Saudi Arabia - A Paragon of Humanity
Filed under: Middle East
Manuela Paraipan brings us up to date on the Saudi quagmire:
Although our reader Josh Fogel asked Kim to write about the Saudis, I hope he won't mind if I bring everyone up to date on the the House of Al Saud instead. Here's a rundown on recent events in the Kingdom:
Arab News informs us that King Abdullah has pardoned the 19-years old girl who was gang raped 14 times in the town of Qatif almost two years ago.
The Qatif General Court judges sentenced the rape victim to 90 lashes for being in a car with a man who was not a relative at the time of the rape. The judges were upset when the story got out in the international media. Being divinely inspired (how else?) they arrived at the conclusion that 90 lashes is not enough so they raised it to 200. From 10 months in prison the rapists got from 2 to 9 years. Not enough if you ask me! Along the way the girl's family, husband and lawyer were threatened and harassed. The Saudis clearly did not want to hit the headlines with true stories from the wonderland Kingdom so no wonder they were mad as hell.
"The pardon (explained Justice Minister, Abdullah bin Muhammed) did not mean the king doubted the country's judges, but instead acted in the interests of the people .The king always looks into alleviating the suffering of the citizens when he becomes sure that these verdicts will leave psychological effects on the convicted people, though he is convinced and sure that the verdicts were fair," the Minister added.
For more on Saudi Arabia and its track of (dis)respecting human rights, please check CDHR.
What else have the Saudis have been up to lately?
In November King Abdullah bin Abd Al-Aziz, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, met with Pope Benedict at his request. Then he invited Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to attend the Hajj ceremony in Mecca as a "special guest." He did not do it out of love for Ahmadinejad, that's for sure.
The Mid East Daily News reported in early November that "Prime Minister Gordon Brown reached a meeting of the minds with visiting Saudi monarch King Abdullah on issues that included the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and U.S. President George W. Bush's plans for a Mideast peace summit. More controversial issues that British voters wanted raised, such as human rights and questionable trade deals were not raised during the meetings.The Serious Fraud Office was investigating reports of bribery and other crimes relative to a multi-billion deal between Saudi Arabia and British defense giant BAE Systems, when the Saudis demanded that the investigation be closed or the deal would not go forward. Many Brits were dismayed that the government opted for the economic rather than the ethical option."
It's hard to fault the logic of the sale, announced last week, of $20 billion in U.S. arms to Saudi Arabia, with trinkets going to the smaller Gulf states. The wisdom of the deal is another matter.
For more on Saudis spreading terror to both East and West, please check out Dr. Nisan Mordechai's study, JihadWatch.org, and a piece by an Egyptian journalist on the connection between Wahhabism and terrorism.
There lot to be said about Saudi involvement in Lebanon, but here is an interview that highlights the most important cross roads of Lebanon's history, Saudi Arabia's plans for Lebanon and the US-Saudi relationship at the time.
Recently, Rep. Peter King (R-NY) introduced the H.Con.Res. 194 expressing the sense of Congress regarding the failure of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Palestinian Authority to properly implement education reforms aimed at reducing the cultural roots of terrorism. Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY) introduced the H.Con.Res. 262, pointing out the failure of the Kingdom to revise its textbooks and to remove the intolerant and violent references towards non Sunnis and non Muslims all together.
The immediate and extremely visible consequences of Bush holding hands with King Abdullah: Thanks to the US dependency on Saudi oil, Wahhabi have billions to keep the "freedom fighters" and themselves fat and full of hate towards the "imperialist" US and the "Zionist" Israel.
The conclusion is that Wahhabis hate pretty much all the rest of the world with a zeal worthy of Hitler. Let's hope that sooner rather than later they will reap what they have sown.
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