Savages

Gulf News reports that a Saudi woman was beheaded on Monday after being convicted of practising sorcery. Amina Bint Abdulhalim Nassar was executed in the northern province of Jawf for "practising witchcraft and sorcery," the ministry said in a statement carried by SPA state news agency.
Amina;s execution took to 73 the number of executions in Saudi Arabia this year.

Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking are all punishable by death under Saudi Arabia's strict interpretation of Islamic sharia law.

Ansdso is sorcery. Amina is the second woman to be murdered by the stte for sorcery this year

I don;t know what constitutes sorcery in the twisted mind of the men who rule Saudi Arabia . The BBC reports on  a quote from a member of the religious police which describes Amina as being in her 60s and had tricked people into giving her money, claiming that she could cure their illnesses.

Hmm it sounds as if Amina may have been a charlatan and a trickster but that does not warrant her murder by the state. `But then Saudi Arabia is run by a bunch of evil, misogynistic vermin .

But then who should give a damn so long as the Saudis squirts out that oil and buys our weapons. It makes me sick that our government and the governments of each and every western state queue to kiss that countries arse.

When Shirley read about this her two word response was "fucking savages" I agree wholheartedly

Driving will lead Saudi women to have sex before marriage... OFFICIAL!

It is dismaying to me (but unspurpring) that the West is happy to kiss the arse of Saudi Arabia and call it strawberries. If you want prof that western realpolitik gives not a fig for human rights look no further!. Okay it may not be developing its own nukes but Saudi's mullahs are as screwed up and evil as any of their Shia counterparts in Iran.

Here is another piece of proof which would be funny if it were not so downright bloody idiotic. Sunday's Independent reported that a high level advisory group in Saudi reported that a move to allow women to drive would lead to them having premarital sex.

The ultra-conservative stance suggests increasing pressure on King Abdullah to retain the kingdom's male-only driving rules. Waleed Abu Alkhair said the report, by Kamal Subhi, an academic, was sent to the Shura Council, which advises the monarchy. It claims that letting women drive threatens the Saudi tradition of virgin brides.

Oh for fuck's sake! Even the batshit crazies running Iran let women drive without fear of them heading straight off to have a quickie or any other -ie involving coitus before nuptials. 

I wonder if visitors to Saudi are advised to set their watches back 600 years....

Time for the Saudis to be dragged kicking and screaming into the 13th Century

The west applies hideous double standards in its attitude to middle eastern nations. Iran are rightly considered to be pariah states, Iraq before the questionable invasion was ruled by an evil dictator by any standards. But there is one repressive state in particular that is feted as an ally, despite being run as a misogynistic despotism (don't foget the support its citizens give to international terrorism - how many of the 9/11 atrocity were citizens of this state?). The country in questio is of course Saudi Arabia.

Anyway, today's Torygraph carries a report which highlights which gives a small example of what a vile little state it is. The Saudi education ministry is undertaking an investigation of into a number of girl's schools which committed a terrible crime - that of holding a sports day...


On December 8 event six Jeddah private high schools broke ministry rules against girls' sports in schools by holding a sports day involving 200 pupils.

"We don't have any regulations that say that it's OK for girls' schools to hold sports classes or training," said Ahmed Al-Zahrani, director of girls' education in Jeddah. This tournament was held by these schools, something that has now led us to know about their illegal activities," he said.

Women's access to sports overall is tightly constricted in Saudi Arabia. Women cannot participate in the Saudi Olympics team, and are not allowed to attend public football matches.

While a few women-only private clubs and private women's universities offer sporting possibilities, sports are prohibited at primary and secondary schools for girls.

I know that this is not on the scale of Saddam's gassing of the Kurds during the Iran-Iraq war but it does give an indication of the nature of that nation... And still they are our friends.

Isn't oil (and arms sales) swell!

Desperate Housewives at the front line of the war against terrorism?

Despite saying that I am not that interested in the Wikileaks exposures here I am posting again about them… or one of them at least

According to the Torygraph a US Embassy cable seems to indicate that popular American shows like Friends and Desperate Housewives have done more to stifle Islamic extremism in Saudi Arabia than the money spent on propaganda.

In a message sent back to Washington DC, officials at the US Embassy in Jeddah said the shows were successfully undermining the spread of jihadist ideas among the country's youth.

The progtammes are broadcast with Arabic subtitles on several Saudi satellite channels and were part of a push by the kingdom to foster openness and counter extremists, according to the cable. The officials said the policy was succeeding in a way that Al-Hurra, a television news station funded by the US in 2004 at a cost of several hundred million dollars, never could.

The diplomatic cable was headed "David Letterman: Agent of Influence," referring to the US chat show host who is also being broadcast to a Saudi audience.

The May 2009 cable said: "Saudis are now very interested in the outside world and everybody wants to study in the US if they can. They are fascinated by US culture in a way they never were before." American sitcoms and chat shows were said to be finding a popular audience even in remote, conservative parts of the kingdom.

Well there you have it… I can’t say I ever cared for Friends (I didn’t mind Desperate Housewives for a while but it wore thin after a while) but if Jennifer Anniston and Felicity Huffman can help subvert Islamic extremism, who am I to criticise!

Oh so she was an adulterer, well that’s alright then...

