Saudi court upholds blogger's 10 years and 1,000 lashes

[muriel_volestrangler]

Source: BBC

Saudi Arabia's Supreme Court has upheld the sentence of 1,000 lashes and 10 years of imprisonment on blogger Raif Badawi, despite a foreign outcry.
...
In 2012, Badawi was arrested and charged with "insulting Islam through electronic channels".

For four years he had been running the Liberal Saudi Network, which encouraged online debate on religious and political issues.
...
Badawi received his first 50 lashes in January, but subsequent floggings have been postponed.

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-33039815

---

Theocracy in practice.

[Herman4747]

1. Terrible, absolutely terrible

The barbaric Kingdom of Saudi Arabia needs to send this man home to his wife and children.

[Fuddnik]

2. Of course the Saudi's expressed "surprise and dismay" over international criticism.

When you've had your royal heads up your royal asses for 1,300 years, it's hard to be aware of your surroundings.

I couple I knew spent 2 years working there. Said something about the whole place should be turned to glass.

[secondvariety]

3. I'm looking

forward to the day when the world's energy needs are met by something beside petroleum products. Saudi Arabia and the rest of the lunatic extremist countries can slide right back into the Stone Age for all I care.

[sulphurdunn]

4. He won't do ten years.

He won't survive the lashings near that long. This is what happens when you make billionaires and global players of people who rule Dark Age kingdoms.

[secondwind]

6. I agree... he won't survive the lashings.. :-(

[fasttense]

10. This is what happens when you have a society based on feudalism and religion.

That's why it resembles the Dark Ages. The Dark Ages were ruled by feudalism and the Christian religion.

[Scootaloo]

27. They'll stretch the lashings out over the ten years

If the Saudi courts wanted him to die, well, they obviously have no qualms about that. Instead they're going to torture him for ten years.

[sulphurdunn]

29. Probably,

but if he actually gets 50 lashes every Friday, he's a goner.

[happyslug]

32. Reminds me of the old days of the Royal Navy.

In the movies when a man fainted under a lashing the lashing continues, in the real Royal Navy of the 1800s, if the man fainted (or was determined by the ship's doctor of dying) the whipping stopped till he was capable of taking the rest of the whipping. That was true even of lashings done in the Army of the time period (Most lashing were outlawed by the early 1800s, through the US Army kept it on the books till after 1900, but rarely, if ever ordered a lashing after 1860).

Just a comment that such series of lashing is typical of lashings even when lashing was done in the West.

[V0ltairesGh0st]

5. Raif Badawi is awsome.

"What hurts me most as a citizen of the area which exported those terrorists ... is the audacity of Muslims in New York that reaches the limits of insolence, not taking any regard of the thousands of victims who perished on that fateful day or their families. What increases my pain is this [Islamist] chauvinist arrogance which claims that innocent blood, shed by barbarian, brutal minds under the slogan “Allahu Akbar”, means nothing compared to the act of building an Islamic mosque whose mission will be to ... spawn new terrorists ... Suppose we put ourselves in the place of American citizens. Would we accept that a Christian or Jew assaults us in our own house and then build a church or synagogue in the same area of the attack? I doubt it. We reject the building of churches in Saudi Arabia, not having been assaulted by anyone. Then what would you think if those who wanted to build a church are the same people who stormed the sanctity of our land? Finally, we should not hide that fact that Muslims in Saudi Arabia not only disrespect the beliefs of others, but also charge them with infidelity to the extent that they consider anyone who is not Muslim an infidel, and, within their own narrow definitions, they consider non-Hanbali [the Saudi school of Islam] Muslims as apostates. How can we be such people and build ... normal relations with six billion humans, four and a half billion of whom do not believe in Islam."


"As soon as a thinker starts to reveal his ideas, you will find hundreds of fatwas that accused him of being an infidel just because he had the courage to discuss some sacred topics. I’m really worried that Arab thinkers will migrate in search of fresh air and to escape the sword of the religious authorities."

"Secularism respects everyone and does not offend anyone ... Secularism ... is the practical solution to lift countries (including ours) out of the third world and into the first world."

"I’m not in support of the Israeli occupation of any Arab country, but at the same time I do not want to replace Israel by a religious state ... whose main concern would be spreading the culture of death and ignorance among its people when we need modernisation and hope. States based on religious ideology ... have nothing except the fear of God and an inability to face up to life. Look at what had happened after the European peoples succeeded in removing the clergy from public life and restricting them to their churches. They built up human beings and (promoted) enlightenment, creativity and rebellion. States which are based on religion confine their people in the circle of faith and fear."

Raif Badawi

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/14/-sp-saudi-blogger-extracts-raif-badawi

[StevieM]

19. Jury Results for the post hidden above this one.

On Sun Jun 7, 2015, 12:01 PM an alert was sent on the following post:

If Raif Badawi had posted that on DU, his post would have been hidden
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=1112207

REASON FOR ALERT

This post is disruptive, hurtful, rude, insensitive, over-the-top, or otherwise inappropriate.

ALERTER'S COMMENTS

This poster's real problem is that he has a long history of islamophobia and can't understand why the rest of us don't.

JURY RESULTS

You served on a randomly-selected Jury of DU members which reviewed this post. The review was completed at Sun Jun 7, 2015, 12:11 PM, and the Jury voted 4-3 to HIDE IT.

