We have previously discussed Saudi Arabia’s infamous “Chop Chop” square where the country’s medieval Sharia law is carried out for everything from apostasy to drug dealing to murder. The Kingdom has had a bumper crop of executions this year with as many beheadings already this year (85) than the entire 2014 period (87). The work appears to be exhausting their executioners so the Kingdom is hiring eight new executioners. While the Saudis insist that this is a humane form of execution approved by the Koran, the fine print on the advertisement is notable: no experience is needed for those who want to cut the heads off people in Chop Chop square or handle amputations under Sharia law.
Not only is the civil service ministry accepting applications without any minimal qualifications, applicants will be exempted from the usual entrance exams. The advertisement emphasized that applicants will be required to perform amputations like cutting off one or both hands of people guilty of theft.
We showed a recent videotape of a Burmese woman protesting her innocence before being beheaded by a swordsman on a public street in the Muslim holy city of Mecca. The executioner forces her to kneel in a pedestrian crossing and cuts her head off in compliance with Sharia and Islamic principles.
Not surprisingly, the executioner job is posted as part of the “religious jobs” section.
No, wait, that’s no true. Apparently some gangs brutally punish their own members if they accidentally shoot a child. Too bad they aren’t all like that.
old nurse – don’t forget that those bikers were gang members. Gangs can be African American, Latino, White Supremacist, or bikers. I am unaware of any other categories. But the point is that gang members are violent.
Now, I recall accidentally driving my truck into the wrong area at a charity event put on by bikers. I had my young son in the car with me, couldn’t go back, and the aisle between hundreds of thousands of dollars of shiny, cherished bikes was very, very, very narrow. They were really nice about it, but the guys plastered themselves between their beloved rides and my car, clearly believing that a smashed foot would be worth it. Thankfully, no bikes or bikers were harmed. Not all motorcycle clubs are gangs, but all gangs do seem to act similarly.
BarkinDog:
“Is the chopping off of a head more humane than sticking a needle in the arm?” The salient point is what merits a death sentence in Saudi Arabia. Such as apostasy and homosexuality, neither of which is a crime in Texas.
There is certainly room for debate on the death penalty in general here in the US. But the added human rights issue in Saudi Arabia are what are considered capital crimes there.
Paul – would that be because of the overprescription of drugs to poor Marilyn? She was really getting serious about her acting before she died. I’ve always wondered what she could have accomplished if she’d shed that Bombshell act and reinvented herself as she aged. What was the name of that final movie she’d been filming?
Karen – I think she was working on The Misfits.
As I’ve said before, my father witnessed two gay men get beheaded at Chop Chop Square. It’s a grim memory for him.
“No Experience Required?” What, does he learn on the job, botching a few executions?
Sharia Law abuses human rights everywhere that it is practiced. We cannot change other countries’ laws, but we can sure protest such abuse. Anyone who defends Sharia Law is either in total denial or just desensitized to it.
We turn a blind eye to Saudi Arabia because we’re desperate to have at least a fair-weather friend in a region boiling with anti-Western hatred, extremism, and terrorism. Machiavellian choice.
I agree with old nurse. You have a choice in America and not an echo. You could move to Saudi Arabia if you had the money and wanted to but they cant move here without the right visa. So where in this Earth is the most civilized country? I would suggest that it would be one that does not kill its humans in the name of the nation state. Then of those, one that allows free speech and liberties. Canada is a good choice. You must consider things like food and hygiene. France is fairly good except that they eat frogs. Iceland and Holland are great and they dont kill their own people in the name of God or country. Me, I am in New Orleans doing my watch duty for Planet Remulak and spending my spare time yakking on the computer. Not all my spare time. They have a Red Light District here.
There’s always room for one more in Saudi Arabia, old nurse. Try to voice your outrage over there and see how long you survive. Funny, isn’t it, how evil and despicable America is no better than Saudi Arabia, but old nurse chooses to stay here. Wonder why?
