To say that this is out of step with the 21st C. would be an understatement, with no better example than a current case now being condemned internationally. Here, the family of a man paralyzed in a criminal act (unspecified) is calling for the person responsible for the crime to be crippled, and so confined to a wheelchair, as their son was. That the culprit has spent ten years in prison is insufficient punishment. The family, according to reports, has rejected the offer of a cash payment of $270,000 and chooses to show no mercy.
In cases like this, it’s not uncommon for the Saudi Arabian government to lean on families insisting on exerting the full power of the religious rights. The damage done to Saudi Arabia’s reputation, dignity, and image is considerable; following the letter of the law to its conclusion is even more damaging.
It is going to be exceedingly hard — if not impossible — to make a change in law that directly reinterprets a Quranic injunction and so to make the acceptance of blood money the only response. A law that made sense nearly 1,500 years ago no longer makes sense.
via ‘A Barbaric Act’: Courage Needed To Reinterpret Law
(MEP, Middle East Perspectives from Dubai to Rabat)
The problem is that stating that shariah makes no sense 1500 years later, would set down a whole legal, social and political system that is on expansion nowadays… if they haven’t catch our previous comments and considerations about all this, if they don’t see how primitive and arbitrarian can be to apply shariah in 2013 and beyond… I guess they must not be so interested in reading this.
So let’s just hope that the hard way teaches them. But we know it’s a blood-shedding path.
I won’t stop getting shocked by this.
Almost as much as for the inefficacy of our own legal system in Spain, which is everything except perfect, practical and reliable for us,…
But at least we don’t know what it is a chop-chop square.
And it’s important for me that it stays as that.
Al-Must'arib (the vocational Mossarab) 
Españoles, todos ustedes.
Mujeres, hombres y niños, me escuchan.
Una vez que usted era el centro del mundo.
La encrucijada de la civilización estaban aquí.
Usted gobernó el mundo.
El dinero, el poder y la fama eran tuyos sin medida.
Pero …
El dinero, el poder y la fama, ya que han pasado por … lo que parece.
Te digo esto, nada ha cambiado.
Usted sigue siendo el centro de este mundo.
No es el dinero, ni el poder o la fama que importa ahora.
No es algo que dura más que todo eso.
Muere dinero.
Fama muere.
La genética no mueren.
Usted, el español es el resultado de una gran convergencia.
Todos los imperios y culturas que se han lavado a través de esta hermosa tierra tenían un propósito.
El propósito era crear usted.
Y usted, que va a cambiar el mundo para mejor.
Habrá naves. Se pondrá a prueba ellos.
¿Estás listo?
aiwa! 😉