting your time and it was good talking to you.
The observer:
Sickness now a days is used as an execuse, so only if the individual is completely insane there is no such thing as choice, his actions toward his wife and the two poor girls shows that he is a sane person but with evil deeds, and if this guy knew that he would be killed or even worse he would have thought about it twice, same goes for stealing if the theaf knew that his hand will be cut if he stole he will not do it..
And you can use the same argument that you used here for honor crimes; the father is sick he had a party after he killed his daughter and he was also mad because of her actions so lets just put both of the rapist and the killer in rehab and everything will turn out to be ok in our society!!Can you hear what you are saying!!Illness is not an execuse for committing crimes;you would say he has no control over his actions so how did he manage to live all these years without anyone noticing that he is not normal!!
Oh my god, when I began writing this reply I was kinda cool but now I swear I am mad as hell!!PEOPLE THESE ARE CHILDREN!!!THEY ARE THE MOST BEATIFUL THING IN LIFE, THERE MUST BE NO MERCY ON THIS SICK BASTARD!!
Mohannad, from an Islamic point of view, I gave you a credible source for a fatwa that does a good job of talking about the punishment stipulated for the rapist. It makes it clear that only when the rapist threatens using a weapon that he becomes a “mu7arib” and the judge has 4 options to choose from that are listed in a Quranic verse. Other than that, the punishment for the rapist is the same as that for the adulterer, and it adds that if the crime cannot be proven using 4 witnesses or confession, then the judge can still stipulate a form of punishment that he finds satisfactory.
This makes it clear that the death penalty is not used in all rape cases, and even when the death penalty is justified (when the use of a weapon is involed), there are other options that the judge can use.
Furthermore, it makes it very clear that rape refers to forcing the victim to engage in sexual intercourse, thereby negating your argument that child molestation is a form of rape. It simply is not, when the two terms are to be compared, they are to be compared in the context of sex offenses, and the two describe two different kinds of sex offenses.
Now of course, if the father did use a weapon, then he is a “mo7areb”, but even then, the judge doesn’t need to sentence him to death. That liberty to not choose the death sentence is not granted to the judge by the state, nor by the judge himself, but by God in the Quran. So it cannot be taken away.
“when the rapist threatens using a weapon that he becomes a “mu7arib†”
So a man being stronger physically than a woman is not considered a weapon!!
“adds that if the crime cannot be proven using 4 witnesses or confession”
There is now something called science that can prove if a woman was raped or not, which was not the case 1400 years ago.
“It simply is not, when the two terms are to be compared, they are to be compared in the context of sex offenses, and the two describe two different kinds of sex offenses.”
Is it maybe becasue 1400 years ago girls were married when they were 9, but I don’t want to get into that now.
“Now of course, if the father did use a weapon, then he is a “mo7arebâ€Â, ”
So phsycological force and parental control is not considered a kind of force? If this is islam then I am not a muslim!!Bro, what was valid 1400 years maybe is not valid now, you build logicaly on gods rules and you don’t link it to only specific times and places, you must be logical when you try to take some rules out of the quran and the sunna..
Anyway I think that should be enough regarding this issue, I will not change anything and neither you will, so we will just leave it for god, and by the way if some day some one did that to my kids even if the judge ruled him to prison I will kill him with my own hands!!
Narrated Wa’il ibn Hujr:
“When a woman went out in the time of the Prophet (peace_be_upon_him) for prayer, a man attacked her and overpowered (raped) her. She shouted and he went off, and when a man came by, she said: That (man) did such and such to me. And when a company of the Emigrants came by, she said: That man did such and such to me. They went and seized the man whom they thought had had intercourse with her and brought him to her.
She said: Yes, this is he. Then they brought him to the Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him). When he (the Prophet) was about to pass sentence, the man who (actually) had assaulted her stood up and said: Apostle of Allah, I am the man who did it to her.
He (the Prophet) said to the woman: Go away, for Allah has forgiven you. And about the man who had intercourse with her, he said: Stone him to death.
He also said: He has repented to such an extent that if the people of Medina had repented similarly, it would have been accepted from them. (Sunan Abu Dawud, Book 38, Number 4366)
I’ll make it simple for you:
1- Molestation and rape are not the same thing. In your last two comments you only talked about rape. Even regarding rape you get Islam’s viewpoint wrong. You quoted a hadith. I quoted a full fatwa by a well known muslim scholar from a well known and credible source (Islam Online). The fatwa is more inclusive than the hadith, and the hadith you quoted does not conflict with the fatwa; it only historically documents one of the cases mentioned in the fatwa.
2- Even if you argue that molestation can be categorized under the crimes committed by a “mo7areb”, the Islamic verdict on that is clear; death is not the only option. It is the most extreme of the options available though, and there is something for you to think about in that. Isn’t insisting on the extreme a form of extremism? And if God granted people other options that are less extreme, then is it so wise to ignore God’s other offers and insist on that one that is most extreme?
Mohannad,
I agree. These are children, and I know how horrible it would be and how much harm such person can inflict on them through their entire life.
And no, I am not saying the sickness can be an excuse, what I am saying that sickness can be what triggered the man to behave this way. If you want to call it evil then be it, why this man ended up under the power of evil while many others didnt? He certainly wouldn’t choose to be evil if he really had the choice.
