Studying the Adaptability of Internet Crimes with Islamic Law: A Case Study of Theft and Fraud

Surveying the sources of Islamic law clarifies that the basis of criminalization and the punishment of theft and fraud is to protect the believer's and non-believer's property against the abduction or possession without permission by others and the principle of respect is the basis of this subject. Undoubtedly, however, no reference is made to internet type of these crimes in the sources of Islamic law. Therefore, this article by means of examining the different aspects of the aforementioned internet crimes, seeks to determine that how much internet crimes are compatible with Islamic law, and how Islamic law's resources can be used in illustrating and adapting the subject in modern criminal law. The findings of this study indicate that the lack of reference to internet theft and fraud in Islamic law does not authorize non-criminalizing of these crimes in current laws. Accordingly, the lawmaker, through referring to foundations of Islamic law that has banned and determined punishment for fraudulent, deceptive, and criminal offenses for gaining wealth by illegitimate ways, has placed internet crimes under discretionary (ta'zeeri) crimes. So that it would be possible to prevent immunity from these crimes and the orders of Islam based on which these crimes are forbidden would be regarded in the law. The present article, through a descriptive-analytic method and in order to ascertain the possibility of the Islamic law being compatible with Internet theft and fraud, attempts to conduct a comparative study of Islamic law sources approved by the Imamiyah and Sunni jurisconsults with internal regulations.