There’s a Free Raif Badawi petition to sign.
Raef Badawi, a Saudi who is one of the establishers of the “Liberal Saudi Network”, which angered Ultra-orthodox clerics of Saudi Arabia could be beheaded soon for a claimed “apostasy” if no action is taken.
The news in Arabic about this issue is numerous, in English it has not got good attention till now, however, this piece of news has been published by AFP:
“A Saudi court on Monday referred a rights activist to a higher court for alleged apostasy, a charge that could lead to the death penalty in the ultra-conservative kingdom, activists said.
A judge at a lower court referred Raef Badawi to a higher court, declaring that he “could not give a verdict in a case of apostasy,” a rights activist told AFP. Apostasy means renunciation of a religious faith.
Badawi, who was arrested a June in the Red Sea city of Jeddah for unknown reasons, is a co-founder of the Saudi Liberal Network with female rights activist Suad al-Shammari and others.”
Here I am saying one action is better than another again. What Raif (or Raef) Badawi is doing is good, what the Saudi authorities are doing is bad. It’s very bad.
Godless woman at EXMNA has a post.
Last but not least: Raef Badawi:
Nationality: You guessed it! Saudi
Work: Blogger and creator of the website Free Saudi Liberals.
Offence: Insulting Islam through his liberal website by hosting material criticizing “senior religious figures”. This charge has been morphed into a blasphemy charge and is being bounced through courts left, right and center for over 2 years now. On July 30, 2013 he was handed down a sentence of 7 years plus 600 lashes for violating Islamic values and propagating liberal thought.
His website was shut down and if that isn’t bad enough on December 26, 2013 Badawi’s wife told CNN that a judge had recommended him to go before a high court for the apostasy charge which if found guilty, would very likely result in the death penalty .
Country of imprisonment: Saudi
Islam must be both weak and cruel if it can’t allow people to leave it and disagree with it but imprisons or kills them instead. Not much of a recommendation.
700 lashes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh, those fuckers.
As right-on anti-imperialist, anti-racist, anti-islamophobic ‘feminist’, I can’t give a fuck about inauthentic muslims like Badawi. White muslim women reverting to the religion of peace and oh so precociously posing in hijabs and burqas are the real victims of extreme prejudice and the people about whom dozens of comments will be written. I reckon that if Badawi gets 5 comments, it is more than that apostate/blasphemer deserves.
“As right-on (sic) anti-imperialist, anti-racist, anti-islamophobic ‘feminist’ (and sic again; I don’t need the quotes)”, I can’t give a fuck about twats who think that support for one oppressed group automatically makes support for anyone else a denial of the universal human rights of the first.
A sadly wide variety of people are “the real victims of extreme prejudice”, you idiot.
gheathen: First, your snark meter is broken I think. Second, quit using a word that means female genitalia as an insult. The splash damage of such sexist slurs is extensive.
Ibis3: Third, mind your own fucking business. I’ll use whatever language I deem appropriate, and whatever level of snark.
gheathen, no.
I didn’t say anything about it because the word “twat” really has been weirdly corrupted in the UK to such an extent that (I think) lots of people have no clue that it means “cunt”. But in the US, at least, that is what it means, especially in writing, where the different pronunciation is obviously hidden. So, no. I don’t let people use derogatory epithets of that kind here. Not racist ones and not sexist ones.
And it is other people’s fucking business. I curate the comments here, because I want an intelligent discussion, and commenters help with that. Plus what Ibis said about splash damage.
You can tell her to ask more pleasantly next time if you like, but she’s right about calling people “twat”. Sorry.
The word twat means the same over here as across the water. And everyone knows that it is a slang version of cunt. Both are primarily used by males to describe other males. Though both genders use the former too. Non gender specific politically correct alternatives would be spanner or tool or muppet
It does? It seems to me I’ve had this conversation with people who had no idea it was a synonym for cunt. And it is pronounced differently – twatt instead of twaht – which seems to support the claims that some people don’t know it’s the same word (if you see what I mean).
The women on Scott & Bailey use it. I wish they wouldn’t, but they do. [sigh]