Being a 'liberal' is becoming more dangerous...

in Saudi Arabia that is...

In the "trial" of Ra'if Badawi, the founder of the Saudi Liberals forum, the judge has passed a motion last week for him to be tried for apostacy (which carries a death sentence).

And yesterday, local author and academic Turki al-Hamad has been arrested for making tweets.

  Quote

Saudi Arabia uses capital offence of ‘apostasy’ to stifle debate

A court in Saudi Arabia has decided to proceed with the prosecution of an online activist for apostasy, a charge which carries the death penalty, in what Amnesty International said is a new bid to stifle political and social debate.

On 22 December the General Court in Jeddah had Raif Badawi, 25, sign documents to enable his trial on apostasy charges to go ahead, after his case was passed to it by a District Court on 17 December.

Badawi – who founded “Saudi Arabian Liberals”, a website for political and social debate – has been in detention since June 2012 on charges including “setting up a website that undermines general security” and ridiculing Islamic religious figures.

Amnesty International considers him to be a prisoner of conscience, detained solely for peacefully exercising his right to freedom of expression.

“Even in Saudi Arabia where state repression is rife, it is beyond the pale to seek the death penalty for an activist whose only ‘crime’ was to enable social debate online,” said Philip Luther, Director of Amnesty Internationals Middle East and North Africa Programme.

“Raif Badawi’s trial for ‘apostasy’ is a clear case of intimidation against him and others who seek to engage in open debates about the issues that Saudi Arabians face in their daily lives. He is a prisoner of conscience who must be released immediately and unconditionally.”

Badawi’s trial began in June 2012 in a Jeddah District Court and was rife with irregularities.

According to his lawyer, the original trial judge was replaced by another judge who had previously advocated that Badawi be punished for apostasy. His lawyer has contested the judge’s impartiality in the case.

The charges against Badawi relate to a number of articles, including one he wrote about Valentine’s Day – the celebration of which is prohibited in Saudi Arabia.

He was accused of ridiculing Saudi Arabia’s Commission on the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice – also known as the religious police – in the conclusion of his article: “Congratulations to us for the Commission on the Promotion of Virtue for teaching us virtue and for its eagerness to ensure that all members of the Saudi public are among the people of paradise”.

The charges against Badawi also mention his failure to remove articles by other people on his website – including one insinuating that the al-Imam Mohamed ibn Saud University had become “a den for terrorists”.

“Articles on Badawi’s website included references to individuals or institutions that some people might have found offensive, but charging him with criminal offences punishable by imprisonment or execution cannot be justified on any level,” said Luther.

“The Saudi Arabian authorities must end their intolerance of people peacefully exercising their legitimate right to freedom of expression.”

http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/saudi-arabia-uses-capital-offence-apostasy-stifle-debate-2012-12-24

That is in Saudi Arabia, and thus does not surprise me whatsoever. The government there basically runs itself like a 14th Century feudal state with a monopoly over an industrialized natural resource.

Nice place..

Emigrate IMO.

makes me very angry indeed

Stop buying Saudi oil, and watch the regime collapse and burn in a matter of weeks.

(i know itll never happen but still)

  On 12/26/2012 at 2:21 AM, Smettingham Rutherford IV said:

Stop buying Saudi oil, and watch the regime collapse and burn in a matter of weeks.

 

 

 

(i know itll never happen but still)

once someone invents/discovers a substitute for oil...

my dad always says cars run on booze, or cars go better when you're drunk

but booze is banned in saudi arabia innit?

  On 12/26/2012 at 2:21 AM, LimpyLoo said:

  On 12/26/2012 at 2:21 AM, Smettingham Rutherford IV said:

Stop buying Saudi oil, and watch the regime collapse and burn in a matter of weeks.

 

 

 

(i know itll never happen but still)

once someone invents/discovers a substitute for oil...

...then the gov't will pretend it doesn't exist and continue relying on oil

  On 12/26/2012 at 2:55 AM, sergeantk said:

  On 12/26/2012 at 2:21 AM, LimpyLoo said:

  On 12/26/2012 at 2:21 AM, Smettingham Rutherford IV said:

Stop buying Saudi oil, and watch the regime collapse and burn in a matter of weeks.

