Tuesday, November 15, 2005

 

Saudi Tolerance Watch - 750 Lashes For Teacher Who Discussed Bible And Spoke Positively Of Jews

While the BBC is reporting about the "distorted" view that westerners hold of Islam being a non-peaceful religion, some true representatives of Islam, the Saudis, show us what tolerance in the Muslim faith is all about :


Roads Of Tolerance In Saudi Arabia, Where Only Muslims Can Be Citizens

A court in Saudi Arabia has condemned a teacher to 40 months in prison and 750 lashes in 15 weeks for having “mocked Islam”. The teacher, denounced by colleagues and students a year and half ago, had discussed the Bible in class and spoken highly of Jews. The victim said the charges were made against him by fundamentalist colleagues who were against his moderate positions.

The sentence, handed down on 12 November, was published the following day by a Saudi daily. Al-Madina reported that the crime of the chemistry teacher, Mohammad Al-Harbi, was that he had promoted a “dubious ideology and declared that Jews are in the right”. The teacher is also charged with having “discussed the Gospel and not allowing students to leave class to wash before prayer”. At the time, the man was teaching in the Al-Fwailiq high school in the town of Ein Al-Juwa.

Interviewed by the Arab press, Al-Harbi described the sentence as “cruel”.
He said the students who levelled charges against him were angry because they had not passed a monthly chemistry test. “They asked me if they could repeat it and I refused.” The teacher said the students had been manipulated into taking legal action by some teachers of Islamic studies, who did not look well upon Al-Harbi’s views. The latter had often said he was against terrorism and fundamentalism, trying to sensitize youth in the school.

Abdul Rahman Al-Lahem, the teacher’s lawyer, said the verdict was “illegal”: any case regarding “a sacrilege must be tried by a special religious tribunal and not by a regular court. Besides, the defence did not have the right to hear any witnesses. We will file an appeal as stipulated within 10 days.”

The Education Ministry removed Al-Harbi from his teaching post and transferred him to the Education Office of the Ein Al-Juwa council. When the teacher asked for the reason behind the action, he was unable to receive any clear answers.

In Saudi Arabia, freedom of worship is prohibited to all religions except Wahhabi Islam. Any public manifestation (like having a Bible or wearing a cross) is banned. According to the latest annual report compiled by the US State Department on international religious freedom, “freedom of worship does not exist” in Saudi Arabia. This is the second year running that the nation has been listed as a country “of particular concern” (CPC) by Washington; the acronym is used to denote a situation where grave violations of freedom of worship may lead to sanctions.

The same dossier of the US State Department for 2003 denounced the use of “discriminatory and offensive language” in Saudi Arabia against Jews, Christians and non-Wahhabi Muslims in text books of state schools, during Friday prayer in mosques and in government-controlled media.
Link...

Comments:
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J,
Maybe a year back, Saudi Arabia had a page up on their website (I believe it was under tourism, it had to do with travel) where they explicitly said that Jews are not allowed in the country.

LGF, among others wrote about it, and some American Senator raised the issue on the floor of the Congress.

However, to my knowledge no one got a screen shot of it. I remember seeing it with my own two eyes, but it was gone within days.

The only evidence of the fact that it happened is the blogs, and the Congressional record.

You seem like you're good at digging stuff up (isn't that the pot calling the kettle black), do you know anything about that one? Do you have a screen shot of it?

 
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By the way, here's a link to an article about this on MidEastWeb:

http://www.mideastweb.org/log/archives/00000205.htm

Note that they, at one time, had linked to a "cached" version of the page, but that the link no longer works. What the ...?

Here's a link to the Congressional Record:

http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/ny09_weiner/022604Saudi.html

Here's the original LGF link:

http://www.littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=9967&only

Note the Allah Pundit site, which also had a link, has disappeared. That used to be one of the most popular blogs on the internet.

You know what, now that I think about it, AllahPundit still comments on other people's blog. It is possible that he might still have the cached version on his computer.

I'll see if I can contact him via LGF.

 
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http://homepage.mac.com/cfj/.Pictures/saudi-visa-page.gif

the pic was at the bottom of lgf link, just above the comments.

I do remember when this happened and "unofficialy" this is the policy in most islamic countries. Anyone with an israeli stamp on their passport is barred from nearly all muslim states, which i guess also helps keep jews out of allahs "holy" lands.

"You seem like you're good at digging stuff up (isn't that the pot calling the kettle black), do you know anything about that one? Do you have a screen shot of it?"

you're too kind. I really think i've met my match though.

 
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Wow, how'd I miss that?

Thanks so much. That'll be going on CUANAS tonight.

 
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Hi J,
My wife is a graphic artist. I gave her that screen shot, and she upped the dpi on it. It looks much clearer now. Unfortunately, I don't know how to enlarge images on my blog, so I am stuck with a little image. But, go check it out. It looks pretty good.

 
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http://justifythis.blogspot.com/2005/10/googles-neo-nazi-news-sources.html

this was the post i was talking about, I had to cut the line i needed (just go to windows paint, select the area you need and hold ctrl-c), then pasted it as a new pic (ctrl-v). Even then the resolution was a bit low.

 
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Which reminds me - anyone remember that article from The New York Times, saying what a Melting Pot of Diversity that Mecca was??

 
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