Tag: Saudi Arabia

  • CFI to Saudi Arabia: release Samar Badawi

    CFI on the arrest of Samar Badawi:

    The Center for Inquiry has learned that Saudi human rights activist Samar Badawi has been arrested for allegedly operating the Twitter account of her husband, jailed human rights attorney Waleed Abu al-Khair. Ms. Badawi is also the sister of jailed dissident Raif Badawi, and Mr. al-Khair was Mr. Badawi’s lawyer before he himself was jailed.

    The Center for Inquiry emphatically demands that Saudi Arabia immediately and unconditionally release Ms. Badawi, and drop any charges brought against her. Samar is a valued ally and friend of the Center for Inquiry. CFI has worked closely with her to promote freedom of thought and expression in Saudi Arabia, and to fight for the release of her husband and brother.

    We also call upon the U.S. State Department to bring to bear what diplomatic power they have to press Saudi Arabia to release Samar. In 2012, the State Department honored Ms. Badawi with the 2012 International Women of Courage Award, bestowed upon her by then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and First Lady Michelle Obama.

    “I have worked personally with Samar, and she is one of the most impressive, courageous, and devoted activists I have ever met,” said Michael De Dora, CFI’s main representative to the United Nations, who met Ms. Badawi at the UN Human Rights Council in September 2014 when CFI spoke out behalf of her husband. “She is a shining example of the kind of meaningful impact an individual can have, despite incredible odds and unthinkable oppression. Her detention now speaks to how desperate and inhuman Saudi Arabia has become to intimidate, silence, and punish critics.”

    “When Secretary Clinton presented Samar with the Women of Courage award, she told her, ‘You are making a difference, and we thank you for that,” noted De Dora. “The State Department can best thank her, right now, by doing all they can to secure her freedom and safety, and Secretary Clinton and First Lady Obama should use their platforms as globally admired figures to rally the world to this cause.”

    The fight for free expression around the world is a primary focus of CFI’s advocacy efforts. In 2015, CFI launched the Freethought Emergency Fund to assist secular activists in Bangladesh and elsewhere who have been targeted for murder by radical Islamic groups. In 2012, CFI launched the Campaign for Free Expression to rally support for those who face persecution for blasphemy, apostasy, or other forms of religious or political dissent. Find out more at centerforinquiry.net/cfe

     

  • Samar Badawi won a courage award

    Via Michael De Dora: Samar Badawi in 2012, being given the International Women of Courage Award by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and First Lady Michelle Obama.

  • Samar Badawi

    Ensaf Haidar has a new piece of bad news.

    Urgent: ‪#‎Samar_Badawi‬ was arrested on the charge of directing Waleed Abulkair’s twitter account. She was transferred to the Dhahran central prison, where both Raif Badawi and Waleed Abulkhair are.

    She’s Raif’s sister.

     

  • Beaten like slaves, treated like merchandise

    Jonah Cohen and Ramya Chamalie Jirasinghe tell us what “justice” looks like for foreign domestic workers in Saudi Arabia.

    They start with the Sri Lankan woman whose sentence of beheading for having sex outside her marriage has been sent back for review.

    But the public still doesn’t know her name, for whom she was working, what she testified in court, or who bore witness against her. Not her family, not even her “betrayed” husband, knows that she stands to be executed.

    Why won’t her name be released? Officials involved with the case claim she doesn’t want her family to know how far she’s fallen, that she’d feel humiliated. But it’s hard to believe that the same court that would stone a woman to death would also protect her from the sting of social scandal. It’s just as likely that the housemaid’s name is being concealed to stifle media attention, as well as to imply her shame and guilt over a sexual crime for which her male judges might kill her.

    Yeah Saudi officials are so concerned with their victims’ feelings of humiliation. Please.

    If she does survive and make it home, she will be another in a string of horror stories.

    “Now I have become a prostitute. I have come back home a prostitute,” says the woman in this video as she recounts the horror of her experience as a maid in Saudi Arabia. “The house I was working in threw me out on to the road. When I got into a taxi on the road, the driver took me to a brothel. I had to work as a prostitute for two months.”

    Another woman says that she was tasked with looking after 14 children. “When I couldn’t manage, instead of taking me back to my agency, they sold me to another agency. And at that agency they hit me until I started bleeding from my skull.”

    Beaten like slaves, treated like merchandise, these women are among the fortunate ones. Other young Sri Lankan housemaids, working for two dollars a day, never return home.

    Human Rights Watch reports on this subject too.

    You might have heard about the young woman who was beheaded in Saudi Arabia in 2013. But you probably haven’t heard of the underage housemaid whose corpse was just returned earlier this month to her parents in Sri Lanka.

    She hanged herself in the spring. Or so it is claimed by Saudi authorities. Her parents are skeptical. “I have doubts that someone who was supposed to come home in May would kill herself like this,” her father says. “She called us and said she was coming in May.”

    And these aren’t aberrations.

    Namini Wijedasa, a Sri Lankan journalist, recently reported that “the tales of misery are too numerous to ignore.”

    Few, if any, of these migrant workers receive the protection of domestic employment laws. Visiting workers in Saudi Arabia must obtain permission from their employers to exit legally from the kingdom. If that is not slave labor, what is?

    It’s almost as if more religion doesn’t make people good.

  • Spotlight on Saudi Arabia

    Adam Coogle, a researcher for Human Rights Watch, reminds us of some facts about Saudi Arabia.

    Saudi Arabia’s dismal human rights record is getting media scrutiny, thanks in part to news that Saudi authorities plan to lash 74-year-old Karl Andree, a British cancer survivor, 350 times for possessing homemade alcohol. Flogging in the kingdom entails a series of strikes with a wooden cane, with blows distributed across the back and legs, normally not breaking the skin but leaving bruises.

    In other words Saudi Arabia plans to commit a heinous crime in order to punish a 74-year-old cancer survivor for possessing some alcohol. Saudi Arabia is the criminal here, and by a wide margin. Hitting people with sticks is a very bad thing to do; possessing alcohol, on its own, is not.

    In other words Saudi Arabia’s priorities are horrifyingly disordered.

    This ruling comes after a year of bizarre and cruel punishments meted out by the Saudi judiciary, including the public flogging of liberal blogger Raif Badawi in January and a death sentence for Ali al-Nimr, a Saudi man accused of protest-related activities allegedly committed before he was 18 years old.

    Campaigning for human rights is a crime there. Violating human rights is fine, and campaigning for them is a crime.

    More than a dozen Saudi human rights advocates are languishing in prison today for “crimes” related to their “illegal” human rights work; most are convicted for “setting up an unlicensed organization.” These include activists such as Waleed Abu al-Khair, currently serving an outlandish 15-year sentence solely for his work exposing the government’s human rights abuses.

    And then there’s the bombing campaign in Yemen, with probable war crimes.

    Saudi Arabia’s membership in the UN Human Rights Council has not led to improvements in its rights record. Instead, it has used its position to prevent an international inquiry into laws-of-war violations committed in Yemen. Somehow, bizarrely, Saudi Arabia serves as a partner in the U.S. government’s campaign to “combat violent extremism”—despite its longtime failure to address these issues at home in accordance with basic human rights and the rule of law.

    Allies such as the United States and the United Kingdom rarely criticize Saudi abuses; one U.S. official even recently “welcomed” Saudi Arabia’s participation at the Human Rights Council. British Prime Minister David Cameron responded to the possible flogging of Mr. Andree by meekly asking Saudi officials not to carry out the punishment.

    So we have to keep yipping and objecting. Louder and louder and louder.

  • Better news

    Michael De Dora says the story about the Saudi guy’s role on a panel of independent experts on the UN Human Rights Council isn’t particularly worrying after all, and it also isn’t news.

    Saudi Arabia has been one of the five members of the Consultative Group for the whole year, starting with the March 2015 session. In fact, the Saudi ambassador was chair of the Group for the June session, and the vice-chair for the March session, so it’s not red-hot news in September.

    What the Consultative Group does is, it evaluates applications for independent experts (mostly called Special Rapporteurs), ranking the top three candidates for each vacant mandate and providing justification for their nominations. The President of the HRC makes the final decision, and the pres can accept or depart from the Group’s recommendation. The HRC then votes on the final candidate. You can read more about this process here.

    The good news is, Michael looked through the nominated independent experts and saw no evidence that they are weaker on human rights due to Saudi involvement in the Consultative Group. One of the most recent recommendations by the group, for the position of Special Rapporteur on Cultural Rights, is the US-based academic Karima Bennoune. Look at her bio, or her most recent book, or her articles on Open Democracy, or this piece in the Guardian. Michael says she’s a fantastic nominee for the position.

    You can find information on the March and June appointments here and here.

    So that’s all good. The fox has not taken over the henhouse duty after all. I thank Michael for telling me this – all the above is straight from him, mostly in his words.

  • Why wouldn’t you call on the king to issue a royal pardon?

    Oh, do better, State Department. Come on.

    Via Paul Fidalgo at The Morning Heresy – a passage from the daily press briefing at State.

    QUESTION: Saudi Arabia.

    MR RATHKE: Yeah.

    QUESTION: Do you have any comment or reaction on the upholding by the supreme court of the blogger’s verdict and punishment by flogging?

    MR RATHKE: We are deeply concerned that the Saudi supreme court has upheld the 10-year prison sentence and 1,000 lashes for human rights activist and blogger Raif Badawi for exercising his rights to freedom of expression and religion. As we had previously said back in January, the United States Government continues to call on Saudi authorities to cancel this brutal punishment and to review Badawi’s case and sentence. We strongly oppose laws, including apostasy laws, that restrict the exercise of freedom of expression, and we urge all countries to uphold these.

    QUESTION: So would you like to see this – the court said the only way it could be overturned was with a royal pardon. Would you be – are you looking for the new king to grant a pardon in this case?

    MR RATHKE: Well, I don’t have anything further to say about the internal workings of how Saudi authorities may address the case, but I would go back to our call on Saudi authorities to cancel this punishment and to review the case and review the sentence.

    QUESTION: Well, that sounds to me like you’re calling for the king to pardon him.

    MR RATHKE: I don’t have –

    QUESTION: Well, if you called on them –

    MR RATHKE: — more to say about –

    QUESTION: — back in January to review the case and then to cancel the punishment, they have reviewed it now, the court has at least, and upheld it. So you still want it to be reviewed and – the case to be reviewed and the punishment to be canceled, correct? That’s what I’m hearing.

    MR RATHKE: Yeah, that’s our answer.

    QUESTION: The only way – the court says the only way that that can happen is if a royal pardon is issued. Ergo, or does that mean that you are calling on the king to issue a pardon?

    MR RATHKE: I’m not going to go beyond what I said. That’s –

    QUESTION: Well, then it doesn’t sound like – I mean, if you won’t call on the king to issue a pardon, which is what the court says is the only way that the punishment or the case can be dismissed, then I don’t understand what the point of you getting up here and saying that you’re deeply concerned about it is because you’re clearly not going to do anything – do the one thing that – or call on the king to do the one thing that –

    MR RATHKE: To go back to the verb you used earlier, I’m not going to parse the Saudi court’s decision. But the United States Government’s view remains that we believe that the punishment should be canceled and that the case and the sentence should be reviewed.

    QUESTION: But if the only way that that can happen is by royal pardon, why wouldn’t you call on the king to issue a royal pardon?

    MR RATHKE: I just don’t have anything further to say on that one.

    Thanks for nothing.

     

  • Not too far into the future

    Raymond Johansen posted a translated transcript of an interview Ensaf Haidar did on NRK Debatt.

    Dear Ensaf Haidar, here is your interview again and the following is a translation I hope do you justice. My arabic is limited so please do not feel offended. We tried our best. You are a strong woman and we wish you and your family the best of luck. You are right. Millions of people around the world stand right beside you and your husband Raif Badawi
    ————————————–
    Ensaf is asked if she knows how her husband is doing in prison at the moment

    Ensaf: Raif’s situation is not good at this moment in time – healthwise or psychologically. His situation is not good at all. But that is normal considering his situation, based on all the uncertainty. To sum it up, his situation is not good at all.

    Question: You reside in Canada right now with your three small children. Do you have any contact. Direct contact with your husband now?

    Ensaf: Raif calls every now and then, but they are always short conversations.

    Question: Your husband was sentenced to one thousand lashes for having championed free speech in SA. Were you surprised of this sentencing. How harsh it was?

    Ensaf: Of course. I was very surprised and shocked. All he did was exercise his free speech. I never thought he would get such a violent punishment. It was and still is a shock.

    Question: If the authorities in SA goes through, if they persist with the lashing. Do you fear that your husband might not survive it?

    Ensaf: Of course. A man cannot take 50 lashes. Raifs body and mind will not be able to handle 50 lashes every week. It is simply torture, nothing more nothing less.

    Question: Do you think the international outcry over this and the pressure against SA has in any way helped the situation?

    Ensaf: I hope that it has helped. As for now everything is uncertain. But [the support] it has helped me. I feel like the whole world is standing right beside us. I am sure that the Raif cause will affect things in measurable ways. This far it is our family that suffers the consequences. Raif knows and feels that the whole world walks stands beside him.

    [Editors note: in excess of a million people have signed a petition supporting him]

    I hope that people will continue to fight for his release.

    Question: In Norway there was quite a lot of debate when King Abdullah died, and a member of our Royal family went to a ceremony in SA. It was debated whether the Crown Prince of Norway should actually raise the issue of your husband with the authorities of SA. Do you think that would have helped?

    Ensaf: Of course. When governments talk to each other, that is helpful. I hope they ask they ask the SA government to release Raif.

    Question: Tell me about the culture gap here… Your own father in law said that he would gladly kill your husband if the authorities would not do it. How does remarks like that make you think? [Editors note: Must have meant to say “feel” – not “think”]

    Ensaf: If Raif had done anything wrong and his father witnessed that…. If he had been a real father, he would not want to kill his own son, whatever he might have done.

    Question: All over the world people are demonstrating in front of SA embassies every Friday – to help your husband. But what is your next step to help free him?

    Ensaf: First I would like to thank each and every one standing in front of the embassies every week. As for the next step, I do not have a solution. I hope we find away to get him released right away. At this time, I do not know how to make that happen. But I do hope we find a solution. If someone have an idea that can get Raif released, I can only hope that they help us.

