In the enlightened West, we don’t jail and flog people for insulting Islam. We believe in the freedom of speech and the free exchange of ideas, including the right to criticize ideas one finds wanting in whatever way. In the free and enlightened West, the only thing that will happen to you if you are perceived as insulting Islam will be that you will be excoriated as a racist and a bigot, shunned in all polite company, and if targeted for assassination by Islamic jihadists, blamed for provoking them.
“Saudi Supreme Court upholds verdict against liberal blogger flogged for insulting Islam,” Associated Press, June 7, 2015:
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Saudi Arabia’s Supreme Court has upheld a verdict against a liberal blogger who was flogged in January after being found guilty of insulting Islam and breaking technology laws.
Raif Badawi was sentenced last year to 1,000 lashes and 10 years in prison. He was banned from traveling abroad for 10 years and fined $266,000.
A person close to the case says the Supreme Court’s decision, announced Sunday, has not made clear whether lashings are part of the final verdict. The person, who spoke anonymously for fear of retribution, says that because Badawi’s flogging has been halted since January, the ruling may exclude public lashings….
duh_swami says
Another word that has taken on a life of its own is , ‘provoke’.
‘Thou shalt not ‘provoke’, so sayeth the Lord, and Bill O
Reilly, who is almost the Lord. The Saudi’s have obviously been provoked, so serious punishment is called for…It’s sharia…
RonaldB says
Yes, exactly.
Once we begin giving in, and looking to Muslims for approval or disapproval, based on our anticipated “heckler’s veto”, the first thing a writer will think of will be “Is this ‘sufficient’ to incite Muslims?”.
This is absolutely what the critics of the cartoon exposition of Muhammad don’t understand: once you begin setting limits on speech based on their proclivity to ‘offend’, you’re looking at a very slippery line that the Muslims will use to their liking without hesitation.
Under sharia law, it’s illegal for a non-Muslim to discuss Islam at all, even favorably. Do these ‘moderate’ critics think that domestic Muslims will stop their demands, short of this objective, as they gain more political power.
Angemon says
Not yet, at least.
Mirren10 says
It’s already happening, Angemon. At least in the UK.
http://edgar1981.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/imprisoned-for-criticizing-islam-and-we.html
And there are other cases. 🙁
Marty says
Thanks for the link.
This is truly Kafkaesque.
That a relatively civilised and relatively open society like the UK should imprison someone for publishing undisclosed facts is shaming.
Islam is slowly and steadily conquering us by stealth, especially via demographics.
As in Norway “mohammed” is now the most popular name for boys in the UK.
Officially it’s Harry, but Harry relates to two different and poular UK figures.
Mohammed/Mehmet relates to an alien war lord with no contact to UK until it was decided to destroy us a couple of decades back.
Angemon says
“it was deemed to be criminal we are not allowed to know why”
Forget Poe, that‘s a scary reading…
TheBuffster says
Mirren, that blogspot post was made back in 2012. I wonder if the information about the content of the posters was ever released.
Aside from the fact that the public has the right to know specifically what one of their fellow citizens is being punished for, so that we can judge the judges and the punishment, it also helps to have specific examples of the kind of things the law forbids. It’s not justice to punish people if you don’t even make it clear what acts are punishable beforehand.
Jay Boo says
50 Shades of Hate
What is it with Islam and flogging?
That MO was one sick perv.
Ayatrollah says
It was only under pressure from the west that Saudi Arabia made slavery illegal in 1962. (This is despite muslim’s claim’s that pbuh free the slaves).
When will use this same pressure to force Saudi Arabia to follow all western notions of free speech. We know it makes the world better and our God given right.
john spielman says
the US should withdraw ALL military aid/sales to Saudi Arabia over this human rights abuse and let the House of Saud fall to ISIS or Iran
thelmalou says
I am officially prepared to walk everywhere I go, if it gets Saudi Arabia out of our bed. And I have nerve damage in one foot. That’s how outraged I am.
