"It is legitimate to kill those who call for corruption if their evil can not be stopped by other penalties," he said, echoing the Qur'an's directive against those who "strive after corruption in the land" (5:33).
"Saudi judge condemns 'immoral TV' ," from BBC News, September 12:
The most senior judge in Saudi Arabia has said it is permissible to kill the owners of satellite TV channels which broadcast immoral programmes.
Sheikh Salih Ibn al-Luhaydan said some "evil" entertainment programmes aired by the channels promoted debauchery.
Dozens of satellite television channels broadcast across the Middle East, where they are watched by millions of Arabs every day.
The judge made the comments on a state radio programme.
He was speaking in response to a listener who asked his opinion on the airing of programmes featuring scantily-dressed women during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
"There is no doubt that these programmes are a great evil, and the owners of these channels are as guilty as those who watch them," said the sheikh.
"It is legitimate to kill those who call for corruption if their evil can not be stopped by other penalties."
Royal dilemma
Given his position as the country's most senior judge, the sheikh's views can not be easily dismissed, says BBC Arab affairs analyst, Magdi Abdelhadi.
Clerics like Sheikh al-Luhaydan represent a huge dilemma for the Saudi royal family, our correspondent adds.
On the one hand, Saudi rulers need their support to claim that they rule in the name of Islam.
But on the other hand, fighting militant Islam can be difficult when the country's top judge calls for the beheading of those he views as immoral broadcasters.
Death...Islam's answer for just about everything...
And we consider these barbarians our friends and allies. Well, some of us do.
Seems to me, murder is more immoral than "scantily dressed women". If muslim males could ever, ever conquer their fear and hatred of women, islamic nations may actually be self sufficient and successful some day.
Someone wake me up, I must be dreaming......
I guess there's no equivalent of Baywatch in SA, though they would probably turn it into a pretty good chopper movie: "The Sharia Chainsaw Masacre".
If only oil were .25/barrel these opinions would be as significant as that of a tribal chief in Burkina Faso. Money talks.
I hope that Botros' TV can reach Saudi Arabia!
Indeed, they are not our allies, but we must love our enemies! I am sure, in a country where Islam is tought to everybody as it is ... Islam can only collapse! Absurdity can only collapse if it is confronted with the truth! Let's send them the good news with guys like Botros! Saudi Arabia is maybe ripe for leaving Islam (being cured from Islam).
And we're supposed to worry what THEY think about US?
This coincides perfectly with Islamic Law as explained in "Reliance of the Traveler." There is a section about how to get others from breaking Islamic law (I don't have it in front of me so all of this is paraphrase), I think under the section of "Commanding Right, and Forbidding Wrong."
The manual takes us step-by-step through the different levels that a Muslim should go through to enforce the law, beginning with Step 1, telling the person what the law is, in case he or she doesn't know. Later steps involve increasingly dire steps, such as breaking an instrument if a person insists on playing music. The final step is physical violence against the person, as much as needed. Read it. Hilarious. Frightening. Indisputable.
Can we get the judge to issue a ruling on MSNBC, NBC. CNN, PBS and on Oberman and Matthews?
How long before this Saudi fatwa is repeated in mosques around the world?
Since this is reported by the BBC, consider the recent failed attempts to shut down FITNA which was successfully blocked from televised viewing but not from the internet, and the recent Channel 4 Dispatches Programme "Undercover Mosque" & "Undercover Mosque, The return" airing despite being challenged.
Moderate, modern Saudi Arabia, America's staunch ally and supporter against terrorism, catch, rehabilitate and release programs, notwithstanding.
And we consider these barbarians our friends and allies. Well, some of us do.
Posted by: ImNoDhimmi at September 12, 2008 6:32 PM
Yep : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiOFRzkL7eg
Islam, the religion of DEATH.
