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'Stoning' Actress Gets It Wrong

Aghdashloo makes false claims about stoning: 'nothing to do with Islam'

Robert Spencer of American Thinker calls out Iranian actress Shohreh Aghdashloo (pictured here) for statements she made when publicizing her new film, The Stoning of Soraya M.

Spencer cites of few of Aghdashloo's comments in an interview with the Staten Island Advance, in which she says that stoning "has been happening since the Stone Age, in Judaism, Christianity, Islam." Spencer replies, "In fact, no," and goes on to state his case, showing where Aghdashloo gets it wrong.

Writes Spencer: "The Hebrew Scriptures mandate stoning but it has not been carried out in Judaism since the destruction of the Temple in 70 A.D., or before that. Islamic tradition contains stories of Muhammad confronting Jewish rabbis who try to conceal the fact that the Torah teaches stoning – they seem to know that Muhammad was a brutal flat-footed literalist who would demand they carry out these teachings literally, when they understood them in a quite different way.

"As for Christianity, stoning has never been practiced except among those strange Christians one encounters only in TV dramas. Jesus famously raised the bar for stoning beyond human reach when he said to a crowd that was poised to stone an adulteress, "Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her" (John 8:7)."

Spencer then goes into a lengthy discussion about Islam's history with stoning, disputing Aghdashloo's claim that stoning isn't mentioned in the Koran and has nothing to do with Islamic law. Spencer: "Stoning has everything to do with Islam and Islamic law."

Meanwhile, see our interview with producer Steve McEveety and actor Jim Caviezel, read our review, and watch the trailer:

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