Q&A: Torture Punishments for Terrorists
Torture Punishments for Terrorists
Question
Hello Rabbi,
Do you think it is appropriate to give torture punishments to terrorists? Even execution by torture? Or perhaps that is something barbaric and inhuman?
Best regards,
Answer
I don’t see any reason to do that. Killing is a logical punishment because it removes them from the face of the earth and also protects us from them. But abuse is just cruelty for its own sake. At least from our side, it is not appropriate to do that, even if they deserve it.
Discussion on Answer
The reason to perhaps do it after all is “so that they shall see and fear”; there are those for whom the death penalty is not especially threatening, and who even want it.
And what about “an eye for an eye”? The intention here is that someone who did a certain thing should be repaid in kind, no?
Otherwise I don’t understand the meaning.
But if we repay with the same coin of abuse and cruelty someone who was cruel to us, how are we different from him?
And in the case of today, if we do to the human beasts who abused our people in the same way, we become beasts like them.
Torturing terrorists is an obligation, and it is not a question at all!
Beyond that, suffering makes sense to impose on someone who will still live and learn a lesson from it. But if someone is being put to death, what is the point of making him suffer? It is only a crude outlet for the torturer.