9/11/08 Attack On Chunnel Train Between France and England?
http://ibloga.blogspot.com/2008/09/91108-attack-on-chunnel-train-between.html
But the universities in the US are full of Saudis are they not? So as not to corrupt them with our blasphemous TV programs etc or tarnish their moral superiority how about booting their sorry hypocritical asses back to the the land of Saud? Hmm?
Just imagine the effort it's taken over the years for the sheikhs to become even as pro-Western as this. Count your blessings.
Hmm, I wonder what the chances are that these folks are not referring to dancing girls and soap operas, but rather to Christian evangelistic programming.
I speculate because just yesterday I read about the successes of a Christian media ministry (which shall remain nameless for obvious reasons here!). They broadcast a christian talk TV show that is watched by tens of thousands of Arabs across the peninsula. Hundreds call in every time and speak, on the air, to ex-muslims who have themselves converted to christianity. The discussions are frank and to-the-point. On a recent show, seven muslims professed faith in christ in an hour!
This is not a flash-in-the-pan thing; the program has been broadcasting for years now, and its exposure across the Arabic world is rapidly spreading. Also, these conversions are not telegraphed one-night things. When a caller professes faith they are plugged in to correspondence programs which provide ongoing follow-up and instruction in their new faith. Many converts apparently end up working for similar ministries or reaching out in different ways in their own communities.
As for "scantily dressed women" -- I have seen no low-cut dresses or exposed legs on the show, but the women dress in tasteful, business-like western dress. However, they are unveiled, which may be shocking enough to these uptight clerics.
I suspect this BBC piece is a British spin on the story. I don't think they'd like to air a piece talking about the successes of a Christian evangelistic media ministry, and would write any reference to this out of the story.
By the way, this particular media ministry is not peopled by bible thumping knuckle-draggers, it is a thoughtful, relatively tasteful and low-key thing associated with a mainstream evangelical denomination.
It's not the only one of which I know, and it's probably not even the most successful one. There are several such groups doing evangelism in the peninsula this way. I happen to follow this particular group because I know some of the people involved and they are very down-to-earth, well-educated and articulate arabic folks who do not fit the raving TV evangelist stereotype.
"There is no doubt that these programmes are a great evil, and the owners of these channels are as guilty as those who watch them," said the sheikh."
How much you wanna bet the "sheikh" goes home and breaks out the porn every night?
It is legal to kill pretty much anyone you want in Islam if you can find a reason or example.
Saudi Arabia's most senior judge says it's permissible to kill broadcasters of "immoral" television
...............................
"Broadcasters of "immoral" television", huh? I don't suppose he means broadcasts like this? "Pakistan: Anchor man calls for lynching of Ahmadis, two people murdered" (article posted following this one on JW, 9/12/08).
No, I didn't think so--although most of us would consider that sort of broadcast quite a bit more immoral than some silly show featuring "scantily-dressed women".
Also, you know how it would start--first things that many people (including myself) find rather distasteful, such as "Jerry Springer" and "I (heart) New York", and racy European shows featuring Page 3 girls and nude news broadcasts, then on to, say, "Baywatch" reruns, Egyptian soap operas, and Japanese game shows. Finally, they'd target any show featuring un-veiled women, favorable depictions of Christianity or Judaism, and any criticism of Islam, no matter how mild.
Hmmm . . . I suppose Tila Tequila is looking more palatable all the time . . .
Sheikh Salih Ibn al-Luhaydan said some "evil" entertainment programmes aired by the channels promoted debauchery.
Oh no, not debauchery...What I want to know is just how many muslims are quitting Islam, and taking up debauchery as a hobby, because of evil television?
If muslims are going to apostate themselves in favor of debauchery, then we need to throw more debauchery at them.
The best thing to do is to ban television in Saudi Arabia...next the internet because of it's porno links.
The Saudi's are wise, they know that if you give muslims a chance to debauch, they will debauch.
That's why they have religious police.
They don't need to kill anyone, 'just say no' to debauchery by killing TV, and the internet...
