Saudi Blogger Gets Seven Years, 600 Lashes for "Insulting" Islam

Our friends in Saudi Arabia have sentenced a blogger-activist to seven years in prison and 600 lashes for the terrible crime of "insulting" Islam.

Raif Badawi has been in jail since June, 2012 and ran afoul of authorities after starting a "Free Saudi Liberals" site in 2008. I've been unable to find examples of the material that culminated in his conviction (if you have them, please send them along and I'll post here).

From CNN:

"This incredibly harsh sentence for a peaceful blogger makes a mockery of Saudi Arabia's claims that it supports reform and religious dialogue," said Nadim Houry, the deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "A man who wanted to discuss religion has already been locked up for a year and now faces 600 lashes and seven years in prison."…

Rights groups accuse Saudi authorities of targeting activists through the courts and travel bans. Many were outraged when two of the country's most prominent reform advocates, Mohammed Al-Qahtani and Abdullah Al-Hamid, were sentenced in March to 10 years in prison apiece.

Amnesty International called that trial "just one of a troubling string of court cases aimed at silencing the kingdom's human-rights activists."

More here.

Worth remembering: Reason's Everybody Draw Mohammed Day contest.

And "President Obama Says We 'must' condemn 'those who slander the prophet of Islam', Among Others."

Comments

[Tman]

(put popcorn in microwave to prepare for Warty/Nutrasweet/Epi BDSM discussion)

[Pro Libertate]

Again, is 600 lashes no big deal or a death sentence? I'm unclear.

And isn't that Dr. Bashir?

[Jordan]

I don't see how that wouldn't be a death sentence.

[Hugh Akston]

No you idiot, that's Loki.

[Pro Libertate]

He actually looks like some odd cloning attempt using both guys' DNA.

I recently learned that Dr. Bashir's uncle is Alex DeLarge. No kidding.

[Episiarch]

It depends on the lash. So, for instance, if the lash is Warty's grotesque penis, just two lashes is a death sentence. However, if the lash is NutraSweet's noodle-like penis, 600 lashes is nothing. If you go in between with, say, JJ's choad, 600 lashes could be irritating by the end.

There is no end to the permutations possible, ProL. It just all depends on which penis is the lash. Do you see? PENIS.

[AlexInCT]

I am afraid to ask how you know what these 2 fella's penises look like bud, but I have to....

And I thought the proper trem when swinging the penis to lash people was "chubby clubbing"...

[Sudden]

Thwacking actually.

[Episiarch]

Why wouldn't I know what their penises look like? What a strange question.

[AlexInCT]

No clue why you would, Epi. You their doctor? You the kid they make hold it when they take a piss because they have to wipe their monocle? You writing a book about dicks (I got a lot of women to put out by telling them I was writing a book about boobs back in the day and I would make them famous)?

Inquiring minds want to know?

[SugarFree]

They sext each other constantly. I had to block all their numbers.

[AlexInCT]

Did Weiner teach Epi and Warty, or the other way around?

DICK PICKS!

[Hugh Akston]

And if it's 600 lashes in one session, then homeboy's gonna die. If they stretch it out over his sentence, then it's just gonna be cruel and unusual punishment.

But we must never forget what a great ally Saudi Arabia is to the US!

[B.P.]

Someone said in an H-n-R thread yesterday that it's 4 150-lash sessions. I'm too lazy to try verify the accuracy of this.

[Paul.]

Sort of like a 21 gun salute, then, 7 guns, three times.

[Killazontherun]

Or promising her twelve inches and nailing her twice.

[JW]

Twice?!?

[Killazontherun]

Worth going to war and stunting our own domestic production for more than thirty years for.

[Suthenboy]

I imagine if the Wahhabis took over they would screw the country into the ground just like strict Islamists always do when they try to govern. Their oil production would drop to near zero in no time.

Energy production here would replace what we lose from the Saudis and they would quickly become irrelevant.

[BakedPenguin]

And don't forget their constant support of Wahhabi Islam!

We really need to let their kingdom die a gruesome death at the hands of the terrorists they've done so much to create.

