Saudi Arabia: Website Editor Facing Death Penalty Encouraged Peaceful Religious DiscussionDecember 22, 2012 Email© 2011 Human Rights Watch Related Materials: Saudi Arabia: Free Editor Held Under Cybercrime Law Badawi’s life hangs in the balance because he set up a liberal website that provided a platform for an open and peaceful discussion about religion and religious figures. Saudi Arabia needs to stop treating peaceful debate as a capital offense. Eric Goldstein, deputy Middle East director (Beirut) – Saudi authorities should immediately drop all charges against the detained editor of a website created to foster debate about religion and religious figures in Saudi Arabia. On December 17, 2012, the Jeddah District Court, which had been hearing the case against the editor, Raif Badawi, referred it to a higher court on a charge of apostasy, which carries the death penalty. The charges against him, based solely to Badawi’s involvement in setting up a website for peaceful discussion about religion and religious figures, violate his right to freedom of expression. “Badawi’s life hangs in the balance because he set up a liberal website that provided a platform for an open and peaceful discussion about religion and religious figures,” said Eric Goldstein, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Saudi Arabia needs to stop treating peaceful debate as a capital offense.” A member of Badawi’s family told Human Rights Watch that during the December 17 hearing, Judge Muhammad al-Marsoom prevented Badawi’s lawyer from representing his client in court and demanded that Badawi “repent to God.” The judge informed Badawi that he could face the death penalty if he did not repent and renounce his liberal beliefs, the family member said. Badawi refused, leading Judge al-Marsoom to refer the case to the Public Court of Jeddah, recommending that it try Badawi for apostasy. Prior to the December 17 hearing, Badawi had been charged with “insulting Islam through electronic channels” and “going beyond the realm of obedience,” neither of which carries the death penalty. A different judge, Abdulrahim al-Muhaydeef, presided over five sessions of the trial but was replaced without explanation for the December 17 hearing by Judge al-Marsoom. Saudi law derives from principles of Islamic Shariah, which are not codified and do not follow a system of precedent. As a result, individual judges are free to interpret the Quran and prophetic traditions – the two agreed-upon sources of Shariah – as they see fit. With the exception of a few crimes – including the capital offense of apostasy – judges essentially can interpret offenses to fit facts rather than assessing whether facts fit a clearly defined offense. Saudi judges also frequently convict people who engage in peaceful criticism of religious or political authorities on vague charges, including “going beyond the realm of obedience.” Security forces arrested Badawi, a 30-year-old from the port city of Jeddah, on June 17. Badawi in 2008 was co-founder of the Free Saudi Liberals website, an online platform for debating religious and political matters in Saudi Arabia. On the website, Badawi and others had declared May 7, 2012, a day for Saudi liberals, hoping to garner interest in open discussion about the differences between “popular” and “politicized” religion, Su’ad al-Shammari, secretary general of the website, told Human Rights Watch. Human Rights Watch had previously called for al-Badawi’s release on the grounds that his arrest violated his right to freedom of expression. Based on a royal decree issued by King Abdullah in April 2011, all crimes related to insulting Islam by electronic means fall under the jurisdiction of a judicial council in the Ministry of Information. The council has the authority to refer cases directly to the king, who may “take measures in the public interest,” including referring cases to court. The judicial process against Badawi has not made clear what words or activities provoked his prosecution. However, international human rights law provides broad protection of the right to freedom of expression. It permits restrictions only in narrowly defined circumstances, such as speech that constitutes incitement to imminent violence. International norms provide protection for speech about religion, including speech that some may find departs from commonly held beliefs or insults a religion or religious group. Saudi authorities have harassed Badawi since he founded the website. In March 2008, prosecutors arrested and detained him for questioning but released him a day later. In 2009, the government barred him from foreign travel and froze his business interests, depriving him of a source of income, a family member told Human Rights Watch. His father and a brother have publicly distanced themselves from him and declared him an unbeliever, and members of his wife’s family also filed a suit in a Jeddah court to have him forcibly divorced from his wife as an apostate. His wife and children are living outside of the country. “Instead of protecting their citizens’ right to freedom of expression, the Saudi government has gone all-out against Badawi, to punish him and intimidate others who dare to debate matters of religion,” Goldstein said. “The authorities should drop the charges against him.”
Shouldn’t we conform our thinking to God instead of thinking for ourselves? Thinking for himself landed Lucifer in Hell. Can’t exactly say that sounds inviting to me.
Catholic priest Fr Piero Corsi has stirred up some controversy in the wake of his Christmas message in which he asserts that with women becoming increasingly “provocative,” they have brought physical and sexual violence upon themselves.The Journal reports on Father Corsi’s Christmas message, which was posted on the door of his church in the small parish of San Terenzo, near Lerici and La Spezia in northwest Italy. Father Corsi’s went viral after angry locals posted it to Facebook, where it spread first nationally and then internationally.In the message, Father Corsi wrote “How often do we see girls and mature women going around scantily dressed and in provocative clothes?”“They provoke the worst instincts, which end in violence or sexual abuse. They should search their consciences and ask: did we bring this on ourselves?”
Monks in Prayer for a Better World
.... and whats a better world, please tell //
How often do we see girls and mature women going around scantily dressed and in provocative clothes?
Pretty sick that Christians actually take comfort that all of them will soon rise to heavon while the rest of us heathens are tortured and killed. Not sure what they are talking about with tsunamis and such, the bible specifically states that god will burn us, but not so badly as to kill us. We will all be walking around covered in 3rd degree burns for a while. Maybe then the tsunami will come. Sick pricks.
Hasn't 2012 been and gone already? or have they made a new date now?
(all of the below is in hand writing making it harder to read and therefore more unique imagery)
Jesus in an easy to understand rap format:http://i313.photobucket.com/albums/ll375/horrorfx/scanners4.gif[/IMG]
Has anyone ever seen, or graphed an extrapolation of the decline in religion and found where it intersects the x axis?I'd love to know what year that is.
