Don’t make blood money a problem

In Saudi Arabia, as well as in other Arab and Muslim countries, blood money is paid to a victim’s kin as a punishment and compensation. Crimes, premeditated murders and accidental homicide happen every day and everywhere for different reasons. In other countries, the killer is either hanged or jailed, especially in countries that ban capital punishment.
In the Kingdom, where the Islamic law is applied, the killer is either executed or he could pay blood money if the relatives of the victim pardon him.
However, this tradition of paying blood money has become a social problem, especially when relatives of the victims ask for large amounts of money, which the other party can’t afford to pay. Everyday we are confronted with this strange phenomenon.
Sometimes, when somebody mediates with the relatives of the victim to pardon the defendant to save his life, they would ask for unimaginable amounts of money apparently in an attempt to punish the whole society for leaving their sons unattended to the extent that he becomes unruly causing the death of innocent people. Ideally, the motive is noble, i.e. to make us count till 10 before we cause harm to others and to ourselves as well.
It has become a social custom. Although some families know very well that their son is a gangster, when he is killed for one reason or the other, they ask for blood money that could reach SR20 million or SR30 million.
We know that there are some families that care the least about raising their children. Instead of keeping any eye on their mentally disturbed son, they let him go out with a gun to end the life of another innocent person.
I believe that this problem is getting out of control, so I suggest formation of a civic authority to communicate with the families with sons suffering from this problem. This is a preventive measure. This body can include notables, scholars and other social experts, to counsel and guide the families in order to prevent the occurrence of any likely crime. This authority can also initiate an awareness program across the Kingdom. Instead of expecting those working with the authority to work voluntarily or free of charge, it would be better to make some suitable arrangement like deducting certain amount from the blood money to pay for their salaries.
The less the amount of blood money, the better the situation will be and vice versa. In any case, we should not despair and we should continue our war against the ills of our society.