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?
tellingitlikeitis says:
Why is everyone skipping over the initial question? That question is whether adultery, according to Islamic law, even applies if the woman is unmarried and the man is married. If men can, according to the Koran and Islam, have multiple wives, has either party committed any wrongdoing? Islam has a convenient method of allowing men to form temporary marriages, or so called marriages of convenience, which allow men to sleep with women who are not officially their wives.
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According to islamic law sex outside of marriage, no matter who the partners are, married or unmarried is adultery. simple as that.
Is there no difference between a wife and a sex partner? Islam allows 4 wives, it does NOT allow a girlfriend, or 4.
Islam does not allow temporary marriages and/ or marriages of convenience. It was in practice before the advent of Islam, and during the expansion of Islam but it was completely and certainly disallowed. Matter of fact, of all the religions (are you listening Pogo) Islam is the one that is the most pro-women. Prove me wrong.
And, Pogo, are you saying that Islam is defined by ISIS?
Are you saying that what ISIS does ranks over what the Quran say?
According to your logic, if ISIS burns a practicing Muslim alive, and kills more Muslims than non-Muslims, they are not Muslim. Thanks for undermining your own argument.
You have yet to answer my point about the Quran uplifting Jesus and Mary.
po – Islam is the weakest at allowing women to advance on their own. Prove me wrong.
Easy, DBQ, easy….eaaaasyyyy!
No need to comp my head off. Same as for you Karen!
Wow, the eagerness for some to draw the knifes and start stabbing!
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Paul C. Schulte
po – the woman was found to have an “illicit relationship”, isn’t that enough to prove adultery?
Paul, who found her out? According to my understanding, she was outed by the wife. That makes her “found out” but not according to the rules and the law in practice.
DBQ
You are digging too deeply into this, perhaps reflecting your own state of mind re porn and voyeurism. You sound quite heated up here… perhaps a cold bath may help! Were you a little cooler, you might have realized what the purpose of shariah law is, to order society while never sacrificing the individual to the idea. This shows that in order to really be found out, one has to go out of their way to be found out, still tying into the islamic ideal of modesty, that one’s sins are between one and God until one flaunts them and therefore makes it everyone else’s.
And here comes Karen salivating at the sound of shariah law, our specialist in all things shariah law.
So . . . you wish you could have people whipped, probably to death, as 80 lashes is hard to survive, even if it’s broken up. just you, karen
Nice. That’s really moderate of you. thank you
What if you’ve made a false accusation, such as calling people Islamophobic when they comment on extremism? Would that warrant a whipping? yes
po – a Saudi judge is the one who decided she had the ‘illicit relationship’. Evidently the judge found the wive’s evidence of adultery persuasive. She sounds bitter that she was caught and is going to have to do 4 months in prison.
BTW, you seem to have a nasty streak that this subject has released.
“The idea of a Harvard academic fighting to have women flogged for alleged defamation is deeply troubling.”
How about just an academic?
Don’t I remember another academic wanting people flogged not to long ago? Maybe it is a meme.
“…that Islam is actually the best proof for Christianity one can find. ”
Which explains ISIS chopping their heads off.
Reblogged this on samiaelmoslimany and commented:
Thank you. I’ve been asking Harvard the same question for along time!
Po is just showing his true colors. The true colors of the followers of the “religion of peace.” I salute him for his honesty. It must be very difficult for him to maintain his mask.
Let your ISIS flag fly buddy!
beldar
That’s what are pommies. A Pommy is another name for a Brit. Supposedly it comes from when they ventured to hotter climates and their white skin burned the color of pomegranates. Another explanation is from the French for apples, pommes. I seem to remember the French calling them Roast Beefs, for the same reason that their veins turn their faces red, or that they drink a lot of apple cider. There is a region in Southern England where folks are known to be a little crazy from drinking several times distilled apple cider. Being from Remulak, you should know all this stuff.
Po:
“and the punishment for false accusation according to general shariah law is….all together now….80 lashes.
I so wish I could subject some of you that that law”
So . . . you wish you could have people whipped, probably to death, as 80 lashes is hard to survive, even if it’s broken up.
Nice. That’s really moderate of you.
What if you’ve made a false accusation, such as calling people Islamophobic when they comment on extremism? Would that warrant a whipping?
I, on the other hand, would not wish death or whipping on anyone I disagree with.
Stoning is a form of capital punishment in 15 countries. In some countries, it is legal capital punishment, in others, it is a tribal traditional punishment that, though technically illegal, is not prosecuted. Some use it more than others. Since confessing to a sex act constitutes adultery, rape victims can be stoned merely for reporting the crime, in some countries. Iran has the highest rate of stoning. Although the Qu’ran does not explicitly call for stoning, supporters believe the Hadith allows it.