In attempt to remind the world (as if we needed reminding) that its judiciary is a rabble of 12th Century misogynists, Saudi Arabia's Justice Ministry has said the Girl from Qatif who was gang raped by seven men and then sentenced to six months prison and 200 lashes had confessed to cheating on her husband. The statement, which was carried by the Saudi Press Agency late on Saturday, confirmed that the flogging sentence against the rape victim would be carried out and condemned foreign interference.

"The Saudi justice minister expressed his regret about the media reports over the role of the women in this case which put out false information and wrongly defend her," said the statement. "The charged girl is a married woman who confessed to having an affair with the man she was caught with."

In 2006 “The girl from Qatif”, a 19-year-old Shiite Saudi, had met a high school friend in his car to retrieve a picture of herself from him. While in a car with him, two men got into the vehicle and drove them to a secluded area where others waited, and then she and her companion were both raped. She was sentenced to prison and 90 lashes for being alone with a man not related to her, and when her lawyer, Abdul Rahman al-Lahem, appealed the sentence, he was removed from the case, his license suspended and the penalty doubled to 200.

The increase in sentence received heavy coverage by the international media and prompted expressions of astonishment and utter outrage. The Justice Ministry maintained, however, that the ruling was legal and followed the "the book of God and the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad," noting that she had "confessed to doing what God has forbidden." The ministry added that the woman and her husband were "convinced on the verdict and agreed to it."

The Justice Ministry's account of the incident differed substantially from that given by the woman and her lawyer and largely glosses over her rape by seven men, focusing instead on her plan to meet her lover for tryst in his car "in a dark place where they stayed for a while." "Then they were spotted by the other defendants as the woman was in an indecent condition as she had tossed away her clothes, then the assault occurred on her and the man," the statement added.

Under Saudi Arabia's strict interpretation of Islamic Sharia law, women are not allowed in public in the company of men other than their male relatives. Also, women in Saudi Arabia are often sentenced to flogging for adultery and other crimes. The seven men convicted of raping the woman were given prison sentences of two to nine years. The initial sentences for the men convicted of the gang rape ranged from 10 months to five years in prison

What can you do but wonder why Saudi Arabia is not a pariah state (Oil and arms sales may answer that question) . As for shared values mentioned by our PM? There are some allies we can do without.

Some things make me really angry. This certainly does

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Words fail me. We are all too often reminded that our justice system has serious flaws (Barry George and Stefan Kiszko spring immediately to mind) but we would never see a sentence like this in the UK. A judge in Saudi Arabia has ordered a victim of gang rape to receive 200 lashes for being alone with a man who was not a relative after she appealed against the lenient sentences given to the men who attacked her. He also jailed her for six months.


The 21-year-old woman, who was 19 at the time of the attack and is known by the Saudi media as "the girl from Qatif", was raped 14 times by a gang of seven. Although her attackers were found guilty and sentenced to between 10 months and five years last year, she was simultaneously sentenced to 90 lashes as punishment for riding in a car with a man who was not a relative. By appealing against this decision, the judge ruled on Wednesday, she was attempting to "aggravate and influence the judiciary through the media".


At the appeal, the rapists' sentences were increased to between two and nine years. "Some Saudis agree with her being lashed for being with a male that wasn't a relative," said Rasheed Abou-Alsamh, international news editor at Jeddah-based Arab News, "but most feel that doubling her punishment on appeal was unfair. Among many level-headed Saudis, the consensus is: 'Come on, she's been raped multiple times. Hasn't she suffered enough?'"


Amnesty International condemned the sentence. "Human rights activists and lawyers worldwide have expressed shock and sympathy," said Lamri Chirouf, a researcher for Amnesty who specialises in the region. "There is still opportunity to appeal, and so we are mounting a campaign that we will address to the king. [The Saudi courts] have got the priorities completely wrong. They have to protect the victims, not punish them."


The victim's lawyer, a prominent human rights defender, Abdul Rahman al-Lahem, was suspended from the case as a result of the appeal and his licence, granted to Saudi lawyers by the ministry of justice, has been revoked. "I explained to them that it was my job to do everything legal in order to serve my client. But they did not listen," he told Arab News. Lahem is known in Saudi Arabia for his work defending women's rights. He has taken on some of the country's most controversial and sensitive cases, often making the headlines.


Last year he defended a woman whose brothers forced her to divorce her husband after they accused him of lying about his tribal affiliation. This month he was due to represent a 50-year-old woman and her daughter who claim two undercover officials commandeered their car and drove them recklessly through Riyadh after accusing them of not conforming to customs of decency.


Lahem told Reuters: "The court blamed the girl for being alone with unrelated men, but it should have taken the humane view that it cannot be considered her fault." Lahem's critics have called him an infidel and "lawyer of homosexuals". In the past he has been jailed and banned from travelling abroad. He will appear before a disciplinary committee at the ministry of justice on December 5, charged with criticising the judiciary and conducting activist campaigns in the media.


Words fail me. I remember in the 80s being outraged a judge who accused a rape victim of contributory negligence for wearing a mini skirt (I do hope that God is a woman and is giving him a suitable punishment for such a statement). The sentence handed down to this Saudi woman is an affront to humanity. It is further proof that it is a nation run by misogynistic scum. Sadly there is no chance of regime change in that pariah state (or at least it should be) not when Gordon Brown sucks up to the king and talks about “shared values”. A boot in the King’s testicles would have been a more appropriate gesture