75 lashes, for telling the truth
A week ago yesterday I was supposed to appear at the Sahafa police station to receive 75 lashes on my back. I had been sentenced by a religious court because of articles I had written calling for freedom of speech and criticizing Wahhabism, Saudi Arabia’s official religious doctrine. At the last minute, I decided not to go to the police station and undergo this most humiliating punishment. With the nation at a virtual standstill for the holiday Id al-Fitr, the sentence remains pending. I will leave this matter to fate.
This article was translated from an Arabic article which appeared in the Al-Riyadh newspaper in Saudi. This clearly demonstrates the paradigm shift that is happening in the Arab world in general, and the Gulf countries in particular. The fight against Muslim extremists has not yet begun and it will take a very long time to erradicate it once the process to remove this cancer from our midst begins in earnest.
I wouldn’t be too surprised if our friends Al-Moawadah and Al-Saidi magically create a new fatwa against me and the plethora of other journalists who castigate them not personally but their backward ideas. Yet, they, particularly Al-Moawadah chooses to go personal in his attacks, to the level of describing his tormentors as “enemies” not of himself only but Islam!(arabic pg6) He went further in his Friday sermon as to label all those opposed to him and his ilk as animals, refusing to name them in the mosque as not to “desecrate” the place of worship!
He’s clearly incensed at his portrayal in the media, thinking that the media is against him personally and the Salafi movement. He’s even organising a seminar “soon” to show people the great strides and motions he tabled in parliament, as if without him the country and parliament would grind to a complete halt.
Hey bozo, WAKE UP. What they’re saying about you and your ideas IS true, and the sooner you wake up from your lala-land the better.
We had a good scare during the Eid holidays with one of the major malls being evacuated because of a real fear of a car-bomb. Of course the machine denied all knowledge of it and calmed people down as this is just a rumour. Well I say that there is no smoke without fire, and if it is to lead anyone to any idea, then it will be that extremism and violence has raised its ugly head in Bahrain as never before.
We won’t get over this by re-electing these bozos. We won’t get rid of terrorism by patting these Salafis and other religious nuts on the back, nor will we get rid of it by sweeping it under the carpet as we have been doing with any social problem we experienced for generations, and we won’t get rid of it by sticking our heads in the sand.
But again, we as Arabs have practiced the ubiquitous ostrich move for generations and we have elevated it to a form of high art. So why stop now?
I’m waiting for the announcement of this so-called seminar, and hope that I will be able to gather a few people to peacefully demonstrate at the venue… want to join me? Let me know as soon as possible.
