MEPs strongly condemn the flogging of Raif Badawi


From a press release today by the European Parliament:

Case of Raif Badawi in Saudi Arabia

MEPs strongly condemn the flogging of Raif Badawi by the Saudi Arabian authorities as a “cruel and shocking act” and call on them “to release him immediately and unconditionally” and to ensure that his conviction and sentence, including his travel ban, are quashed.  They see Mr Badawi’s case as a symbol of the assault on freedom of expression and peaceful dissent in the country, and “more broadly of the Kingdom’s characteristic policies of intolerance and extremist interpretation of Islamic law”.

Parliament instructs its Delegation for Relations with the Arab Peninsula to raise the cases of Mr Badawi and other prisoners of conscience during its forthcoming visit to Saudi Arabia and to report back to its Subcommittee on Human Rights.

The resolution was passed by 460 votes, to 153, with 29 abstentions.

Pariah state.

 

Comments

  1. Blanche Quizno says

    “Pariah state” is, indeed, the only possibility here. Muslims, like those of all the intolerant religions, expect “persecution” by their “enemies”, and such “persecution” (which category includes any and all criticism) is “proof” that they’re doin it rite. So they aren’t going to bow to external pressure; quite the opposite: They’ll consider the external pressure confirmation that they are, indeed, on the only Allah-approved course!

    This is why theocracies are so notoriously difficult to deal with – they’re based in irrationality and feel “divinely inspired” to make their own rules without consideration for what others (read “heathen infidel unbeliever animal-creatures”) have to say on the matter. Those others can only speak for Da Debbil, after all, and must be explicitly ignored in order to “obey Allah” (feel free to substitute other intolerant god/leader name there).

  2. brucegee1962 says

    @1 Blanche,

    Except that a lot of the rulers of Saudi aren’t really all that religious — they’ve just made an unholy alliance with the clerics so they can keep their grubby mitts on the levers of power. So they may be more susceptible to international shaming than true believer theocrats.

  3. Donnie says

    @Callinectes says
    February 12, 2015 at 10:55 am

    All I got from that is that 153 MEPS are fine with it, while 29 don’t give a shit.

    Moi aussi. Moi aussi…..

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *