Dr. Hayat Sindi is a Saudi Arabian medical scientist and a woman who has earned respect for extraordinary accomplishments in a country that denies women basic liberties. She is not only an award-winning scientist but one of the first female members of the Consultative Assembly of Saudi Arabia. Ranked by Arabian Business as the 19th most influential Arab in the world and the ninth most influential Arab woman, it is not surprising that Harvard University has brought her to the country as a visiting scholar. However, a nasty lawsuit in King County has raised deeply disturbing allegations about Sindi’s efforts against women who she accuses of hacking her emails. According to counsel for one of those women, Sindi worked to have another woman flogged for writing on Facebook that she had had an affair with her husband. On the other side is Samia El-Moslimany, a women’s activist and photographer who lives in the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, who is fighting to keep Sindi from forcing the disclosure of the women, who would face medieval Sharia justice in Saudi Arabia.
All of this began when El-Moslimany posted statements on social media in 2012 alleging that Sindi had had an affair with her husband. Sindi responded with a Saudi defamation case and, according to an affidavit submitted by El-Moslimany’s lawyer, she wanted El-Moslimany flogged. The effort backfired. A Saudi judge decided last year that El-Moslimany should spend four days in jail for the public defamation while Sindi should spend two months in jail for forming an illicit relationship with El-Moslimany’s husband. Neither has served their sentences.
Sindi however has continued to try to force disclosure of the names of the women commenting on the Internet under the claim that she was hacked. A King County Superior Court judge decided Friday not to sentence a Burien woman to jail or to levy a $500 fine for each day of withholding the names in light of the danger to these women.
Judge Mariane Spearman denied Sindi’s request to hold El-Moslimany in contempt of court because Sindi’s new lawyer could not specify which Facebook comments might be a basis for investigating any of the women.
The idea of a Harvard academic fighting to have women flogged for alleged defamation is deeply troubling. The fact that Saudi Sharia law allows for medieval justice does not excuse a demand for such justice over the exercise of free speech. Even if such speech was defamatory, it should not be a criminal matter subject to flogging. Whatever the truth of the adultery, it should not be relevant to Harvard or anyone else other than those involved in these families. However, flogging for posting matters on the Internet raises significant issues of due process and free speech.
Should Harvard be involved in such dispute when one of its faculty seeks to have women flogged under Sharia law or this is simply a private matter under the laws of another country?
Hagee of the blood read moons and doom is a loon.
http://youtu.be/W0QBSyuJ4t4
Some dummy Islamaphobes painted a swastica on a Hindu temple thinking it was a Muslim mosque. They didn’t know about the swastica and ancient Hindu symbols, lol.
Inga (Annie) – some dummies do not know how to spell swastika.
The problem is that none of our usual suspects here will click on the link provided by prairie Rose… To quote Chris Rock, some people just love not to know… And yet clicking on it might answer many questions…but who’d want that?
The Rev. John Hagee is no loon. . .far, far from it. . . but your designation of him, as such, tells all of us all from where you come. He is a brilliant man, of superior intellect; he is a Christian fundamentalist preacher, whose ideas and thoughts dwell on love, compassion, redemption, and kindness. If that’s where I come from, then so be it. Not one word about killing nonbelievers or demands of forced conversion. Keep backing Islam; you’re backing the wrong horse. When you finally realize it, it will be too late.
Great question, Prairie Rose.
Inga, none more dumb than those who do not want to hear!
Telling, it is easy to see where you are getting your info about Islam. I would indulge you, but I have seen the same info over and over again, provided by islamophobes. You haven’t said anything new, nor have you said anything true. What it shows is that rather than cracking open the books and do some reading, you just copy and paste from those websites
It is obvious to anyone reading us who is the fundamentalist, and it surely ain’t me.
Quoting words like taquiyya without understanding them says much about the shallowness of the intellectual waters you pretend to swim in. Mixing the quran with the hadith says much about your stubborn ignorance.
Forgetting (or not knowing of) Islamic history says much about the hypocrisy that drives you.
