Bizarre, International, Politics, Religion, Society

Coercion to Commit Sin: Dubai Arrests Couple for Sending Explicit Text Messages

We learned recently that you had to be careful how you say goodbye in Dubai (here) after a couple was arrested for kissing on the streets. It appears that you cannot even opt for texting your desires without ending up in the Dubai hoosegow. Two Emirates airlines cabin crew have been ordered jailed for three months over sexually explicit text messages. The Indian flight attendant and her cabin services supervisor were convicted of “coercion to commit sin.”

The couple was originally sentenced to six months for texting the messages.

Dubai has been turning sharply toward Sharia-based codes of conduct — jailing Westerners for everything from kissing in public to sharing hotel rooms as unmarried lovers. Now it appears that, denied physical contact, you cannot even fantasize on your Blackberry. It is not clear how authorities discovered the sexual texting.

I love the sheer lunacy of the crime of coercion to commit sin. You start with the premise that the state must punish sin under a strict Sharia code. You then treat verbalized or written enticements as coercion even though both individuals were arrested. There is no mention of a third party on the text message. When there is coercion, doesn’t one party has to be the coerced victim? I assume that two people cannot coerce each other. We usually call that consent rather than coercion.

For the full story, click here.

9 thoughts on “Coercion to Commit Sin: Dubai Arrests Couple for Sending Explicit Text Messages”

  1. To,
    The Dear sir
    XYZ

    Request: – for the any job of computer operator

    R/sir,
    Utmost respect and great apology, sir I am poor person I don’t afford visa that country so plzz take me visa and job you company , nearly I pass B.com from sindh university and complete (DCBM) diploma in computer and business management regd: sindh technical board of education

    Thanks to receive my C.V and application
    I am pry for your long life
    Yours sincerely
    mahboob ali mallah

  2. To,
    The Dear sir
    XYZ

    Request: – for the any job of computer operator

    R/sir,
    Utmost respect and great apology, sir I am poor person I don’t afford visa that country so plzz take me visa and job you company , nearly I pass B.com from sindh university and complete (DCBM) diploma in computer and business management regd: sindh technical board of education

    Thanks to receive my C.V and application
    I am pry for your long life
    Yours sincerely
    Mir.Murtaza

  3. The truly sad thing is that Dubai is among the most socially LIBERAL countries in the Gulf region (admittedly a low bar, but still). The stories coming out of Saudi Arabia are blood-curdling: judicial beheadings, stonings, and amputations. But, since the Saudis have the good taste not to inflict these barbarities on vacationing Westerners, it ain’t news.

    Frankly, this Dubai story could have just as credibly had an “Alabama” by-line.

  4. This blog entry brought to you by the Dubai Board of Tourism.

    Good luck filling up those expensive hotels, boys. I’ll be the one laughing as the desert reclaims your little theocratic Ponzi scheme of a country. Because when the oil money goes away – and it will – you’ll be left alone with your camels and tents and an empty city that won’t withstand the desert any better than the constructs of the Pharaohs. On the up side, you won’t get reported to the Sharia Cops for coercion to commit sin for making sexually explicit overtures to the livestock.

  5. Well hey, if ‘not appreciating’ is the latest standard, I’ll be glad to state my non-appreciation for the backward regimes (US included ofcourse) anytime, but my patience has been raped in the behind 😉

    Free speech is my religion:
    “There is no such thing as bad language. We are ADULTS. These are the words WE use to express anger, frustration, despair, in order to avoid us picking up a tire iron and smashing someone to pulp with it. A-NY-THING goes”

  6. Lets see they are basically bankrupt. The people with the money usually make the decisions. This does not surprise me in the least….

  7. Jericho:

    “Sending Explicit Messages”

    Thats not appreciated here either.

  8. You see, the error you make is in expecting REASON from a RELIGULOUS country…

    Tell Dubai I fucked their God in the eye.

  9. Just one more reason to scratch Dubai off my “must visit” list. This is a horrible story and another example of just what could happen here in the states if the Radical Religious Right is allowed to co-opt the Constitution and get their biblical law.

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