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Saudi Arabia Upholds Barbaric Sentence Of Blogger To Flogging and Jail For Insulting Islam

badawiSaudi Arabia’s Supreme Court reaffirmed yesterday that it rejects the most fundamental notions of due process, free speech, freedom of religion, and the free press. It was able to do all of that in one case — perfectly capturing the inherently abusive elements of Sharia law and religiously based legal systems.

As we have previously discussed, Badawi, a 31-year-old father of three who was lashed in January in a public square, sentenced to seven years in prison and 600 lashes for breaking Saudi Arabia’s technology laws and insulting Islamic religious figures through a blog. In a demonstration of utter contempt for human rights and world opinion, an appellate criminal court in Jiddah last year increased the punishment to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes. He also was banned from traveling abroad for 10 years after his prison term and fined $266,000.

He was notably flogged outside of a mosque in Jiddah to further establish the imposition of Islamic justice for someone who simply wrote about his opinion on current events. The barbaric flogging is scheduled for 20 weekly sessions with 50 lashes each week.

Once again, it is cases like Badawi that raise the question of the distinction between some of our closest allies and the “extremists” that we are committed to resist. It is not the fight against extremism that I question (though we can debate the means), it is the selective measure that we apply between different countries. It is certainly true that Saudi Arabia is not viewed as a sponsor of terrorism, has attempted some marginal reforms, and has committed itself to fighting ISIS. I see the difference with ISIS even with Saudi Arabia beheading people in public squares and sentencing people to death for apostasy. However, it remains a country that refuses a single non-Mosque to be built on its territory, widespread denial of free speech, denial of basis rights for women, denial of the free press, and a host of other rights considered core human rights.

36 thoughts on “Saudi Arabia Upholds Barbaric Sentence Of Blogger To Flogging and Jail For Insulting Islam”

  1. Freedom of Speech. Freedom of Religion. In America or in Saudi Arabia. Americans should clean the American house first.

    Freedom of business, enterprise, industry and endeavor. Did the Founders intend to leave out business from the freedoms Americans enjoy, or did the Founders firmly believe that ALL people UNDERSTOOD the complete, unobstructed freedom of business, industry and enterprise in the American thesis?

    The Founders must have been capable and accomplished. What did they write? What did they believe it unnecessary to write? What did they believe people would understand? What did they practice? How did they live their personal and professional lives?

    What they meant:

    “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of BUSINESS, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

    What they said:

    “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

    Subjugation and control of business occurs in Marx’s Communist Manifesto not in the American founding documents or philosophy.

    Freedom and Free Enterprise (as the “blessings of liberty”) comprise the theme in the

    Preamble, Constitution and Bill of Rights.

    P.S. We may gain some understanding of the mindset, strict nature and resolve of the Founders when we consider the fact that the conspirators in the Lincoln assassination were ALL dead within 3 months of Lincoln’s death. Talk about a death penalty. Looks like early Americans meant business (excuse the pun).

  2. “their country…their rules…yeah, right schulte…that kind of thinking perpetuates draconian thinking and laws, by allowing these degenerates to continue maiming and torturing and beheading people for breaking rules and laws that should be broken!…the spirit behind islam, is evil spirit…pure and simple…

  3. Plenty of countries don’t have due process, freedom of speech or freedom of the press. For example, Cuba and China I don’t see anyone upset abut that. And in England you can thrown in jail for “racism” since “diversity” is their official religion, while in SA you can get thrown in jail for blasphemy. Its simply whose ox is being gored and your set of values.

    I too declined a chance to work in SA, primarily because i don’t like 100 degree heat and i like a beer now and then.

  4. Well, the country is practically crime free, so the harshness is working to that degree.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_Saudi_Arabia

    That being said, the penalty for this blogger was excessive. The government could have accomplished its goals with a caning of the sort done in Singapore. As for as all the blather about whacking off the heads of murderers and drug dealers in the public square, good for them! Imagine what would happen to the crime rate in Chicago if murderers and drug dealers started getting decapitated??? It may not go to zero, but a few heads rolling would do wonders.

    The reality is that somebody is going to suffer and die no matter what you do. If you do little to stop criminals, it will be the innocent. I prefer that it be criminals.

    Squeeky Fromm
    Girl Reporter

  5. BFM – the irony is that those who claim moral equivalence between UAE and here would likely be among those flogged. Somehow, I think they would change their stance if they actually did experience the justice system there.

    Aridog – my father took early retirement rather than move his family to Saudi Arabia. It is the source of the treasured Al Khamsa Arabian lines of horses, and there is much to admire about their culture. But there is no way on Earth I would ever want to live there, a non-Muslim woman, in Saudi Arabia, on base or not.

  6. I had friends who wondered why on earth I turned down a very high paying job, with a major defense contractor, that required I move to Saudi Arabia. THIS is why. No way I’d live there or anywhere nearby. Never mind I’d have been soon enough, but unknown to me at the time, scrambling across the Saudi desert during the relief of Kuwait. No. Thank. You.