This is probably OT but I just saw this horror-movie on dvd called Insanitarium with Peter Stormare giving the word nut-doctor a brand new meaning. It so reminded me of islam although it is not about islam. Started as fairly normal then goes from bad to worse etc. pretty much like... you get the picture. Thus it dawned upon me, islam is not a religion, it's a f*cking psychosis!
Even with filtering, Indonesian, Arabic and Turkish are the 2nd-4th most frequent languages searching sex on the internet (Google Trends).
How many ARE they going to "permissibly" kill? Islam has got a lot of house cleaning to do to change those numbers.
Posted by: The Sanity Inspector at September 12, 2008 10:21 PM
What? A supposedly conservative link yo The Jawa Report but no Jihad Watch? You, Sir, should feel shame.
Correct or begone!
Oh please tell me that this includes Barbara Walters and all the "ladies" on the View. It's only fair to include those that work for these owners. I won't miss them.
... "airing of programmes featuring scantily-dressed women during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan"
There's at least one viewer who isn't having a very holy Ramadan, it seems. Must be the women's fault!
I'm guessing that merely NOT watching could be an option in a perfect world. Silly me.
One would think that our reporters and broadcasters would have the common sense to see Islam as a threat to them as well as all of us. How can they be that blind?
So as not to corrupt them with our blasphemous TV programs etc or tarnish their moral superiority how about booting their sorry hypocritical asses back to the the land of Saud? Hmm?
Posted by: Sounder
It won't work. The satellite broadcasts reach them in Saudi Arabia as well. You would have to do as duh_swami suggests and ban all television in SA. Even that won't work since the al-Saud family and anyone else who has enough money will find a satellite dish or receiver. Prohibition won't get rid of the problem.
Getting them out of our respective countries will help us on our end. Until the individual Muslim is equipped with ICBMs, they can't kill people they can't reach.
Presumably as many of these channels are owned by Western Companies, he's talking about some sort of international jihad.
Perhaps we should issue a warrant for his arrest.
Overt assassination would be good.
One would think that our reporters and broadcasters would have the common sense to see Islam as a threat to them as well as all of us. How can they be that blind?
Posted by: Spot on
Politics makes strange bedfellows. Any enemy of George W. Bush is a friend to our media. According to our media, anyone who sees a threat in a third world nation must be a right wing whacko.
Politics makes strange bedfellows. Any enemy of George W. Bush is a friend to our media. According to our media, anyone who sees a threat in a third world nation must be a right wing whacko.
Posted by: PMK
That is something like poisoning the enemies well when you drink from the same well
Hey, no one said it was rational.
"There is no doubt that these programmes are a great evil, and the owners of these channels are as guilty as those who watch them,".
I agree with that. Mediocrity, banality and mindless pap are indeed unforgiveable.
"it is permissible to kill the owners of satellite TV channels which broadcast immoral programmes.". I would say that is taking things a little too far. Banishment and exile would be better.
That is one way to get rid of the MSM. Even Public access would be hard to come by.
I have a couple of Saudi ex-Muslim friends who are actually very nice people. They went back to Saudi Arabia for a month this summer. He was absolutely dreading being without Internet, TV, cell phone, etc. They watch a lot of Turkish and Kuwaiti soap operas on TV when I'm at their place. It's funny because they're just like Mexican soap operas but without the sex, and grandmas are all 30 years old. Of course, grandmas look 30 years old on Days of Our Lives. She was looking forward to the food. I didn't have the heart to tell her that there's no such thing as 'Arab cuisine' and that it's all stolen from Turkey, Greece, and Lebanon. I also don't have the heart to tell them that their 2-year-old son, who doesn't speak or even act like he knows what's going on when his parents address him, is retarded because of inbreeding. He's not autistic either. I can't imagine being willing to live under gender apartheid (although that's a more attractive prospect in the Muslim world) and wearing aburqa in 120 degrees jus to eat some Greek food.
You heard it! Straight from the pig's mouth!