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The murder of the 20-year-old Özgecan Aslan in Mersin, whose charred body was found on 13th February, after she went missing on 11th February, has stirred up Turkey. Murder suspect Suphi Altındöken, admitted during his interrogation, that he attempted to rape the woman, and as she fought back he stabbed her and hit her repeatedly with an iron pipe, and burned the body after pouring benzine over the body. (Agencies)

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This incident is being discussed as the number one item on the agenda and protests have been held in many cities of Turkey. The most outstanding calls during these protests have been "Stop violence against women", "Protect women", enacting "Capital Punishment" and implementing deterrent penalties. While President Erdogan said that they "are following the incident and (the murderers) will be punished in the heaviest way", Family Minister Ayşe Islam said, "as a mother, I think we can talk about capital punishment".

This incident is neither the first nor will it be the last. Because after such incidents, when authorities are making on-screen statements in order to prevent public indignation, everything is forgotten as soon the agenda changes. One of these incidents was a case known as "The Shame Case" in 2002 - the case of 13-year-old N.Ç, who was sold for money by two women, and afterwards raped by 25 men, including a chief-editor of district governorate and an army lieutenant. This case included civil servants like the chief-editor of the district governorate, an army lieutenant and the village headman, among the suspects, lasted 8 years. The court decided a sentence of 4 years and 3 months, saying that the girl 'had agreed to the actions with the suspects by her own will", and with regards of good conduct. Supervised release, good conduct, judicial discretion, abating; finally led to the release of the suspects. And the Supreme Court approved. N. Ç., who 'agreed to the acts with the suspects by her own will!' as confirmed by the court, had several surgeries, as she was unable to sit.

The implementations of secular Republic of Turkey have constituted oppression to women, as they did for everyone. From 66 recorded female murders in 2002 to 1011 in 2007. Statistical data from interior ministry, police and gendarmerie are as follows: Between the years 2001-2001 there were recorded 21.268 cases of assault, 10.148 cases of abduction, 3.800 cases of obscene behaviour, 3.366 cases of rape, 1803 cases of deflowering after false promise of marriage, 1.371 cases of forcing into prostitution of women.

No matter which statistics regarding women one refers to, one will face a picture with similar numbers. Because this is the inevitable outcome of any system that does not rule upon the system of Islam. Also the calls for reinstating capital punishment are far away from Islam and its system and therefore a struggle for vain. As long this system upon Western style education, life style and systems continues to be implemented, the results will not be much different, even though enacting the capital punishment. In order to understand this, it is necessary to have a look at the modern USA. According to reports, every second one woman faces violence, and one woman every 6 seconds is raped. Divorce rates are above 50%, while the rate of women giving birth out of marriage is about 35%. Not included are abortion and the murder of own children by mothers.

All these show that man-made systems are the root cause of these problems. If mankind would be able to achieve happiness and to establish justice through man-made systems, would Allah (swt) have sent us the Islamic system?
Without a doubt, the most important feature of punishment acts like a deterrent. However, who is going to determine this deterring punishment for the individual? As the One who created the human, is to know him best, and therefore when turning to the Revelation that was sent to us as a blessing, we see that our Lord says:

((وَلَكُمْ فِي الْقِصَاصِ حَيَاةٌ يَاْ أُولِيْ الأَلْبَابِ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ))

"And there is for you in legal retribution [saving of] life, O you [people] of understanding, that you may become righteous." [Al-Baqara 179]
Furthermore, knowing that some individuals are not deterred through punishment alone, Islam has blocked all ways leading to fornication through commanding not to approach fornication instead of not doing it, and thus ensured social order. It is possible to observe this in every era of the 13 centuries of Islamic history. Additionally, Islam has exalted the individual to the level of a human through answering his questions of where he came from, where he is going to, and his responsibilities, through directing his view to Allah, His Messenger and the Qur'an al-Kareem.

After all this, the only solution not only for Turkey, but the whole world, as witnessed in the past, will only be provided by the Khilafah "Caliphate" and the Islamic System.

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Musa Bayoğlu