[Ken Shultz]

It seems to me that if present trends continue, and energy production in the U.S. and the rest of the world continues at its present pace?

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/artic.....le-gas.htm

If the Saudis can no longer afford to fund government largess and buy off the Wahabis and their people?

Either the Wahabis will step forward as if to deliver the Saudi people from the Saudi government, or the Saudi government will have to step forward and present themselves as a way to deliver the Saudi people from the Wahabis.

Either way, if they can't fund that largess to the same extent anymore, there are gonna be a lot of angry Arabs in that country. ...if present trends continue.

[Apatheist ?_??]

Good question. In Singapore the maximum number of caning strokes is 24 but I imagine that is worse than a lash.

[SugarFree]

Yes, much worse. The canes are split in 4ths longwise and bound back together at the ends. When it strikes flesh, the cane opens from the pressure and grabs a hunk of skin that is torn out on the back stroke.

They use unsplit canes if it's a foreigner or someone that will be able to raise a stink.

Although--as I google around--it looks like the SA lash it not a whip, but a flexible rod about four feet long, so it's more like a caning. Still looks gruesome.

[Sudden]

Yes, much worse. The canes are split in 4ths longwise and bound back together at the ends. When it strikes flesh, the cane opens from the pressure and grabs a hunk of skin that is torn out on the back stroke.

Is this not the same cane that Warty uses in his re-enactments of 50 Shades with Epi?

[SugarFree]

Epi uses a dried bull penis.

[Ska]

Guineau prick that he is.

[Apatheist ?_??]

When I lived there we had to watch a government scare video about caning and other shit. The caning officers train 6 months so they can properly beat the shit out of you.

[SugarFree]

Hopefully they practice on each other.

[Sudden]

But can they shoot a dog with lethal accuracy?

[rts]

If anonymous reports from Reddit are to be believed, it's "no big deal".

[B.P.]

Slate seems to be on it. From 2008:

http://www.slate.com/articles/....._take.html

[Killazontherun]

Everything the administration wants to do the Syrian leadership, the Saudis deserve ten fold.

[Brett L]

This is obviously too harsh for insulting Islam. Such a sentence should only be given for bloggers who refuse to edit themselves.

[Killazontherun]

Don't Talk Shit About Lucy!

[Sudden]

DON'T MENTION THE WAR!!!!

[B.P.]

Why can't Saudi Arabia jail its blasphemers on trumped up parole violations?

[Hugh Akston]

That just shows how lacking they are in civilization.

[Res Publica Americana]

What a barbaric, primordial shithole. Fuck these people.

[Tim]

More of an oil hole than a shithole.

[Res Publica Americana]

That's all the worth it's got. They're a bunch of primitive assholes that were enabled to be uplifted to post-14th century civilization exclusively by the oil beneath their feet.

[Tim]

Do you think Barack was looking for that oil when he bowed to their king?

[Res Publica Americana]

I'm guessing he was probably preparing to drop to his knees for a blowjob, but realized the cameras were on him just in time to stand back upright again and move on.

[Ken Shultz]

Every time they do something ridiculous, they make their ridiculousness even more obvious. They don't have to worry about activists relegating them to the fringes of Saudi society when they're doing such a good job of marginalizing themselves.

Oh, and the world doesn't need Saudi oil like it used to. We certainly don't need their production like we used to.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/.....r-oil.html

[prolefeed]

That the Saudis can't pump quite as much gas as they used to and still keep market prices at the current level doesn't mean we don't still need that oil. If the Saudis completely quit pumping oil, the price of oil would skyrocket for quite a while until everyone else ramped up production to the maximum.

Prices are determined at the margin.

[Ken Shultz]

They can't quit pumping oil.

That's more than 90% of their government budget, and they use that budget to buy off their people.

The only reason they stop pumping energy is becasue the demand and prices aren't there.

Oh, and the pressure gets greater and greater. When you have to buy off your people with jobs or (in some cases) checks, those expenses don't go down--ever. They only go up. As the population increases, there's less to go around.