    Question: Do you think the plight of your husband is also helping the world understand more of what’s going on human rights wise in SA?

    Ensaf: That is self evident.

    Question: And are you at present optimistic that at some point you will be reunited with your husband?

    Ensaf: Of course! Of course! Of course! Not too far into the future.

    Conclusion: Ensaf Haidar thank you very much for taking part in this interview!

  • Do the right thing

    Ensaf Haidar asks Obama and Kerry to do what 60 members of Congress have done, and demand the immediate release of Raif Badawi.

    When I am allowed to speak with Raif, I brief him about all that is being done on his behalf. Because of a global outcry by citizens and governments of the world, Raif has not been flogged for 11 consecutive weeks. But I know that as soon as the media spotlight fades and pressure on the repressive Saudi monarchy eases, Saudi Arabia may seek to do what it pleases with my husband. It is critical that the pressure not abate, not even for an instant.

    More than a million people around the world have demanded that the Saudi Arabian authorities release my husband, including more than 60 members of Congress who have sent a letter to the Saudi king calling for his release. But despite this, neither the White House nor Secretary of State John Kerry has followed suit. I beg members of the administration to follow their congressional colleagues’ lead and demand that Raif be released immediately. The United States presents itself as a champion of human rights throughout the world. It cannot allow its important strategic relationship with the kingdom to overshadow its moral standing. Raif must be returned to my arms, not dragged to his death.

    Do it, Barack Obama. Do it, John Kerry.

  • C’est normal

    Saudi Arabia has tried to order Quebec to back off in its criticism of Saudi’s appalling human rights record. Quebec has said Nope.

    The CBC has seen the letter:

    Quebec’s premier is not backing down in his opposition to the imprisonment and torture of blogger Raif Badawi, despite the Saudi ambassador’s written caution to Quebec politicians to mind their own business.

    “We have made our opinion known. It’s normal that we did so,” Philippe Couillard told reporters as he made his way to a cabinet meeting in Quebec City Wednesday.

    Naif Bin Bandir Al-Sudairy, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Canada, sent a letter to Quebec’s National Assembly in March telling them not to meddle in the case of the jailed blogger or criticize the country’s human rights record.

    “Torture” – note that the CBC calls it torture, which it is. Most mainstream media refuse to be that blunt about it. After all, Saudia Arabia is a sovereign blah blah blah blah blah.

    In a letter obtained by CBC News and addressed to the speaker, the ambassador writes Saudi Arabia “does not accept any form of interference in its internal affairs.”

    “The Kingdom does not accept at all any attack on it in the name of human rights, especially when its constitution is based on Islamic law, which guarantees human rights (sic),” the letter, dated March 10, reads.

    Nice (sic) too.

    Islamic law does the very opposite of guaranteeing human rights. That’s why there is such a thing as the Cairo Declaration of Human Rights in Islam: it’s in order to rule out any human rights that are not “compatible with sharia,” as so many important ones are not.

    And we can see the truth of this when we consider what Saudi Arabia actually does, such as for instance sentencing Raif Badawi to 1000 lashes, 10 years in prison, and a fine of one million riyals, for writing his opinions about religion on a website. That’s not a situation in which human rights have been guaranteed.

    Couillard and other Quebec politicians of all stripes have strongly denounced the kingdom’s treatment of Badawi.

    On Wednesday, Kathleen Weil, Quebec’s immigration minister, said the government’s position has not wavered.

    “It’s mostly important for us to reiterate our firm opposition to his imprisonment and our defence of human rights,” she said.

    In February, the National Assembly unanimously passed a motion condemning the whipping of Badawi, and expressing support for his wife, Ensaf Haidar, and their three children, who are refugees living in Sherbrooke, Que.

    Bien fait, Québec.

    And the speaker’s office sent a copy of the motion to the Saudi ambassador in Ottawa.

    Badawi’s supporters believe the ambassador’s letter to Quebec politicians shows the Saudi government is feeling the public pressure over the case.

    “We are happy they responded because it seems that they find the need to respond because the pressure is so great, but of course the content of what they say is not true,” said Mireille Elchacar, a friend of the Badawi family who works for Amnesty International.

    It’s not only not true, it’s the reverse of what is true. It’s not divergent from the truth but the opposite of the truth.

    “Quebec has shown a unified, political stance against this and I think that has somewhat shocked Saudi Arabia,” said Kyle Matthews, senior deputy director of the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies at Concordia University.

    “It’s embarrassed them and they feel they have to do something to set the record straight or at least try to be seen as arguing their position from a moral and legal perspective, but it’s really hard to take that seriously,” he said.

    And in fact it left itself open to even more scorn and contempt. I wrote my most recent Free Inquiry column on this subject. I enjoyed writing it, I have to say.

