Saudi Arabia - public flogging for insulting Islam

sabat

skooterblue2 wrote: »

As our lecturer said "1 Billion Chinese cannot be wrong".

That was actually Kiefer Sutherland in The Lost Boys.

superelliptic

pragmatic1 wrote: »

No, but we did put women into institutions for having kids outside of marriage. What they endured in these institutions wasn't very pleasant.

Yeah but on a scale of severity you are equating washing jocks for a few years in a Magdalene Laundry to being on the same scale of harshness as public flogging in Saudi, or maybe getting your head chopped off in a soccer stadium in Iran for the same crime?

I'm not endorsing the concept of even having punishments for the supposed 'crime' of having a child outside of wedlock, but the comparison you make seems not to be balanced.

Tony EH

zerks wrote: »

A cleric there has declared a fatwa on snowmen and "Mickey Mouse is an agent of satan"

http://nypost.com/2015/01/13/saudi-arabian-cleric-issues-fatwa-on-snowmen/

If it was on the Simpsons you'd laugh but this is real life,dark ages idiocy.

One should be really careful what they read about countries like Iran or Saudi in foreign newspapers, especially American ones.

While something like the above may sound silly and outrageous, the actual impact on peoples lives is negligible or non-existent.

I can imagine that when Ireland brought in our "blasphemy laws", there were a number of international stories pointing out how backwards we were and yet, they have had no significant impact on the lives of anybody here, as far as I'm aware. Most people aren't even aware that they exist.

These stories may seem ridiculous and they are ridiculous, but they are quickly forgotten about.

Tony EH

JupiterKid wrote: »

Saudi Arabia: A truly barbaric and deeply backward society propped up by oil. the US.

Peanut

mikeym wrote: »

..
Its amazing to see Fox News's Sean Hannity speak about the horrors of IS and enforcing Sharia Law in the Islamic State when USA's best friends Saudi Arabia recognises the so called evil Sharia Law.

The USA and especially Fox News are hypocrites.

If it was just Fox News it would be fine, but it's not - the entire hypocritical western policy of turning a blind eye to Saudi just gets ignored most of the time, even during events when it's most relevant.

Look at the recent attacks in Paris, the media is full of stories about tightening internal security, reducing potential for radicalisation, censoring Twitter/Facebook posts etc. etc.,

...yet this is all purely symptomatic while we merrily continue to trade with the cradle of stupidity that has been reported to have invested $87 billion over the past 20 years in promoting their backward-looking interpretation of Islam.

And the fact that ISIS etc. has now turned against them is largely irrelevant - the ideology is still there - enforced by the state, and while it's accepted by a significant part of the population (and sympathisers abroad), the damage will continue.

Qatar and Saudi Arabia 'have ignited time bomb by funding global spread of radical Islam'

Donkey Oaty

Breaking news from BBC:

Saudi king refers blogger Raif Badawi's case to Supreme Court, his wife tells the BBC, after outcry over flogging

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No further details yet.

Too early to say for sure, but it looks as though the international outcry has had an effect.

Stheno

Donkey Oaty wrote: »

Breaking news from BBC:

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No further details yet.

Too early to say for sure, but it looks as though the international outcry has had an effect.

This weeks flogging was postponed for medical reasons too