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An update on this story. "Saudi clerics back death fatwa for liberal writers," from Reuters:
RIYADH - A group of Saudi clerics has come out in support of a colleague who issued a fatwa saying two writers deserve to die if they did not retract views that he said made them apostates.
Sheikh Abdul-Rahman al-Barrak, one of the kingdom’s most revered clerics, said in a rare fatwa last week the columnists should be tried for apostasy for “heretical articles” published in al-Riyadh newspaper and put to death if they do not repent.
They questioned the Sunni Muslim view in Saudi Arabia that adherents of other faiths should be considered unbelievers, which Barrak said implied Muslims were free to follow other religions and their faith was on a par with other religions.
Egads!
A group of 20 clerics, all associated with Barrak, issued a statement on Tuesday asking God to support him in the face of a ”wicked attack” by liberals with “polluted beliefs”.
”We know the Sheikh’s knowledge in religion and status in the Islamic nation and trust Muslims place in his opinions ... The fatwa is based on the book of God (Koran) and the path of the Prophet,” they said in the statement posted on Web sites.
And therein lies the chief obstacle to meaningful reform and improvement of human rights issues in Islamic countries.
“The Sheikh’s words were clear in placing the issue in the hands of the temporal authorities when he said that there must be a trial. We affirm there should be a trial.”
Barrak, who is thought to be around 75, is viewed by Islamists as the leading independent authority of Saudi Arabia’s hardline version of Sunni Islam, often termed Wahhabism.
Liberal reformers are engaged in a battle with religious hardliners over the direction of the country, a key US ally and the world’s biggest oil exporter.
“This is in my view the largest show of force in the Wahhabi movement in a long time,” said Ali al-Ahmad, a Saudi opposition figure based in Washington.
Saudi Arabia regularly executes drug traffickers, rapists and murderers, but it is rare for calls to try or execute people for opinions expressed in public.
It is noteworthy that these writers are not under a death fatwa simply for saying something offensive, but for apostasy, which is punishable by death on the orders of Muhammad himself: "If anyone changes his religion, kill him" (Bukhari 9.84.57).
Rights groups have accused Wahhabism of a xenophobic attitude which demonises other religions.
Which explains all the like-minded Shi'ites in Iran -- no, wait...
Posted by Marisol at March 20, 2008 8:00 AM
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I'll bet those writers are witches, as well! They cast a spell on Sheikh Abdul-Rahman al-Barrak and turned him into an empty-headed fool! It's a Fitna!
Posted by: tanstaafl![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/nav-commenters.gif)
at March 20, 2008 8:06 AM
A group of 20 clerics, all associated with Barrak, issued a statement on Tuesday asking God to support him in the face of a ”wicked attack” by liberals with “polluted beliefs”.
'Liberals with 'polluted beliefs', indulging in 'wicked attacks? My, my, do tell, I wonder where they got an idea like that?
Posted by: duh_swami at March 20, 2008 9:08 AM
"....saudi clerics......." a.k.a. "throatcutting devil monsters........"
Posted by: n.a. palm at March 20, 2008 9:44 AM
”We know the Sheikh’s knowledge in religion and status in the Islamic nation and trust Muslims place in his opinions ... The fatwa is based on the book of God (Koran) and the path of the Prophet,” they said in the statement posted on Web sites.
And therein lies the chief obstacle to Muslims living peaceably anywhere in the West.
There are, no doubt, many good people whose only misfortune was being born into the Muslim faith. The problem remains their failure to stand up to people like this sheikh. Unless and until they do, no one can be sure where their loyalties lie. If speaking out renders them apostate then we should be prepared to help them live in freedom but if they won't speak out for fear of being called apostate then there is nothing anyone can do for them.
Posted by: PMK at March 20, 2008 10:09 AM
Let's imagine that there is international law against murder. Let's imagine that a certain country is a member to the body which enacted the law. Let's imagine that that particular country is influential among the followers of a certain doctrine around the world. Some residents of that country are so influential, that when they issue rulings, there could be thousands followers of the above mentioned doctrine around the world, who are expected to fulfill the rulings to the letter, even if that is an illegal ruling to commit murder. Is not the said country considered harbouring murderers and should not the said international body impose sanctions on the said country until it creates conditions where the said people will no longer be able to murder by proxy? So many murders by proxy and so little action from a useless spineless international body!