  • Sometimes a notpology is a good outcome

    A friend translated a piece in Svenska Dagbladet for me and gave me permission to share it with y’all. The translation is verbatim rather than idiomatic.

    -The emissary has not presented a Swedish apology, but has presented that there was no intention to insult Saudi Arabia or Islam, the source says to (news agency) TT.

    -It has been deplored from the Swedish side if what was said has been perceived as an insult.

    According to Al Arabiya, the Swedish King is also to have underscored “the force of the relationship” between Sweden and Saudi Arabia to his Saudi colleague King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud. Under which forms this message was presented is not known.

    On Friday, the government’s emissary Björn von Sydow was received by the Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud and Prince Mohammed bin Salman.During the conversation Björn von Sydow presented Sweden’s wish to develop the relations between the two countries, according to UD (Foreign Office).

    “It is very positive that the government’s emissary has been received”, says Foreign Minister Margot Wallström according to a press release.

    It sounds as if they’re both putting up a polite show – Sweden is allowing Saudi to save face, and Saudi is allowing Sweden to leave it at that. Wallström hasn’t actually backed down.

    Good.

  • Saudi Arabia is “a beacon of light”

    Oh, that’s how you want to play it, Saudi Arabia? It might backfire. I certainly hope it does.

    Adam Taylor at the Washington Post blog.

    You know how Margot Wallström was going to give a talk at the Arab League, a talk that included some praise for the idea of women’s rights, and how Saudi Arabia blocked her from giving that talk and recalled its ambassador and generally threw a huge tantrum.

    The feud has sparked an intense domestic debate, with Sweden’s king even stepping in. Part of this is because of the considerable economic pressure Saudi Arabia is able to put on Sweden (Sweden exported $1.3 billion to Saudi Arabia last year). But perhaps even more powerful has been the rhetorical pressure — Saudi Arabia has succeeded in making the argument not about human rights, but about Islam.

    From the start of the disagreement with Sweden, Saudi officials have emphasized that the attack isn’t just on their sovereignty, but on the entire concept of sharia law, which forms the basis of the Saudi legal system. For example, the Council of Senior Scholars, Saudi Arabia’s highest religious authority, dismissed Wallstrom’s comments as criticism of the Islamic legal system. “The Kingdom is proud of its Islamic laws, which protects human rights, dignity and private property,” said Sheik Fahad bin Saad al-Majed, secretary general of the council, according to Arab News. He added that Saudi Arabia was “a beacon of light” for Muslims around the world.

    You want to go that way? You’re sure? You want to tie all of Islam to what you do with it? You want to make it all or nothing like that? You want to tell the world that Islam=Sauda Arabia and Saudi Arabia=Islam?

    This framing caught on internationally, as well. “The ministers have voiced their condemnation and astonishment at the issuance of such statements that are incompatible with the fact that the Constitution of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is based on sharia,” Arab League foreign ministers said in a joint statement. “Sharia has guaranteed human rights and preserved people’s lives, possessions, honor and dignity.”

    But it hasn’t, especially not women’s rights and gay rights and freedom of religion and the rights of foreign workers…There’s a very long list of the rights it has trampled into the dust as opposed to “guaranteeing.” If that’s the Sharia version of guaranteeing human rights, then Islam is a vision of hell.

    The Organization of Islamic Cooperation also released a statement, saying Sweden needed to “not claim moral authority to pass one-sided judgments and moral categorizations of others.”

    So anything goes? Apartheid is fine, genocide is fine, Boko Haram is fine, nobody can say anything to anyone?

    I say that’s bullshit. Wallström on the other hand has been back-pedaling, which is very unfortunate.

  • Your complete opposition to the human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia

    Here’s another thing we can sign – a call to political action to Free Raif and Waleed.

    So far 12 MPs, 9 MSPs, and 4 members of the House of Lords have signed. Scores of prominent human rights activists, writers, lawyers and journalists have also signed as well as hundreds of others (see below). Please continue to add your name to this statement. Further action will be necessary.

    Raif’s wife Ensaf Haidar has just written to us about this letter.
    “I am very grateful for your action in support of my husband’s freedom– please help me get my husband back. His children need him”

    Saudi blogger Raif Badawi is currently imprisoned in a Saudi Arabian jail having received the first 50 of a threatened 1,000 lashes. If Raif survives these floggings he faces another 10 years in jail. His ‘crime’ was to have set up a website that called for peaceful change of the Saudi regime away from the repressive and religiously exclusive regime that it is.

    In another shameful act his lawyer Waleed Abu Al-Khair, and other human rights activists were also later arrested. On February 20th this year Waleed had his sentence confirmed as 15 years in prison.

    The European Parliament in its resolution of Feb 12th made clear its demands on Saudi Arabia to release Raif, as well as his lawyer Waleed and others imprisoned there for exercising their freedom of speech.