Stoning used to exist in the cultures of antiquity, but today, it’s mainly Muslim countries who still engage in stoning.
This is an aspect of Islam that I would like to see reformed. In fact, there are Muslim clerics who speak out against it. This kind of change needs to happen from within.
Perhaps Islam has essentially split in two, much as Christianity splintered into Catholic and Protestant groups. In this case, there is the bloodthirsty maniac extremist group, whether Sunni or Shia, that wants to kill or conquer anyone who does not believe as they do, as in the repeated Muslim Expansions of old. The second group will be “normal people”, peace loving Muslims who practice their faith and get along with everyone. It is a shame that extremism is so widespread in the entire Middle East region. I do not consider Boko Haram, ISIS, et al to be “normal people.”
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/special-report-the-punishment-was-death-by-stoning-the-crime-having-a-mobile-phone-8846585.html
The only way for Christians to be sure that they can live in peace and freedom is to move to Israel.
Just as Bibi has urged Jews to leave France he should urge the Copts and other Christians to move to Israel. Let them bring their industry and talents to a Democracy. Not to any land dominated or controlled by the “religion of peace.”
DBQ – if they get the woman to confess 3 times before a judge, under the law in Saudi Arabia, she can be found guilty.
DBQ – you mean all those women stoned to death in Saudi Arabia had 4 men witness their sex act? There sure must be a LOT of voyeurs and exhibitionists in Saudi Arabia!
Even a well educated Arab lacks any understanding of justice and the rule of law but instead follows the backward concepts of Sharia Law. This woman has no place in America and should not be teaching at Harvard
Women who grow up under Sharia Law can be just as brainwashed as the men.
This will have to be thoroughly investigated. IF proven true, I hope that Harvard severs any relationship with anyone who abuses women. We cannot change the law in Saudi Arabia, but we can vote not to make an academic celebrity out of people who have women whipped in the public square.
Why is everyone skipping over the initial question? That question is whether adultery, according to Islamic law, even applies if the woman is unmarried and the man is married. If men can, according to the Koran and Islam, have multiple wives, has either party committed any wrongdoing? Islam has a convenient method of allowing men to form temporary marriages, or so called marriages of convenience, which allow men to sleep with women who are not officially their wives.
Still, there is a problem of Harvard employing a professor, albeit a visiting professor, who calls for the flogging of another. Just goes to show you what millions in Saudi funding will do, even to those found in the lofty towers at Harvard.
Islam honors Christianity by cutting off the heads of Christians and murdering Jews.
Thanks but we are ok without that kind of support.
Once again po appears to prove Pogo’s point. Islam is just not compatible with our Western society.
Thank you for providing a window into the “religion of peace.”
4 reliable people should have witnessed the act of coitus and testify to it in order for the accusation to stand.
Are you saying that 4 people have to actually stood around and “watched” the couple screwing each other. Seeing the actual sex act???? So people have to watch you f^ck or there is no case?
What kind of voyeurs would allow 4 people to watch while they screw? The alternative is that you have 4 people spying on and watching the sex act. Do they also need to have video to prove it. Sounds pornographic to me.
This proves that Sharia law is insane.
Pogo, are you really a Christian? I am certainly doubting it more and more!
You have no idea that Islam is actually the best proof for Christianity one can find. Not only does it confirm the virginity of Mary and speaks of her as no woman was spoken of in the quran, it also confirm the greatness of Jesus AS AND requires Muslims to love Jesus in order to be Muslim..
As an extension of Christianity, to outcast Islam is to contradict Christianity…but to be expected from those who claim what they know not.
Since I know, I’ll help.
Based on my understanding of the post, the woman who made the accusation of adultery is Saudi. The accused is also Saudi, and therefore would bring the matter under Saudi jurisdiction.
According to general shariah law, one must back up an accusation of adultery with 4 reliable witnesses, otherwise one is subject to flogging with 80 lashes. To make it even more clearer, 4 reliable people should have witnessed the act of coitus and testify to it in order for the accusation to stand.
Otherwise there is no case.
Now, if the husband suspects / accuses his wife of adultery without the required witnesses, each, husband and wife would swear on the quran 3 times that the accusation is true/false, and the 4th time that may the punishment of God befall the lying party.
At that point, both move on, together or separate, and God would handle it Himself.
So, the accused in this case followed the rule of the law, which is that since the accuser had no witnesses, she should be punished, and the punishment for false accusation according to general shariah law is….all together now….80 lashes.
I so wish I could subject some of you that that law 🙂
po – the woman was found to have an “illicit relationship”, isn’t that enough to prove adultery?