19-Year Old Housemaid Waits As Saudi Arabia Set To Surpass Record Beheadings

[DeSwiss]

Saudi Beheadings on the Rise Again

Saturday July 14, 2007 10:46 PM
By DONNA ABU-NASR
Associated Press Writer

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) - Rizana Nafeek, a 19-year housemaid from Sri Lanka, is on death row because the baby in her care died while she was bottle-feeding him. If her appeal is turned down, she will be taken to a public square to be publicly beheaded.

The Sri Lankan government says it is working for a reprieve, and has until Monday to file the plea. A last-minute pardon by the infant's parents could also spare her. But if her execution goes ahead, it will be the latest in a surge of beheadings that could surpass the kingdom's record of 191 in 2005.

After dropping to 38 last year, the figure for 2007 is already at least 102, including three women, according to Amnesty International.

Beheading has always been the punishment meted out to murderers, rapists, drug traffickers and armed robbers in Saudi Arabia. Whether what Nafeek did amounts to murder has never been spelled out by courts or other officials, but Saudi authorities, facing sustained criticism from foreign human rights groups, insist they are simply enforcing God's law.

more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6780031,00.html

[MisterHowdy]

1. Wow! Thought this was the 21st century

that is totally sick.

[MnFats]

2. but we daren't criticize the Saudis because...they're our friends...

...of course,our wallowing in capital punishment puts us in good staid with the Saudis...and our other partners in meting out the death penalty....North Korea, Iraq, places like that...

[Bozita]

3. ...and Saddam was such a bastard. -- Viva la difference!

[pansypoo53219]

4. good thing they had nothing to do with

9/11.


most of them were saudis?

oh,
oh my.

well, saddam was a very bad man, so it's alright.

[WCGreen]

6. There is a difference....

Saddam did it for political reasons...

The Saudi's, well they do it because of God's Law...

Same as us...

[Sadie4629]

14. We behead people

because God tells us to?

[SammyWinstonJack]

5. No, the Saudis are the BFEE's friends. And bu$h as Gov of Texas, loved a good execution, not matte

if the "convict" was innocent or not.

[DeSwiss]

7. In my view...

...Islam as practiced in theocratic countries is not a religion. Principally because it is not something that one joins -- nor walks away from. That is more indicative of a cult.

And a murderous one at that....

[David__77]

8. It's a religion.

Look back at the millenia of religion, and it will fit the definition of what you call a cult. Under your definition, there was no "religion" until very recently, only cults.

[DeSwiss]

11. That would be a correct assessment.

I've studied religions and philosophies for many years. The right to choose one's religion was an outgrowth of the reformation. Which is largely why the response to it (The Inquisitions) was so brutal. So from a historical basis, you're absolutely correct.

And that same ancient religious feature of one being born into an inescapable religion applies likewise to most Islamic theocratically-dominated countries. Saudi Arabia being just one. The 19-year old woman who is waiting to die, is not even a Saudi citizen. I would say that this is no different than those ancient prescripts. IMHO

"A religion is a cult who's bank account has reached critical mass." ~ Susie Bright

[orleans]

9. who is the unlucky person who has to clean up 102 people getting

their heads chopped off?

(pretend--for a moment--they didn't have oil in arabia...what would we have to say about it then?)

[FourScore]

10. This is disgusting. n/t

[Pushed To The Left]

12. Most of the 9/11 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia, and they behead innocent women

Yet, they are still Bush's buddies. I've never really believed the whole MIHOP/LIHOP thing, but this kind of thing makes me wonder.

[CJCRANE]

13. "God's Law"

also gives room for mercy, forgiveness and leniency. That's the part that fundamentalists of all stripes never seem to remember.

Just like RW christians follow the "jealous God" of the Old Testament, the Saudi authorities seem to have ignored the idea of "God the compassionate, the merciful".