    But to free Raif from this nightmare needs more than politicians saying that they disapprove of his punishment.

    The total EU trade with the Saudi regime is currently close to €64 billion a year. The UK alone has approaching £12 billion invested in Saudi Arabia whilst it continues to invite Saudi investment in the UK, particularly in the property market. Saudi investment in the UK is currently over £62.5 billion.

    As the regime inflicts beheadings and floggings on its people, questions have to be asked about why more cannot be done to promote the human rights of citizens of a country with which there is such extensive business. Particularly questions have to be asked about the morality of providing such a regime with arms, particularly the weaponry and facilities they use in their brutal penal system.

    We ask that you make publicly clear your complete opposition to the human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia and demand the immediate release of Raif and Waleed as the EU parliament has done. We also ask that you make publicly clear what measures you will take as a government to put any trading with this regime on an ethical basis and what conditions you will demand from the Saudi regime if all of that trade is to continue – particularly in relation to weapons that might be used in oppression or imprisonment.

    If nothing is done to stop the brutality, beheadings and floggings that are committed there – then any moral stand taken against similar horrors committed elsewhere by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria can only be compromised.

    In the spirit of consistency, transparency and humanity we ask you to take action to Free Raif and promote human rights in Saudi Arabia

    Yours

     

    Links and instructions for signing are on the page.

  • Bumped up again

    There’s a report in Stern, in German, that Raif Badawi’s case has been sent by the Jeddah Criminal Court to the High Court. Elham Manea took it seriously enough to share with Ensaf Haidar, and Ensaf shared it with everyone.

    That could be either good or bad; it’s unknown which.

    But don’t worry – the OIC just told us that

    Islam, which Saudi Arabia – a founding member of the OIC – is governed by, is centered on the values of justice, compassion, equality, tolerance and the notion of human vicegerency.

    So obviously Saudi Arabia isn’t going to behead Raif for expressing an opinion about religion that the Saudi rulers don’t share. That wouldn’t be just or compassionate or egalitarian or tolerant.

  • One assumes Saudi authorities will not arrange a visit

    Michael De Dora spoke at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Tuesday, on Saudi Arabia and the Istanbul Process.

    The rights to freedom of religion, belief, and expression remain nearly non-existent in Saudi Arabia. On January 9, Raif Badawi, the creator of an online forum devoted to discussion on religion and politics, received the first 50 of 1,000 lashes in front of al-Jafali mosque in Jeddah. He now reportedly faces retrial for apostasy, for which the penalty is death. On January 12, his lawyer, human rights advocate Waleed abu al-Khair, had his own prison sentence extended to 15 years. Meanwhile, women’s rights activist Samar Badawi — wife to Waleed, sister to Raif — has been banned from traveling, and restricted from visiting jailed family members.

    More recently, on February 24, a young man was sentenced to death for renouncing his faith. And just last week, on March 11, Mohammed al-Bajadi was sentenced to 10 years in prison for human rights activism.

    And these are only a few examples from the past 10 weeks. Saudi Arabia has a lengthy record of punishing any individual or community that differs from the government’s narrow version of authoritarian Islam.

    See the original for references.

    This is the state which, the OIC tells us,  is governed by and centered on the values of justice, compassion, equality, and tolerance. Insulting, isn’t it. “Listen to us while we tell you a brazen lie.”

    And yet, in the face of these human rights violations, last week we learned that Saudi Arabia will host, in
    Jeddah, the next meeting in the Istanbul Process, which focuses on implementation of Human Rights Council Resolution 16/18. This means that while world leaders meet to discuss combating religious intolerance, Raif Badawi and countless other dissidents will sit just blocks away, languishing in Jeddah’s Briman Prison. One assumes Saudi authorities will not arrange for diplomats and NGOs to pay these political prisoners a visit.

    In fact, in a stunning example of hypocrisy, Saudi Arabia — like most OIC states — has not even come close to implementing 16/18.6 It is almost certain they will attempt to use this event to legitimize their position.

    It’s just staggering, isn’t it? Saudi Arabia, perhaps the most religiously intolerant nation on earth, hosting a meeting to discuss combating religious intolerance, with Raif Badawi in prison a few blocks away.

    //www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFN3i6YxyUc

  • What upsets Saudi Arabia and the OIC

    Let’s look at that OIC statement on Margot Wallström’s remarks about Saudi Arabia.

    First, you’ll want to refresh your memory of her talk. (The article is in Swedish but the talk is in English, just scroll down.) Here are the horrific three paragraphs that have Saudi Arabia and the whole OIC so distraught and furious:

    Human rights are a priority in Swedish foreign policy. Freedom of association, assembly, religion and expression are not only fundamental rights and important tools in the creation of vibrant societies. They are indispensable in the fight against extremism and radicalisation. So is a vibrant civil society.