 

 

 

(i know itll never happen but still)

once someone invents/discovers a substitute for oil...

...then the gov't will pretend it doesn't exist and continue relying on oil

the times they are a-changin'

The New Oil will be swept under the rug like the electric car. The river of money will continue to flow until it dries up.

pretty cool that America has obfuscated the fact that one of our biggest allies in the Middle East is also one of the most corrupt and has some of the worst human rights abuses. Let's go into Syria!

edit: even still though, since most of us have probably never been anywhere in the Middle east it's hard to judge what it's really like there. My mom lived in Saudi Arabia for 2 years and experienced no problems with the laws there. Man i hate threads like this, just sort of an exemplification of American exceptionalism. I'm getting really sick of people (including compson) projecting outward to other nation's human rights problems while having a not very critical eye on our own problems here in terms of civil liberties, freedom of speech, etc.

  roasty said:

fuck i really just need to stop posting here

  On 12/26/2012 at 7:01 AM, Awepittance said:

pretty cool that America has obfuscated the fact that one of our biggest allies in the Middle East is also one of the most corrupt and has some of the worst human rights abuses. Let's go into Syria!

 

edit: even still though, since most of us have probably never been anywhere in the Middle east it's hard to judge what it's really like there. My mom lived in Saudi Arabia for 2 years and experienced no problems with the laws there. Man i hate threads like this, just sort of an exemplification of American exceptionalism. I'm getting really sick of people (including compson) projecting outward to other nation's human rights problems while having a not very critical eye on our own problems here in terms of civil liberties, freedom of speech, etc.

If posting a thread about a human rights violations in some part of the world negates me as a fellow human being then I don't know what to say. Because I have posted/discussed our own problems far more than I have focused on Saudi Arabia or any other country. Yet you push something disgusting like this article aside because your Mom lived there for two years! I have lived in America for 23 years and I haven't been tortured... have you? I guess there are no problems then.

It makes absolutely no sense for you to say that Saudi Arabia is one of the worst abusers of Human Rights and then to condemn someone for bringing up current news articles on that topic. Your sister has an audience, why not try to help this man's life? Had this happened in America you would be livid. But because it's happening in the Middle East, because it doesn't add weight to you anarchist agenda, you would rather ignore this. You would rather me not make threads like this because it might make some people glad they don't get killed when they speak freely. It might make some people feel empowered about how fortunate we are (despite American corruption/evil). Because that is how real change will happen. It'll be from compromised ideals, not from people who say they are objective but exaggerate everything and call for nothing less but revolution. Watering down real abuses that people are experiencing all over the world because it doesn't help your agenda.

My father is moving back there in 5 days to continue working on a town he helped build over 35 years ago, Al Jubail. This is East Coast as well, which is way more conservative than Jeddah. He knows what not to do though so I'm not too worried.

  On 12/26/2012 at 7:01 AM, Awepittance said:

Man i hate threads like this, just sort of an exemplification of American exceptionalism. I'm getting really sick of people (including compson) projecting outward to other nation's human rights problems while having a not very critical eye on our own problems here in terms of civil liberties, freedom of speech, etc.

  On 12/26/2012 at 2:48 AM, tauboo said:

my dad always says cars run on booze, or cars go better when you're drunk

 

but booze is banned in saudi arabia innit?

Oh yeah. My wife and I have friends currently living over there & working at an American school - teachers make money hand over fist, but their living arrangements are pretty comparable to those in a minimum-security prison here in the US. Since there's no alcohol allowed, a lot of people (including our friends) resort to making closet moonshine. No idea whether it's any good or not though.

  tauboo said:

my dad always says cars run on booze, or cars go better when you're drunk

 

but booze is banned in saudi arabia innit?

Ethanol?

Sideke

Posting in a compson thread.

Fuck earth, let's go somewhere where shit like thsi doesn't happen.

  On 12/27/2012 at 2:55 AM, Glass Plate said:

  tauboo said:

my dad always says cars run on booze, or cars go better when you're drunkbut booze is banned in saudi arabia innit?

what the fuck is your dad talking about?