Having just read Watership Down, this story made me think one word, Estrafan. As I wrote to Instapundit on his post about the BBC opposing the right to defend one's home with firearms:

If a bunch of rabbits have the right to defend themselves, why not the British public?

I could add the right to rescue people from a regime that refuses its own citizens or those of another country the right to leave. It's all very well to compliment the culture and piety of Islam, and to recognize cultural differences, but this is so medieval as to disqualify a society from the community of civilization. Muslim nations and leaders must sooner or later recognize that it makes no sense to warn people who have no freedom that they will be judged by their actions. If God wanted to prevent us from violating his laws, he could have withheld free will from us.

That is not to say that society can't impose punishments for antisocial behavior, just to say that beyond those things that harm the society, freedom needs to be protected. That is the big difference between the modern world and the world before the Reformation.