    Yesterday was International Women’s Day. This is a day to celebrate women’s achievements, recognise challenges, and focus attention on women’s rights, women’s representation and their adequate resources. Our experience is that women’s rights do not only benefit women, but society as a whole.

    More than 20 years ago, in 1994, the International Conference on Population and Development met here in Cairo to discuss various issues, including education of women and protection of women from all forms of violence, including female genital mutilation and sexual harassment. Many of these issues are still very much in play today and I urge you to contribute to upholding the agreements made here in Cairo 20 years ago.

    That’s it; that’s all there is. The Saudis and the OIC are livid at being urged to pay attention to education of women and protection of women from all forms of violence, including female genital mutilation and sexual harassment. They’re enraged at being told that freedom of association, assembly, religion and expression are fundamental rights.

    Now for the OIC statement.

    The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) expressed its reservations on the remarks made, in regard to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, by the Foreign Minister of Sweden, Margot Wallström, at the Swedish Parliament last week. In her remarks, Ms. Wallström degraded Saudi Arabia and its social norms, judicial system and political institutions.

    The OIC stressed that the world community, with its multiple cultures, diverse social norms, rich and varied ethical standards and different institutional structures, can not, and should not, be based on a single and centric perspective that seeks to remake the world in its own image; and conform all according to its convictions, references, historical background and philosophical, social and political roots.

    The OIC Secretary General, Iyad Ameen Madani, stressed that relations between states should be maintained on the basis of respect, parity and appreciation; and that Islam, which Saudi Arabia – a founding member of the OIC – is governed by, is centered on the values of justice, compassion, equality, tolerance and the notion of human vicegerency.

    Madani expressed his hope that Sweden will always be true to its history, policies and attitude that do not claim moral authority to pass one-sided judgments and moral categorizations of others.

    So there you go. The OIC, which claims to represent all Muslims and all “Muslim nations,” thinks Foreign Minister Margot Wallström degraded Saudi Arabia and its social norms, judicial system and political institutions by saying that freedom of association, assembly, religion and expression are fundamental rights. What does that tell us about Saudi Arabia and the OIC? The OIC, which claims to represent all Muslims and all “Muslim nations,” thinks Foreign Minister Margot Wallström degraded Saudi Arabia and its social norms, judicial system and political institutions by saying that women’s rights do not only benefit women, but society as a whole. What on earth does that tell us about Saudi Arabia and the OIC?

  • Its rich and varied ethical standards

    Saudi Arabia is very annoyed with Sweden. How dare Sweden. Sweden has one hell of a nerve.

    Saudi Arabia said on 19 March 2015 it will not issue any new visas for Swedish business people, in retaliation for comments made by the Swedish Foreign Minister, Margot Wallström.

    Diplomatic ties between both countries have been severed since Sweden accused Saudi Arabia of blocking Wallström from speaking at an Arab League meeting earlier this month. However, her cancelled remarks were published by the Swedish foreign ministry. While they did not mention Saudi Arabia, Wallström’s statement stressed women and human rights.

    Well! Did you ever!? No wonder Saudi Arabia is angry. Women and human rights; have you ever heard anything so filthy and forbidden.

    In retaliation, the Scandinavian country then said it would not renew a lucrative defence cooperation deal with the oil-rich Middle Eastern Kingdom because of its poor record for democracy and civil liberties.

    Bad. Its bad record. Its record is not just poor, it’s bad; very bad.

    The diplomatic row between Sweden and Saudi Arabia over military ties and human rights escalated on 11 March when Riyadh recalled its ambassador from Stockholm.

    Dozens of other Arab nations criticized Sweden’s decision, soon after Saudi Arabia recalled its ambassador to Sweden and accused the Nordic country of “flagrant interference in internal affairs”.

    Yes, and the police shouldn’t interfere with domestic violence, either, because that’s internal affairs.

    The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), which represents 57 Muslim nations, released a statement in which it accused Wallström of “degrading Saudi Arabia and its social norms, judicial system and political institutions”.

    The OIC was initiated by Saudi Arabia and its headquarters are in Jeddah; it’s hardly a neutral observer.

    “The world community, with its multiple cultures, diverse social norms, rich and varied ethical standards and different institutional structures, can not, and should not, be based on a single and centric perspective that seeks to remake the world in its own image,” the statement continued.

    Uh huh, those rich and varied ethical standards that include the total subordination of women, FGM, child marriage for girls, stoning, death for gays, lashes, amputation – rich and varied indeed.

    Go stone yourself, Saudi Arabia.

  • Going for a new record

    Saudi Arabia is working hard at being more horrible this year than it was last year. Every day in every way it gets worser and worser. The Telegraph reports via AFP:

    A man convicted of murder was beheaded in the Saudi capital on Monday, amid a steep rise in the number of executions in the ultra-conservative Gulf kingdom this year.