William Lucas Harvey Jr. says
Good News that at least some Courts are beginning to Rule AGAINST Obama’s Muslim Takeover of America, and Attempts to turn America into an Islamic Caliphate.
“The Muslim Brotherhood has successfully infiltrated key areas of American society, law enforcement, and government through the Muslim Brotherhood’s Potent Weapon ‘Civilization Jihad’ Connections”.
A FEW of MANY Links in Civilization Jihad:
http://www.barenakedislam.com/2015/06/03/yes-court-rules-for-free-speech-against-cairs-civilization-jihad/
http://www.glennbeck.com/2013/10/10/for-the-record-civilization-jihad/?utm_source=glennbeck&utm_medium=contentcopy_linkThe
http://www.wnd.com/2012/04/civilization-jihad-and-obamas-connections/
http://shariahthethreat.org/a-short-course-1-what-is-shariah/a-short-course-3-civilization-jihad/
http://janmorganmedia.com/2013/02/civilization-jihad-the-islamization-of-your-kids-in-americas-schools/
http://www.glennbeck.com/2013/10/10/for-the-record-civilization-jihad/
Susan says
Here is one that shows how bad things really are.
thelmalou says
Susan, I watched your youtube reference, and it even got the attention of my husband who doesn’t really pay attention to such things. Now I’m pissed. Did I say that yesterday? Well, today I’m really really pissed.
More Ham Ed says
Stephen Coughlin is very informed, and delivers incredible detail, well organized and well understood THIS IS A MUST WATCH YOUTUBE CLIP.
******* A MUST WATCH VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56BcpyDUGM0 *******
I’m not a GB fan but this video is very informative.
abad says
This morning I was reading a news article about Hussein O’s importation of Syrian Muslims who “could not finish their education” in Syria and has them attending American universities. That is all we need – 700 foreign Muslims who are potential wanna-fly planes into tall buildings on MY turf. I do not want these people in my country.
Angemon says
abad posted:
“700 foreign Muslims who are potential wanna-fly planes into tall buildings on MY turf.”
Or they could dedicate themselves to their education and wreck even greater havoc. Those nukes and chemical weapons won’t build themselves.
William Lucas Harvey Jr. says
Good News that at least some Courts are beginning to Rule AGAINST Obama’s Muslim Takeover of America, and Attempts to turn America into an Islamic Caliphate.
“The Muslim Brotherhood has successfully infiltrated key areas of American society, law enforcement, and government through the Muslim Brotherhood’s Potent Weapon ‘Civilization Jihad’ Connections”.
Link:
http://www.barenakedislam.com/2015/06/03/yes-court-rules-for-free-speech-against-cairs-civilization-jihad/
Susan says
I hope you are right but I feel the west is losing.
Jay Boo says
Dialog?
It is not unusual to see a simple reference to John 3:16 posted on small homemade signs when driving through Southern US states. While people of other religions than Christianity all welcome to have other viewpoints if they decide to read what is written in John 3:16 it is only MUSLIMS who would deliberately choose to take offense because of the supremacist nature of Islam.
This is the kind of people we are dealing with when talking to those (no god but Allah) Muslims.
Joseph says
What happened to Jay Airahs ????
Jay Boo says
I began having trouble posting as Jay Airahs around the time of Muhammad cartoon event.
I am not sure of the reason. It might be the moderator did not recognize my sometimes controversial comments with a regular commenter or a recent change to my email.
Anyway, I always liked Jay Boo because it is short and has a personal reference. I only considered the change after doing a Google search and found out a rapper was using it.
Joseph says
@ Jay Boo
Okey-Dokey
Hope all is well
Gary says
“found guilty of insulting Islam”
Hmmm…. Let’s see?
Muhammad, (One man), ‘claims’ to have received a message from God, and the whole world is to believe him?
“Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist—denying the Father and the Son.” (1 John 2:22)
Alarmed Pig Farmer says
It would be enlightening to hear what those geniuses Bill O’Reilly and Laura Ingraham have to say about this. They’d probably denounce this dude’s conviction, but then does that make his insults profane as Bill bleated on his show a couple of weeks ago when he was working over Geller?
