Saudi Gazette: “850 atheist websites closed down”


In Saudi Arabia, sources all say,
It’s a citizen’s job to believe and obey!
Whatever an atheist group has to say
Is a simple affront to the crown!

Promotion of virtue! Prevention of vice!
Alleged “freethinkers” had better think twice!
Opposing the government comes with a price—
We’re shutting the atheists down!

From the Saudi Gazette, today this showed up in my aggregator:

Four government bodies have worked together to close down 850 websites that promoted atheism in the last 16 months. The same bodies are currently working to close down the Facebook group called Association of Saudi Atheists, which has at least 188 members. The head of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Haia), Sheikh Abdullatif Al-Asheikh, said the Haia has formally asked the Interior Ministry, the Telecommunications Authority and King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology to help block such sites and arrest those responsible for setting them up.

I’ve tried to find confirmation, but no such luck; can any of you confirm or deny? This is nasty…

Comments

  1. Cuttlefish says

    I guess I am still hoping the story is a propaganda piece and grossly overstating the situation.

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