So, they have to pump all they can, and they have to sell it on the world market. The only reason they wouldn't produce all they can--is because market forces won't let them.

Oh, and demand for oil in the U.S. continues to shrink. That may in part because of the sluggish economy, but it's also due to the aging of the country. We'd have negative population growth if it weren't for immigrants, and after people hit 55, their driving drops dramatically, and they move somewhere sunny.

[JeremyR]

Oil doesn't matter

The people of the religion want this stuff.

Did you miss the whole thing in Egypt? Islamists took power by popular vote, only they had to be deposed by the military because they were turning the place into another Iran?

Which of course, is apparently wrong thing to do, according to LIbertarians.

[JeremyR]

That should be region.

[Gus]

That Allah is a baaaaaad motherf Shut your mouth! I'm just talkin' about Allah.

[Sudden]

I believe it's daughterf#$%er...

[AlexInCT]

He's lucky he didn't make a movie they could blame some ambassador getting killed over, or they would lock him up and throw away the key.

[Tim]

If "professional journalists" had armies, they'd treat bloggers exactly like this.

[JW]

OT: No, the surveillance state isn't getting fucking creepy at all. No sirree. They just want to keep us safe from the vaguely defined threat.

Google 'Pressure Cookers' and 'Backpacks,' Get a Visit from the Cops

[Heroic Mulatto]

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

It is sad to see how far Saudi Arabia has fallen into irreligious secularism. The blogger "insulted Islam", which is ispo facto apostasy. The sin of riddah (apostasy) is the most heinous, and the Shariah is clear that a murtad fitn must be put to death. The ahadith reported by al-Bukhari states:

Ali burnt some people and this news reached Ibn 'Abbas, who said, "Had I been in his place I would not have burnt them, as the Prophet said, 'Don't punish (anybody) with Allah's (subhanahu wa ta'ala) Punishment.' No doubt, I would have killed them, for the Prophet said, 'If somebody (a Muslim) discards his religion, kill him.' "
?Sahih al-Bukhari, 4:52:260

And it is even worse that through the Zionist/American/Freemason/Lizard People invention of the Internet, Badawi was able to spread his sinful ideas to other Saudi Muslims, thus causing fitna throughout the entire ummat al-Islamiyah. The words of Allah (subhanahu wa ta'ala) are clear that 600 lashes aren't enough.

And Allah knows best.

[Res Publica Americana]

Careful there, bro, or you might be getting a visit from the Emperor Hussein I's Morality Police.

[Sudden]

Or Emperor Hussein will visit personally and state "your ideas interest me and I would like to subscribe to your newsletter" (read: haditha)

[Heroic Mulatto]

Obama: Who taught you how to do this?

Me: I learned it from watching you!!!

[Damned Fool]

Anyone know which direction D.C. is from my house? I'll need to bow that way when I pray.

[rts]

According to this report, he was initially charged with apostasy.

[Raston Bot]

Obviously that's not 600 Denzel's-character-in-Glory lashes.

[sam the man]

Gibson in Passion got it worse.

[Aresen]

I've been unable to find examples of the material that culminated in his conviction (if you have them, please send them along and I'll post here).

Uh, Nick, I gather you are not planning any trips to Islamic countries?

[sam the man]

I think Morsi arrested some Jon Stewart rip-off for "insulting Islam" and making fun of the government not too long ago. I don't know if the guy's still in jail, but these towelhead fascists are yet another example of what happens when you accept the premise that words hurt. Does nobody remember that whole sticks and stones thing? It's kind of funny watching grown adults buy into a myth that can be debunked by a saying people hear when they're in kindergarden.

[AlmightyJB]

Seems a little harsh.

[Lyle]

Hydrocarbons are more important than this guy. It's right to highlight all the illiberality of Saudi Arabia, but lets be honest with ourselves and respect that fact that hydrocarbons are the fountainhead of our modernity.

[JeremyR]

Coming to a Western country soon.

It's already essentially illegal to criticize Islam in some countries, but they don't lash you. Yet.