  7. Maybe what is needed in this country is some of this “Barbaric” treatment against the crims in this country
    including politicians.

  8. BFM –

    Here is a photo of Mr Badawi with his beautiful family. Heartbreaking.

    It was reported that he was allowed to keep his shirt on. This will likely prevent him from getting cut, which can lead to him being flayed with severe scarring. This will limit the damage to severe bruising and damage to the underlying muscle. After 20 such sessions, one would expect him to be broken:

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/saudiarabia/11349501/How-do-you-survive-1000-lashes.html

    And here is another link discussing the savage practice of whipping women under Islamic justice:

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/scarred-by-the-savage-lash-of-islamic-justice-1577324.html

    Human rights is in the dark ages throughout the region, and there is no moral equivalence with here. Our politicians are in a moral dilemma that their citizens lack. Most of us agree that the regime is barbaric, especially towards women, and want us to start voting with our dollars. Politicians are in a quandary, because the ME is roiling with open anti-Western hatred. We have a couple of fair-weather allies, Saudi Arabia, which abuses women and gays, has no free speech or religion protection, and bans anyone Jewish from even setting foot in their country, and Turkey, who engaged in the Armenian Genocide and has also slid more towards extremism. Anger the Kingdom, and you alienate OPEC, and those politicians would remember the Oil Embargo and the difficulty transporting goods, like food, across America. We can’t or won’t replace our dependence with foreign oil on domestic, and we haven’t managed to make alternatives cheap enough to afford to replace all oil YET, so what to do?

    I cannot wait for the day that we don’t need an ounce of their oil, and can make our spending decisions without being “over a barrel.”

    1. @Karen S

      Thanks for the articles. I think it is sobering to realize that many who post here would likely find themselves charged, convicted and flogged is we were subject to similar standards of justice.

  11. Their county their rules. Ok but we don’t have to support them and pour money to their treasury. Its time we stopped calling them our allies because they are not.

  12. ” perfectly capturing the inherently abusive elements of Sharia law and religiously based legal systems.”

    Pure twaddle. If one were so inclined, they could find a thousand examples of injustice inflicted by the American criminal justice system for every one example produced by the Saudi’s (or pretty much any other nation, for that matter).

    The problems with the Saudi system have little to do with it’s philosophical basis and everything to do with saudi arabia being an authoritarian regime that would have an unjust legal system no matter what that system was ostensibly based upon. The same holds true for our corrupt system.

  14. “He may be a SOB but he’s our SOB.” This won’t change for a while or at least until the oil runs out.

    Extremists from Europe, the US, Canada, Australia etc should be encouraged to leave these countries regardless of nationality and be given free tickets to Syria or where ever one goes to sign up to be a member of ISIS. Then, if possible, they should be waxed as quietly as is possible. Perhaps they could be sedated before they leave and have tracking devices implanted in them. Then they could be used to home in smart bombs on the recruiting and training areas. One thing is for sure, they should never be allowed to return to the West. There should be doors that when opened and passed through are never opened again.

  15. Religious ‘beliefs’ have always been man’s most accepted and convenient excuse for cruelty, torture and murder. Kim Jung-un is considered a madman for enforcing his diabolical rule, and North Korea is considered a pariah state worthy of highest condemnations from US. Yet US deals freely with these Middle East madmen and sends them arms to protect their excessively cruel and oppressive regimes. And as long as US permits state sponsored executions (any innocent victims of a failed judicial process be damned), condones torture, and threatens those who tell the truth (see James Risen, Edward Snowden, Thomas Tamm, Thomas Drake, etc.), it’s difficult for its elected ‘representatives’ to be sanctimonious and critical of this barbaric Saudi punishment.

  17. I don’t see how he will survive his punishment….If only every American and European young person that is trying to join ISIS could be exchanged for a political prisoner like this man. As much as I wish we could help brave souls like Badawi, we have to face the fact that we can’t. We should leave the Sunnis and Shia to fight this out on their own. The entire mideast is roiled by the civil war caused by removing the Sunni Government in Iraq which held all this craziness in check. We need to GET OUT of the Middle East. If we stay there, and by some unlikely chance facilitate a peace between these two factions, who have been fierce enemies for centuries, they will probably turn on us, the “peacemakers”.

  19. Does anyone know the prognosis for 50 lashes a week for 20 weeks?

    I am guessing that it takes more than a week to recover from the damage resulting from 50 lashes.

    Is there any mechanism in Saudi/Islamic justice to delay lashes based on physical condition?

  20. With all due respect, I see none of the difference to which you refer between ISIS and SA. As to SA not being viewed as a funder of terrorism and fanatical Islamic groups, that simply is not true. SA is a recognized founder of extremist groups. The only difference between ISIS an SA is SA is supposed to be our ally. More fool US!

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