I disagre with you about the punishment of death being a prevention of such crimes. There has been always harsh punishment but it never stopped crimes. There has alway been prostitutes when they were condemned to death, there has always been alcoholics where alcohol were forbidden, there has always been theives when hands were cut, their has always been murderers when there has been a rule that a murdered should be murdered. People usually do crimes when it is out of their hands. Prisons now has evolved to be a rehabilitation centers. What we should do for criminals is treat them and rehabilitate them in order to be able to be able to get back to society and live a healthy life. Somethings cannot be cured, and that is why maybe we should keep some in prison for the rest of thei lives, just to keep their harms off society, but death sentence is inhuman. It wont fix anything, and wont prevent anything.
“There has been always harsh punishment but it never stopped crimes.”
Because evil will always be there!!
“why this man ended up under the power of evil while many others didnt?”
Because that is how god created him, so we blame god for everything!!Man, there are three situation where a person is not persecuted for his actions 1-asleep 2-insane and I forgot the third.. So if sickness is conseidred insanity then I think isreal will be the most insane country on planet earth, because they believe in things that is not there!!
Hamzeh:
You are leniant, I am not, I will stone his testicles first then I would crush everything in his body before I kill him!!Thats all I can say…childhood for me is the most valuable thing in life!!
To make this story more fun: There was a judge from our relatives who ruled in a case close to this, the father used to molest the girl and abuse the mother and one day the girl poured gas on him while he was asleep and torched his A$$, the judge I think ruled her 3 months and therapy, of course the motherf$#%er was dead thanks to god…
Anyways God bless you all, I know you all are good people, but we have to protect our children and our community, thats all…
Naseem:
I can’t open the home page, I can only navigate through hsitory on my computer?!
Mohannad, thanks for being so patient with me in this discussion, but I have to respond to the statement above, because it ignores my whole point. This is not about leniency, it is about extremism in the face of logic, law, reason and even religion. I don’t want the conclusion to be that my position on this is just something that is “lenient” and that the other position (yours) is just as right but just not as lenient, because it isn’t right. There is absolutely no reason to insist on extreme measures, and to even insist on them when you are shown that these extreme measures don’t even apply. This is the same extremism that leads men in our societies to kill their children, the children you acknowledged are a7bab Allah, for such silly reasons as often reported in our newspapers. This is a problem and my whole point is to point it out, not to dismiss it as something that is permissible but for which a more lenient alternative exists. No, a lot of what you said is not permissible and is a problem. So saying you’re not lenient is not enough, because one can be non lenient while still being right. That is not the case here.
Much respect.
Hamzeh,
Thanks, So I am the extremist, which is not the case for me, I am against honor killings and against killing, but when something wrong happens I am extremist, yes I want the most brutal punishment to be performed on the abuser. If protecting children is extremesim then I am most extreme person on planet earth and I would be proud of it. You will choose prison I will choose killing, you see physiacal strength of a man as a something not to be considered a weapon, I do. You consider rape a rape when an weapon is used, I define weapon as anything that puts anyone in the place of power.
Maybe I am not right but you can’t say I am wrong, I didn’t say you are wrong I said that you chose to be leniant while I chose to be “extreme” -if protecting children is now consisdered extremism- so in all we can say that you are with choosing a punishment that is not as exterme as mine, and I respect your choice, but one thing;your justice is not fit for me..
God bless you all..And thanks man for you patience..
people like this are what the harsh Hudud restrictions are for. Stoning? chopping his head off? castration? are all of those too merciful? Sending him to his God, blinded and bleeding from all limbs? I think the only worldly punishment befitting would be putting him in a jail cell with a massive thug who had issues with child abusers, and keeping doctors around to revive him and keep him alive whenever he lost too much blood. – still, only God can adequately punish him for what he took from his daughters and wife…
harsh punishment though, and I think the Jordanians know harsh, from what I hear…
Sexual abuse of children happens in sooo many neighborhoods , villages and schools in Jordan. People underestimate it but it is very common.
Hareega, I agree, it is unfortunatly so wildly spread here! I wonder how many people are suffering in pain and secrecy out of it.
Well, I think we can at least all agree that it’s about time these actions were exposed and dealt with. I think it’s clear to see that no one will ever agree completely on a suitable degree of punishment, and even within the islamic legal jurisdiction, different jurists may rule differently. The important point is that Muslims recognize that we too are human, and capable of unimaginable crimes.
But really, I don’t think 8 years is proportional to his crime. It doesn’t even match the length of time which he perpetrated these acts. It doesn’t address the fact that he has serious issues, by forcing him to undergo treatment or counselling (hahaha…counselling in a Muslim country). It doesn’t protect the two daughters or the mother. And it certainly doesn’t address the commonly known fact that first-time offenders always re-offend. I mean, here in North America we have databases of these types of crimes because when a sex crime is committed, the best bet to finding a perpetrator is to look back at previous incidents.
And more important than all of that, whatever you might feel is the Islamic punishment, I think it’s interesting to note that they are all corporal. And this man’s punishment was in no way corporal. The Prophet SAW never locked any sexual abuser or rapist in a prison, and Allah knows best.
This is just sick and disgusting, I do not think the penalty fits the crime. He will be out in 8 years, but the two girls will have to live with HIS MISTAKE for the rest of their lives.