Update: and in Ottawa:
And in Copenhagen today next to the Saudi embassy:
Butterflies and Wheels
Gnu atheism, women's rights, internationalism, universalism, and gossip
Raif Badawi, the Saudi blogger jailed for criticizing Islam, has had his weekly lashes delayed for a fifth time according to Amnesty International.
He was sentenced to 10 years in jail and 1,000 lashes, to be delivered in batches of 50 every week.
He was flogged for the first time on Jan. 9. However, the next five flogging sessions were postponed. At least two of the postponements were due to medical reasons.
Well – they’re going to look like complete ogres and complete fools as well if they go ahead with it after this. They’re in a hot spotlight, and that situation isn’t going to get any better for them.
Amnesty International is calling for Badawi’s sentence to be quashed and for him to be released immediately and unconditionally so he can join his family in Canada.
Damn right. And his lawyer, too, Waleed Abu Al-Khair.
Ensaf Haider has done a short video to thank people for working to free Raif. She asks us not to stop until he’s free and with them. Nope nope nope – not going to stop until then. On the ground, in Montreal – only then will I stop.
But then there is Waleed, and there are the others. Not stopping until they’re all free then.
The government of Quebec is once again calling for the release of Raif Badawi.
The National Assembly unanimously passed a motion condemning the whipping of Badawi, and expressing support for his wife, Ensaf Haidar, and their three children.
The motion calls on the governments of Quebec and Canada to do everything possible to secure Badawi’s freedom.
“We will not put our arms down. The democratic world has to say loud and clear that we don’t want those practices to go again without any notice from the rest of the world,” said Premier Philippe Couillard.
Haidar, as well as some of Badawi’s supporters, watched the debate as it happened.
The premier has brought up the case directly with Saudi Arabian ambassador to Canada.
Poor Saudi Arabia. They must be getting so tired of hearing about this.
The case has sparked international outcry and widespread protest.
There have been numerous demonstrations across Quebec, asking for Badawi’s release.
The UN high commissioner for human rights, Zeid Raad al-Hussein, has called on Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah to pardon him. The United States has also asked Saudi Arabia to cancel the 1,000 lashes.
And so has Charles Windsor. We’ll have a starling shall be taught to speak nothing but ‘Raif’…
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.
Now for some better news at last – Priss Choss did talk to the Saudi dictator about Raif Badawi. Who knows if it did any good or not, but he did it. Well done Choss. I’ve said very hard things about you, especially about your promotion of homeopathy and other woo, but fair play to you: good job.
Prince Charles has raised the plight of jailed blogger Raif Badawi with Saudi Arabia’s King Salman. [Read more…]
Damn. I was all set to take back much of what I’d said about Prince Charles, because newspaper headlines were saying he was going to urge the Saudi king to stop Raif’s flogging. For a few seconds I was elated, because that would surely make a difference – coming from a fellow monarch and an important ally. But then I read the body of the story and it turns out it’s all just claiming.
Headline in the IB Times: Prince Charles to urge Saudi king to halt blogger Raif Badawi’s flogging [Read more…]