    The beheading of Saad bin Abdullah al-Jadid, who had shot dead fellow Saudi Abdullah bin Faraj al-Gahtani, took to 45 the number of executions since January 1, according to an AFP count.

    I’m an American, so I have nothing to boast of. We execute lots of people too, and sometimes we fry them for an extended period before we manage to achieve death. But I’m pointing a finger at Saudi Arabia anyway.

    Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking are all punishable by death under Saudi Arabia’s version of Sharia Islamic law.

    Earlier this month, it was reported Raif Badawi, the Saudi blogger sentenced to 1,000 lashesafter being convicted of insulting Islam, could face death by beheading, according to his family.

    The case attracted worldwide condemnation when he was publicly flogged in January. His family said they have been told he is to be tried for apostasy.

    At least we don’t execute people for “apostasy.”

  • Excellencies,

    Sweden has published online the address that Foreign Minister Margot Wallström planned to give in Cairo on Monday.

    This is the part – the only part – where she touches on human rights and women’s rights, in a way that Saudi Arabia calls “offensive” and “blatant interference in its internal affairs.”

    I include the first three paragraphs only so that you can see what led up to the human rights and women’s rights part.

    Excellencies,

    Democracy, security and economic development are interrelated. Without progress in one of these fields, sustainable results in the other cannot be expected.

    Inclusive socio-economic development is particularly important. Educational and economic empowerment is the best antidote to radicalisation and terrorist recruitment.

    Employment is crucial, especially for our youth. Youth unemployment is a key challenge, in Europe and in this region.

    Excellencies,

    Human rights are a priority in Swedish foreign policy. Freedom of association, assembly, religion and expression are not only fundamental rights and important tools in the creation of vibrant societies. They are indispensable in the fight against extremism and radicalisation. So is a vibrant civil society.

    Yesterday was International Women’s Day. This is a day to celebrate women’s achievements, recognise challenges, and focus attention on women’s rights, women’s representation and their adequate resources. Our experience is that women’s rights do not only benefit women, but society as a whole.

    More than 20 years ago, in 1994, the International Conference on Population and Development met here in Cairo to discuss various issues, including education of women and protection of women from all forms of violence, including female genital mutilation and sexual harassment. Many of these issues are still very much in play today and I urge you to contribute to upholding the agreements made here in Cairo 20 years ago.

    Not much interference in internal affairs there that I can see. It’s quite revealing that Saudi Arabia considers such a minimal statement an outrage, and that it prevented her from delivering the address at all.

     

  • Adjö Saudi Arabia

    Sweden has actually dropped an arms deal with Saudi Arabia.

    The Swedish government this week decided to scrap an arms deal with Saudi Arabia, effectively bringing to an end a decade-old defence agreement with the kingdom. The move followed complaints made by the Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom that she was blocked by the Saudis from speaking about democracy and women’s rights at a gathering of the Arab League in Cairo.

    Tensions between Stockholm and Riyadh have grown so acute that Saudi Arabia recalled its ambassador to Sweden on Wednesday. The Swedish foreign ministry had published Wallstrom’s planned remarks in Cairo, which made no specific reference to Saudi Arabia but did urge reform on issues of women’s rights. Nevertheless, the Saudi foreign ministry deemed the statement “offensive” and “blatant interference in its internal affairs,” according to the BBC.

    Oh really – so now people aren’t allowed to talk about women’s rights in general because that’s “offensive” to Saudi Arabia?

    The Saudis spent $39 million on Swedish military equipment last year.

    That Sweden’s centre-left government has chosen to risk that sort of investment — and the ire of prominent business leaders at home — marks an important moment. For decades, Saudi Arabia’s vast energy reserves and strategic position in the Middle East have led Western countries to politely skirt around the issue of the kingdom’s draconian religious laws and woeful human rights record.

    And not just the governments of Western countries, but also the media of same. S. Arabia’s horrifying human rights record has been horrifyingly under-reported over here.

    The double-standard in Western attitudes toward Saudi Arabia has looked particularly glaring in the past year. After the Islamic State began decapitating American hostages in its custody, Saudi Arabia — a key ally in the US-led coalition against the jihadists — carried out beheadings of inmates on death row.

    American politicians routinely hurl invective against Iran, accusing the Islamic Republic of fomenting terrorism abroad and maintaining a tyranny at home. But Saudi Arabia has an even less democratic system than that in Tehran, and  as the chief incubator of orthodox Salafism, has played its own unique role in the rise of fundamentalist terror groups around the Middle East and South Asia.

    And it keeps women much much more confined and rightsless and dependent and subject to contempt and hatred.

    Sweden’s decision came after months of “nail-biting,” reports Bloomberg’s Leonid Bershidsky. But it’s likely just the start of a larger European conversation regarding the ethics of dealing with Saudi Arabia.

    Well done Sweden!