We have video documentation of a policeman who choked a man to death for selling illegal cigarettes and faced no consequences. We blow civilians to smithereens using drones. We have a bunch of violent motorcycle idiots who slaughter each other over nothing. We have supported and armed violent dictatorships for decades. Then there’s Guantanamo. But Saudi is the barbaric country and we’re the exceptional one! We are the most self-deluded country in history.
old nurse – the Bandidos are allied with Los Zetas and the fight was over territory.
All religious states are reprehensible, not just this one, let alone that it’s a monarchy.
This is a really interesting examination of religion. In this case the writer speaks of their experience as a Hare Krishna, yet as the writer says, it applies to any sort of cult. To me, a cult is just a name given to more historically recent religions. Most religions including all “religions of the book” and those with absolute authority figures (including secular religions such as political parties) are covered by this essay.
Here is one excerpt and a link: “I learned that proclaiming one unitary Absolute Truth, one truth for all and to which all minds must bend, creates a form of mental tyranny with a simple brutality at its heart. To discount individual human subjectivity, or to subordinate it forever to ultimate “truths” and unassailable “facts,” is a repudiation of free human consciousness and lays the groundwork for the creation of religious totalism. All Absolute Truth claims contain that toxic germ of religious fascism.
http://surrealist.org/betrayalofthespirit/gelberg3.html
I wonder if the Saudis would be interested in using a guillotine, they could step up to the 18 century
Can we do a head count between Texas and Saudi Arabia? If they kill more humans than Texas or all of the United States in say one year then are they wrong simply on a per diem basis? Is the chopping off of a head more humane than sticking a needle in the arm? Maybe we can come to the middle on human rights issues and agree with Saudi Arabia and middle east chopping countries on a human rights accord which sets forth the firing squad as the means of killing humans.
On another note, who in Texas and other states, sticks the needle in the arm at execution time? A doctor? A lawyer? An Indian Chief?
Inquiring minds want to know.
Those who live by the sword, die by the sword. I guess we die by the needle. Or the gas chamber, or the electric chair, or the bad health care, or from cigarette smoke, or from bad drivers. Those who are self righteous are seldom right. Never left. Stuck in the middle of the muddle like a duck in a street puddle in the middle of traffic during hatching season. America the self righteous. Preachers on the Mount. Holier than thou. Give us your tired, your poor and huddled masses.
Yes, Saudi Arabia conducts more beheadings than ISIS. Yet, somehow they are are BFF.
I wonder if this means the USGinc. really doesn’t care about people being beheaded and is just using it as propaganda to jin up more war? Of course, I’m certain Obama would never do such a thing because he is a great and noble leader who never lies us into wars for any reason. Only Republicans do that kind of thing!
This is an atrocity and human rights violation. However, it will not matter because it is the work of our allies.
The absence of minimal qualifications and entrance exams? How very inclusive of them.
Watch the typical characters infuse this thread with off-topic diatribes about stories of FBI conspiracies, the moon landing, Marilyn Monroe’s death, Ferguson, climate change and Bush. Anything to gloss over this story and derail the reader.
bam bam – actually I just saw a new theory on Marilyn Monroe’s death. It was medical malpractice.
OTJT?
We know it is a skilled task from diary entries about beheadings in England. Maybe they have a training program.
The position is titled as “religious functionary”. The pay would be at the lower end of the scale.
In Qassim Province, north of the capital, Riyadh, the primary swordsman works full time as a guard for the region’s prince and carries out executions on the side,
earning a bonus of more than $1,000 per head, according to local government officials who know him.
Can’t find anything on healthcare, vacation, 401K plan, or sick day benefits.
Is that a left handed or right handed swordsman?
I wonder what would happen to guys showing up for the job, guys that had misunderstood the term, ‘swordsman’, thinking it meant something else.
This may be a good job for the kitty killing grandma. I am sure being a woman disqualifies her, however.
Islam seems like a religion Monty Python would invent. The Minister of Whacky Walk and Whacking Heads.