Walter Sieruk says
This is yet further proof that Islam, in essence. is so very weak and fragile that it can’t stand up to any criticism whatsoever. This also exposes that the imams and other apologists for Islam cannot find logic or sold reason to uphold Islam, so they result to this to silence Islam’s critics.
Georg says
Very well said. It’s nice this is all being recorded in the unperishable post-analog, digital realm for posterity. Reason will make its way around.
Jay Boo says
Also,
When those( “other apologists for Islam cannot find logic or sold reason to uphold Islam”) and cannot BS there way in defense of Islam. they often resort to a long manifesto about how all religions are equally flawed and are false rather than risk directly criticizing Islam for its unique evil.
profitsbeard says
Islam is an insult to human life, Civilization, the intelligence, the heart and the soul.
The sooner this Death Cult joins its predecessors on the dungheap of History the better for humanity.
Georg says
Are neolibs for or against this Islamophobe getting what was coming to him?
Grumpyoldguy says
In the arena of ideas, Islam has to run and hide, or lie, or obfuscate. And when all that fails Islam, it cries victim. So far, most in our leadership have played along. Thus, Islam is never truly scrutinized in order to find out what it teaches. Careful analysis shows it to be anything but a ‘peaceful religion’. I question allowing to be called a religion.
Islam cannot compete in the arena of ideas because it’s horrid, vile tenets cannot be defended in the presence of truth, and Mohammad is clearly revealed for the beast he truly was.
R Cole says
This is the same guy the Saudi’s had extradited back to Arabia from Malaysia a few years ago.
He expressed a personal religious opinion on Twitter that said something like the more he learned about Muhammad the less he liked or respected him. It is clear – this man has chosen to leave Islam.
And now here’s the ~ no compulsion in Islam part.
That Saudi’s do plan to uphold the sentence of 1000 lashes [given to him in stages – with 950 left to go] ~ where they hope to beat him back into submission.
And ten years in prison for good measure!!
I guess the no compulsion in Islam means that you are not beheaded! That Islam was merciful and spared your life!!
::
It is all very frightening – with news reporters and others in the west joining in – and accusing those in the free west of insulting Islam.
Where western ideas about the individual life [and rights] being given primacy – replaced with the Islamic belief that this primacy should be transferred to Islam.
It is a very slippery slope – these journalist and Leftwingers are on – and that leads down the Islamic rabbit hole.
::
We can pretend out of so called ‘respect’ for Islam – the trouble is – the reality still exists. We can create an image of coconut palms on a beach around Islam – but outside of our heads – people are still being beheaded and jailed for trivialities that insult Islam.
Carlos Malleum says
I’d urge everyone here to spend 5 mins to tweet or write to Saudi embassies and their own political leaders telling them exactly what you think of this case.
Raif is a very brave man. Google his brave wife Ensaf Haidar who is leading this campaign. She is making a new life with her young children in Canada.
thelmalou says
Here is their info. Don’t bother trying to call them. They don’t answer their phone. Read the google reviews of the SA embassy—-they’re hilarious.
Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia
601 New Hampshire Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20037
duh_swami says
If we (US) try hard enough, we can be just like Saudi Arabia. Really, we can…All it takes is for decent people to do nothing.
That’s not too hard, is it?…’The Islamic Republic of America, the Saudi Arabia of the west’…It might take a while to get used to Marie Harf in a burqa, daily public lashings, a few stonings, and lots of gays being thrown off tall buildings…But after a while it will all seem quite normal. That would really be bad if it was forced on us, but it’s not…it is the result of public opinion…
Samuel says
For what its worth, my prayers are with Badawi. He is a patriot to those who desire freedom from Saudi justice and its archaic laws. One day the people will rise up against the tyranny of Saudi rule. The more the world learns about Muhammad the less it will like what he was.