7News exclusive: Sydney store sells extreme sharia guidebooks
A Sydney bookshop that employs the man accused of whipping a Muslim drinker, sells books promoting extreme Islam punishment, an exclusive 7News report can reveal.
Wassim Fayad, 43, is accused of organising the lashing of 31-year-old Christian Martinez allegedly under an extreme form of Islamic law punishment known as sharia.
According to the 7News report Fayad works at Bukhari House Islamic bookshop, a store that sells books that details crimes against Islam and prescribes their punishments.
Found in the store, was a book titled Bringing Up Children in Islam, which advocates chopping the hands of thieves; 100 lashes for fornication; and death by stoning for adultery.
Moderate Muslims of Australia, which make up the majority, disregard this as a legitimate legal guidebook, "This certainly has created a lot of misinformation, it has distorted people's views of what Islam is." says Keysar Trad who founded the Islamic Friendship Association.
Trad says that sharia law cannot be administered by individuals, it requires a sharia court, "It should not be related to sharia, because sharia does not condone this vigilante kind of action." says Trad.
Found at Bukhari Bookshop:
Advice on punishment for adultery: "The penalty for adultery for a married person, is stoning to death, to be witnessed by a crowd of people."
Advice on forbidden fashion: "Included in this category of forbidden clothes are those which have long slits at the bottom or are split at either side."
"The evil pictures that are seen on some clothes are also a serious matter. These may be pictures of singers, musical bands, bottles of intoxicants, pictures of living things, which are legally forbidden."
Punishment for drinking alcohol: "A person who imbibes intoxicants is to be flogged, according to his guilt, forty to eighty lashes."