Juror #1 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: The poster is entitled to his opinion. He did nothing wrong here.
Juror #2 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #3 voted to HIDE IT
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #4 voted to HIDE IT
Explanation: Bigotry a la the right wing.
Juror #5 voted to HIDE IT
Explanation: Not sure if there is a per se violation here. But I'm invoking the "douche bag clause of 1839" Hide
Juror #6 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #7 voted to HIDE IT
Explanation: Unnecessarily rude and not really helpful as a dissenting comment.

Thank you very much for participating in our Jury system, and we hope you will be able to participate again in the future.

[snooper2]

33. That is a bullshit hide and I bet the ones who voted to hide won't comment on what Raif Bad wrote

[potone]

28. If ever I heard of a case calling for a jailbreak, it is this one.

This is one of the worst crimes against an individual that I have ever heard of. The idea of lashing someone and then waiting for his wounds to heal so that he can suffer that again, in addition to a ten year jail sentence, just boggles the mind. And for what? He wasn't an apostate from Islam, he just wanted to be able to discuss the role of religion in society. And to make it worse, he has a wife and children who are suffering mental torture over his treatment.

[christx30]

7. Escape. Flee the country.

Get to the west and rail against the royal kingdom from exile.

[sulphurdunn]

8. Maybe we should sent in a SEAL team

to rescue him?

[riderinthestorm]

9. Breaks my heart. He won't survive this.

Fucking barbarians. He's a blogger for fucks sake.

[benld74]

11. People who write their beliefs for the world to see are truely brave

He may be speaking directly about Islam, yet the same can be said about the journalists in America. Instead of spouting the same old tired hyperbole rhetoric, look what is truly happening and write about that. You will get attacked, but YOU do not live in Saudi Arabia.

[cstanleytech]

12. "Theocracy in practice." The scary thing is thats what the tea party/republicans want here.

Or atleast that is how they seem to behave lately with their continuing push of trying to force God down the throats of the american people even if the american people dont want it.

[cosmicone]

13. "Saudi Court" is an oxymoron n/t

[Jack Rabbit]

15. Not really

It's the court of the House of Saud. It's a royal court in the same sense as the court of the French Bourbons or the court of the Russian Tsars or the court of the Chinese Emperor.

The House of Saud will end the same way as the others.

[Herman4747]

16. Some Quotes from Raif Badawi:

From this link:

As soon as a thinker starts to reveal his ideas, you will find hundreds of fatwas that accused him of being an infidel just because he had the courage to discuss some sacred topics. I’m really worried that Arab thinkers will migrate in search of fresh air and to escape the sword of the religious authorities.

Secularism respects everyone and does not offend anyone ... Secularism ... is the practical solution to lift countries (including ours) out of the third world and into the first world.

States which are based on religion confine their people in the circle of faith and fear.

Muslims in Saudi Arabia not only disrespect the beliefs of others, but also charge them with infidelity to the extent that they consider anyone who is not Muslim an infidel

[heaven05]

17. religion, again

WTF!! 1000 lashes!!! human beings are NOT evolving. Haven't ever really, in behaviour toward each other. And our 'leaders, religious or otherwise? What a joke. I would not let them lead me down my own street.

[bluestateguy]

18. But if we denounce Islam its "bigotry"

Fact is that Islam, as practiced by many (ok, not all) Muslims is homophobic, sexist, anti-Semitic, and totally intolerant of other religions and non-believers.

I know that's a tough pill for some on the Left to swallow.

[snooper2]

34. I'm sure somebody will "alert" on that...

What is funny is some of the posters that scream ISLAMAPHOBIA! are the exact same ones who praise Putin-

There really are some people that hate everything "West"...I guess if you read RT and sites like counterpunch for years and years something happens in the brain?

[Herman4747]

20. Canadian Citizenship (or even U.S. Citizenship) -- could it help?

If I recall correctly, his wife and children are staying in Canada. If Canada were to grant him Canadian citizenship, it might have the effect of putting more pressure on the Saudis to release him.

[freshwest]

21. Yes, he should be allowed to emigrate as a refugee/political figure in fear of his life. n/t

[Bluenorthwest]

22. Some people on DU express the view that those who criticize religion should expect retribution and

that knowingly insulting things others hold sacred is an act of violence itself. Many expressed such views after the Hebdo murders. I wonder if they will say the same about this man? That he contributes to his own punishment by being provocative?

[AngryDem001]

23. And WHY is this place one of our closest allies?

[sulphurdunn]

24. I see another post has been hidden.

Once upon a time that was a rare occurrence on DU. It seems to be getting easier to run afoul of the disruptive, hurtful, rude, insensitive, over-the-top, or otherwise inappropriate standard of discourse these days. One possible solution to this might be to either devise a less vague standard, or to just make a list of those criticisms, words and points of view that will unleash the censors. I do hope this post doesn't get hidden because I have crafted it not to violate any reasonable standard of commentary.

[StevieM]

31. I provided Jury Results on the post hidden above. (eom)

[yuiyoshida]

25. I really do believe that there are some

Republican politicians who WOULD LOVE TO SEE THAT happen here..and if elected President would find some way to have that in America. They might even have it on Television, as a way of making certain that no one blasphemes again!

[Scootaloo]

26. Our close friends and allies!

[Glimmer of Hope]

30. Inhumane.