In his Friday sermon in Qom, preacher Ayatollah Ibrahim Amini, a senior Iranian ayatollah, said that an adulterous woman must be stoned in public, regardless of the impression this creates in the West: "The fact that [the practice of stoning can lead] our enemies to regard Islam as a violent religion is not good reason to avoid [implementing] the punishments [set out in] the shari'a," he said. Stoning is a common punishment in Iran for those convicted of adultery or fornication.
Source: Rooz, Iran, March 31, 2008