Posted by: Charles Martel at March 20, 2008 10:43 AM
tried for apostasy for “heretical articles” published in al-Riyadh newspaper and put to death if they do not repent.
to bad we cant do that to our left wing media
Saudi Arabia regularly executes drug traffickers, rapists thats one of the few good idia they have
at March 20, 2008 11:38 AM
tried for apostasy for “heretical articles” published in al-Riyadh newspaper and put to death if they do not repent.
to bad we cant do that to our left wing media
Saudi Arabia regularly executes drug traffickers, rapists thats one of the few good idia they have
at March 20, 2008 11:38 AM
"Liberal reformers are engaged in a battle with religious hardliners over the direction of the country [Saudi Arabia], a key US ally and the world’s biggest oil exporter."
-- from the article above
Contrary to the assertion in the Reuters story, Saudi Arabia is not "a key US ally." It not even a "US ally." Its financial support for mosques and madrasas, all over the Western world, which merely help to entrench and increase the numbers of Muslims in that world, and further support for well-financed campaigns of Da'wa, now is estimated to have reached the figure of 100 billion dollars, over the past 20-30 years, which should be compared to the total spent on promoting Communism in the West by the Soviet Union, over 70 years, which comes to 8-9 billion dollars.
Saudi Arabia is not and never has been, and never can be, given the tenets and texts of Islam, and a country that embraces the very worst and most dangerous and most fanatical and unyielding brand of that Islam -- an ally of the United States. No one should confuse the desire of Saudis to take advantage of medical care, and education, offered in the West, or of their desire to buy up large properties in that West which is regarded by them as a combination Fun Fair and Brothel. No one should be fooled by the armies of Western hirelings who are paid, direclty or indirectly, by the Saudis (and other well-off Arabs), that unseemly crew of former diplomats, intelligence agents, journalists, businessmen (with contracts dangled before them), academic supposed specialists delighted to accept Saudi and other Arab largesse, and of course former government officials, selling their presumed "contacts" and influence (see Brent Scowcroft, see all kinds of others).
No matter how many times this idiotic phrase is repeated, by Reuters or others, it is not true. Saudi Arabia is NOT an ally of the United States. It is an enemy, an enemy of all Infidels, and certainly an enemy of, hostile to, our legal and political institutions. That doesn't keep Prince Bandar from directing donations to this or that Presidential library. It doesn't keep him from giving the wife of Colin Powell, his tennis partner, a Jaguar, or other officials other things, as he entertains them over port and worldly cigars -- or did, before a scandal too big to ignore, burst into flames in Great Britain, and those willing to believe that there is a "real" Saudi Arabia beyond what the Saudi textbooks all teach, beyond what the Saudi clerics all preach, beyond what is the daily fare in the Saudi newspapers, and radio, and television. Yes, the "real" Saudi Arabia, these eager-to-believe people hoping to become, once their "public service" is over and they can, as they like to put, "make some real money," become hirelings themselves of the Saudis, keep believing or pretending to believe, is that which the worldly Bandar offers as his apologia pro vita sua et pro patria sua: "Yes, we are all men of the world, and we are all corrupt, aren't we, so it's really just a question of degree, isn't it?"
Saudi Arabia -- the permanent enemy of all Infidels, and the most dangerous Muslim state, along with Iran, in the world.
Posted by: Hugh at March 20, 2008 1:47 PM
quoting Hugh: No one should be fooled by the armies of Western hirelings who are paid, direclty or indirectly, by the Saudis
You mean like GW and Condi?
Posted by: walterc at March 20, 2008 3:18 PM
Saudi Arabia is not and never has been, and never can be, given the tenets and texts of Islam, and a country that embraces the very worst and most dangerous and most fanatical and unyielding brand of that Islam -- an ally of the United States.
by Hugh
So what was FDR thinking?
Posted by: PMK at March 20, 2008 5:08 PM
20 Saudi clerics support colleague's death fatwa against "apostate" writers
News flash for Saudi clerics:
2 billion infidels support death for 21 Saudi clerics threatening "apostate" writers.
Stick that in you Koran and smoke it.
at March 20, 2008 6:00 PM
“So what was FDR thinking?”
Posted by: PMK
He was thinking about petroleum, of course. According to Jim Bishop in “FDR’s Last Year”, he also babbled to the King about making the desert bloom.
at March 22, 2008 6:15 AM
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