March 21, 2005
Saudis Give Ward Churchill 200 Lashes
Now
that would be justice. Instead, the Saudis give a liberal muslim scholar 200 lashes for making fun of a conservative muslim scholar. His offence was mocking 'long beards', a euphemism for salafist and wahhabist Muslims who have a strict interpretation of Islamic law.
The Australian:
A SAUDI academic has been sentenced to 200 lashes and time in jail for insulting an Islamist colleague, a Saudi-owned newspaper reported today.
Hamza al-Muzaini, a lecturer in linguistics at King Saud University, was accused by Abdullah al-Barak, a lecturer of Islamic culture at the same university, of defamation and insult, the London-based Al-Hayat reported.
Barak, who is described as a radical salafist - a strict form of Sunni Islam - reportedly accused Muzaini of "mocking long beards" and questioning his knowledge in an article published a few months ago, other reports said.
Muzaini was sentenced to 200 lashes, four months in prison and banned from publishing, a verdict he immediately appealed, the newspaper said.
(hat tip:
Discarded Lies)
Posted by: Rusty at
12:01 PM
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1
The Saudi Crown Prince intervened and quashed the judgement. The guy's still forbidden from writing for newspapers, but he's spared jail and flogging. More details on
Crossroads Arabia.
Posted by: John Burgess at March 21, 2005 11:18 PM (wDRAu)
2
Saw that this morning. It is still disturbing that this is an act of clemency.
Posted by: Rusty Shackleford at March 23, 2005 11:15 AM (JQjhA)
3
You're mischaracterizing Churchill's comments about 9/11 -- that summary is basically the "Fox News view" and is not what Churchill said.
Churchill's 9/11 comments dealt with the fact that the US is responsible for overseas crimes -- overthrowing gov'ts, supporting tyrannies, waging war, economic exploitation (not uncommon views of US foreign policy). With that in mind, Churchill pointed out that the US should only expect that some people will "push back". I hardly think that's an unreasonable position -- history teaches us that the attacked will usually counterattack.
Churchill's most inflammatory comment about 9/11 was to liken the financial and imperial "technocrats" -- the people who, as international banker John Perkins reported, deliberately loan developing countries unpayable amounts of money in order to have control over them, etc. -- to Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi who didn't execute people but who instead coordinated and optimized trains and logistics for the Nazis, all with a lethal effect.
Many have criticized Churchill and accused him of siding with terrorists or cheering the deaths of innocent janitors or firefighters at the WTC. Churchill has repeatedly stated that he has great sympathy for those who were killed that day. But those bogus charges obscure his real point -- that quite a few of the victims of 9/11 were anything but innocent.
While one can fault Churchill for not being polite, his analogy is spot-on in terms of insightfulness.
Posted by: Nocpam at April 04, 2005 07:29 AM (o7TKN)
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