Since you don’t know, and I know, why not take this great opportunity to educate yourself before shooting your mouth off? I answer questions, all questions, so take advantage of that.
What do you want to know?
When governments adopt a state religion it all goes downhill from there. Secular courts and secular governments give recourse to its citizens from forced religion.
Interesting Prarie Rose how Malala an her family are still Muslim, even after everything they’ve been through.
An interesting article that addresses the issue of whether or not Islam commands death for apostasy:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kashif-n-chaudhry/does-the-koran-endorse-ap_b_5539236.html
Seems to me that those who have power over ignorant people and wish to keep it, apparently twist the Quran to suit themselves. Malala more or less said as much in her book I Am Malala regarding an extremist radio preacher that was steering people down his extremist path.
It doesn’t help the image of Islam when the Saudis declare atheists to be akin to terrorists: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/saudi-arabia-declares-all-atheists-are-terrorists-in-new-law-to-crack-down-on-political-dissidents-9228389.html
Sigh. 🙁
How can the culture be disentangled from the faith when those in power promote the tangling?
The Rev. John Hagee is a loon. ‘Nuff said, now I see where you’re coming from. Your fundamentalism is showing.
Inga
If my Islamophobia shows and it PROTECTS ME, it will continue to show. I’m gonna go down fighting, not like one of the sheeple.
Inga
Unfortunately, time may not heal what ails you. Rev. John Hagee would consider himself a fundamentalist preacher. He does not preach hate or condone violence; to the contrary, he promotes a society which encourages love and tolerance. Stop being the water boy for Po. It’s unbecoming.
Again, how many American Muslims have been knocking on your door to try to behead you? You paint all Mulims with the same brush, you didn’t notice, huh? Your Islamophobia is showing.
Inga
Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses routinely come to my front door, trying to convert me. They are more of an annoyance than anything else. They would be considered fundamentalists, according to you, since they are trying to push their respective belief systems on me. A simple NO THANK YOU, however, suffices. I have no fear of being beheaded or having my home torched. Therein, Inga, is the difference. Not all fundamentalists are the same, and painting all religious people with the same brush is the error. BTW, I hear Syria gets super hot in the summer. Don’t forget the sunscreen.
Buddhists, nuns, priests, not fundamentalist. Not even close. Religious people certainly are not all fundamentalist. Who said they were? You sound like someone else who often mischaracterized other’s comments. Not worth my time.
Inga
Seriously, you believe that fundamentalists, of any and all faiths, are the problem? Really? Those pesky Buddhists, kidnapping hundreds of innocent girls, raping them and holding them captive? No? You must mean those hoardes of nuns and priests, storming synagogues and shooting and stabbing anyone in sight? No? Oh, you mean the Orthodox rabbis, terrorizing entire communities by killing newspaper employees? No, Inga, not all religious people. . .or as you call them. . .FUNDAMENTALISTS. . .are the same. Unlike Muslims, Buddhists, Christians, Jews and others, have, for the MOST part, learned to live with their neighbors. Please read the Koran to learn the basic precepts of Islam; you will change your tune. Better yet, I challenge you to go spend some quality time in one of the Muslim hellholes that you purportedly admire. Pick one of the Middle Eastern ones; they’re the fun ones.i
They seem to want to paint a picture of every peaceful Muslim living anywhere as an ‘infidel killer’ in waiting. Fundamentalist religion is the scourge, not believers who don’t push their faith down everyone else’s throats.
The problem isn’t Muslims. It’s fundamentalist religion.
Happy:
There’s lots you can do to break the yoke of enforced spirituality. First you empower women and put them in leadership positions. Then you review dogma for its impact on all living things. Jainism did just that and few would criticize its emphasis on protecting all life and universal equality without the need for a skygod.
mespo – you really do not understand an Uncaused Cause do you?
Po, wow. I guess Telling wouldn’t want to hear about the excellent speech President Obama gave regarding bigotry toward moderate Muslims today.
. . .which is permitted. . .not which are permitted 🙂