In addition to floggings for “harassment”
and
other crimes and in addition to
frequent amputations, the king’s law mandates death for murder, rape,
armed robbery, drug dealing, etc.
Foreigners provide about 60% of
those executed though only about 25% of the total population.
In January 2001 the public
beheading of three allegedly gay men convicted of “acts of sodomy” again brought the worlds attention to the plight
of “gays” under the kingdom’s interpretation of god's will.
Saudi Arabia is a state in
crisis and, as the royal family’s grip continues to weaken, oppression continues to increase in the kingdom as the monarchy,
its overbearing Wahabbi interpretation of ancient writings, and its clerically-imposed legal system struggles to maintain
cult power over the people, in a medieval economy in a forbidden castle.
As with Nazism and all other
ideologically totalitarian government forms the best way to get and keep power is to assert war against “outsiders”
and internal minorities such as Jews, or queers, or foreigners, or unbelievers, or people who are different, or boys who chase
girls.
Remember how it always has been with
the rule of the mighty of old who gave only men power to rule. And recall the old aphorism regarding sexual rules and rewards
and prohibitions by the mighty: if you can get a man by his balls — his
heart and mind will follow.
The harassment problems are quite dire
during holidays at large public venues such shopping centers, the sports centers and other public places, places where boys
go.
“… responsibility for 80% of the cases of harassment lies with the girls, because of their
intentional temptations, their diaphanous robes colorful trousers, provocative
veils, tinted lenses and long fake eyelashes. This is how they force young men
into harassing them and following them into their homes. I demand flogging for
girls who have been harassed, to be carried out by suitable female preachers … in the presence of their mothers …”
said a flogging proponent,
speaking for many
others.
Other proponents urge that floggings
be administered immediately after the offense, unconcerned by lack of even the pretense of due process and trial.
Saudi Arabia has
one of the highest rates of capital punishment in the world. It has expanded the scope of the death penalty to cover a wide
range of offences, including offences without lethal consequences such as apostasy, blasphemy,
conspiring against the government, drug-related crimes, witchcraft-sorcery, adultery, prostitution, homosexuality, sodomy, zina (sexual intercourse
between partners not married to each other), and for individuals converting/preaching Christianity, Judaism and other banned
(non-Sunni Islam) religions, including Sufi and Shiite Islam.
Hundreds have been
executed by either firing squad or public beheading after summary and secret trials. Other serious concerns include torture,
cruel judicial punishments and the persecution of political opponents and religious minorities.
High levels of
judicial amputations are carried out every year. Often, the first warning the prisoner has of their imminent beheading is
when they are taken out of their cell in handcuffs on a Friday, the day executions are normally carried out. The prisoner
is taken to a public square and forced to kneel. The executioner raises a sword, then brings the blade down across the prisoner's
neck. Sometimes more than one stroke is needed to sever the head. A doctor certifies that the prisoner is dead, then the body
and head are removed and buried on common land.
A sharp sword and total faith in the law.
On June 05, 2003 the Arab News reported a story of Saudi Arabia's leading executioner,
Muhammad Saad Al-Beshi, aged 42. "I sleep very well," says the Saudi executioner. Muhammad beheads
up to seven people a day. "It doesn't matter to me; Two, four, 10 - as long as I'm doing God's will, it doesn't matter how
many people I execute," he says.
According to Amnesty International, hundreds of political prisoners
and detainees are executed every year. Torture is frequently used to extract a confession, access to legal counsel is often
denied and trials generally conducted in secrecy. However, it is extremely difficult to get any information concerning these
matters out of Saudi Arabia.
Executions remain a sordid public spectacle, the condemned
are ritually humiliated by being paraded in public and insulted before being executed in the most barbaric and brutal methods
--- beheaded, hanged, shot, strangled, stoned or tortured to death.
The Human Rights Committee established under the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights has stated that Public executions are 'incompatible with human dignity' which have
a de-humanizing effect on society. Amnesty International, United Nations Commission and Human Rights Organizations frequently
report on the arbitrary detention and widespread brutality inflicted on detainees by the authorities. There are deep concerns
at the continued imposition of corporal punishments such as amputation (a form of torture) and flogging. Other punishments
contained in the Sharia include, stealing (whether the thief is male or female) - cutting off the right hand at the wrist.
Drinking alcohol - between 40 and 80 lashes.
”First they came for the Communists, and I didn’t
speak up,
because I wasn’t
a Communist.
“They
they came for the Jews and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t
a Jew.
“Then
they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up,
because I was
a Protestant.
“Then
they came for me, and by that time
there was no
one left to speak up for me.”
This quote is from a man who also declared that
he “would rather burn his church to the ground, than to preach the Nazi trinity of ‘race, blood, and soil.’ He was the Rev. Martin Niemoller. It
was 1945.
The thing for the Enlightened mind to do is
observe, look again at their own Logos for Human Rights with revealing questions. For
instance, Are human rights indivisible or do only few, that is, less than everyone, have human rights?
Who will we allow to be excluded?
The women? The queers? The foreigners?
Convicts? Dissenters? Disabled?
Insane?
As Americans, do we allow to be
excluded
those who happen to live abroad?
On the other hand, why take the test at all? History shows that people don’t really care very much about such things —
so busy are people about enjoying their lives, their electricity, and their liberty — until it is too late.
