Category Archives: Death Penalty

Death Penalty, Human Right, Saudi Arabia

Head-Chopping Absolute Reformers of the Arabian Peninsula……….

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      BFF

“The king of Saudi Arabia is once again making headlines for overturning a court ruling that sentenced a woman to ten lashes for driving a car. For many, this is further proof that King Abdullah is a force for moderation and reform. Fareed Zakaria, for example, has called the Saudi dictator a “man of wisdom and moderation.” Then again, the king could also have considered stopping the recent beheading of Abdul Hamid Al Fakki for the crime of “sorcery.” Instead, he chose to do nothing. While the residents of Salem in 1692 would be proud, modern pundits would do well to hold their praise for the monarch. Al Fakki was arrested in 2005 after he supposedly agreed to put a spell on a man to leave his second wife. In fact, Al Fakki was entrapped by a member of the Saudi religious police and reportedly beaten and coerced into a confession. The one-minute video of his beheading is surely one of the most horrific scenes I have ever witnessed………..”

The writer adds this link to the video of the beheading of the foreign “sorcerer”. Don’t watch it before dinner.
Cheers
mhg


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Death Penalty, Human Right, Iran, Muslims

Iran: On Religious Freedom, What Religious Freedom?……………

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“The lawyer of Yusef Naderkhani, an Iranian pastor sentenced to death for apostasy, says there is a good chance his client will be acquitted. Mohammad Ali Dadkhah made the comments to RFE/RL’s Radio Farda as international anger over the sentence grew. “I have provided the court with explanations that I believe will make the court change its decision, and it is 90 to 95 percent likely that the court will acquit Naderkhani,” Dadkhah said. The 33-year-old Naderkhani converted to Christianity from Islam in 1997, when he was 19. He was arrested in 2009, when he was serving as the pastor of a small church in the northern city of Rasht. A court sentenced him to hanging after convicting him of apostasy. Islamic law in Iran says a Muslim who converts to another faith can face the death penalty. Naderkhani’s wife was sentenced to life imprisonment, but has been released. The Supreme Court upheld Naderkhani’s sentence but said his conviction would be overturned if he repented and renounced his conversion……….”

With judges like these, no wonder the guy converted to something else. We always call for freedom of religion, but only in the West. It is the same story in Iran or in Saudi Arabia or in Malaysia or in almost any other Muslim country. Freedom of religion is professed by all, except Saudi Arabia which openly does not allow any religious practices other than Islam. In some places even other Muslim sects are banned. The fact is that most of our Islamic countries, including Iran, do not respect the freedom of any other religion.
Cheers
mhg


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Corruption, Culture, Death Penalty, Human Right, Salafi, Saudi Arabia

They Are Losing their Heads: another Sorcerer Beheaded in Saudi………

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“A Saudi Arabian ministry statement carried by the state news agency, SPA, stated that Abdul Hamid al-Fakki “practiced witchcraft and sorcery,” which are illegal under Saudi Arabia’s Islamic sharia law. Al-Fakki was beheaded in the western city of Medina on Monday, the interior ministry announced. In October last year, Amnesty International said it had appealed to King Abdullah in a letter to commute Fakki’s death sentence. His execution brings to 42 the number of people beheaded in Saudi Arabia this year, according to an AFP tally based on official and human rights group reports…………”

Saudi reforms continue unhindered, according to tribal liberals on my Gulf. As if to prove it, another “sorcerer” was beheaded last week in a Saudi public square (this is only the last of many). He was a poor foreigner from Sudan this time. He was beheaded by the regime for allegedly practicing “sorcery and witchcraft”. Magic is seriously frowned upon in the Kingdom without Magic. I wonder if the Lebanese TV magician Ali Sabat who performed magic on “Lebanese” TV. I believe he is still in prison awaiting something (he was supposed to be beheaded but the princes decided to keep him around for a while after an international campaign).
Oddly, or maybe not so oddly, the usual Western glitterati are not out in force showing their outrage, condemning this most recent execution. Nor is Bernard-Henri Lévy.
Cheers
mhg


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Death Penalty, Human Right

Executions: the Islamic Kingdom of the Republic of Texas………

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“In Texas, Steven Michael Woods is slated for execution on Tuesday, despite considerable doubts about his guilt. The inmate is fighting to have his sentence commuted, but his chances are diminishing. State Governor Rick Perry is considered a champion of the death penalty. It’s a gruesome record, but Rick Perry is proud of it. “Your state has executed 234 death-row inmates, more than any other governor in modern times,” NBC’s Brian Williams told the Texas governor during this week’s presidential debate. Did he ever struggle to sleep at night, Williams continued, “with the idea that anyone of those might have been innocent”? Before Williams had finished, the auditorium erupted in cheers, even whistles, as if the spectators welcomed this killer number. ………. For one man, however, it was a bad omen: Steven Michael Woods. Woods, 31, is incarcerated in the Allan B. Polunsky Unit, which houses Texas’ death row, a four-hour drive east of the capital Austin. His execution for capital murder is set for Tuesday — one day after the next Republican debate. It would be the 19th execution this year in Texas alone……… There are indeed grave doubts about the verdict. Marcus Rhodes, Wood’s co-defendant and a former friend, has admitted to the double murder in question and already been sentenced — but to life in prison. Rhodes’ DNA was found on the weapons, but not that of Woods. Yet all courts so far have rejected Wood’s appeals………..”

I have forgotten which country has executed more people this year: the Islamic Republic of Texas or the Islamic Republic of Iran or the Islamic Absolute Kingdom of Saudi Arabia or the ‘People’s’ Republic of China. Maybe it is Texas, the state that executes the most people in North America, in the only country in the Western hemisphere that still has the death penalty. Odd thing, the rate of murders probably keeps ahead in Texas compared to other large states. Apparently they need a body after each homicide, anybody, doesn’t always have to be the guilty party. At least in Texas they don’t do it in public, unlike Saudi Arabia and Iran.
(Steven Michael Woods was a drug dealer and he was apparently no sweetheart. He was executed this evening, But the show ain’t over: three more are slated to be executed in Texas within the next two weeks).
Cheers
mhg


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Arabian Peninsula, Corruption, Death Penalty, Human Right, Saudi Arabia, Slavery

Middle East Executions: Twenty Three Maids Waiting in a Row……….

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“And the storybook comes to a close.
Gone are the ribbons and bows.
Things to remember, places to go,
Pretty maids all in a row………..” The Eagles

Media report that twenty three Asian (Indonesian) women are awaiting the executioner’s sword on death row in Saudi Arabia. Several others, imported housemaids, already had their head chopped off. Remember Sakineh Ashtiani of Iran and all the fuss made by the Saudi-owned Arab “intellectuals” and Western media, especially the extremely righteous French media (and rightly so)? Everybody was indignant, so was I, and rightly so, until her gruesome death sentence was changed by the regime in Tehran.
Where are they now? Everybody is so silent about the plight of these numerous women, imported housemaids trapped into horrible situations in a grim society, waiting to have their heads chopped off in the Kingdom without Magic. Yet the kingdom cannot live without these millions of housemaids, and fierce bargaining goes on with the Asian government officials about their wages, work conditions, etc. They are even advertised in the newspapers for sale or “transfer” from one “owner” to another, just as they used to do in Old Virginia when a new shipment of slaves arrived from West Africa. Even Bernard Henri Levy, who was at the forefront of the Ashtiani campaign (and the Libyan campaign), is silent. Amnesty International comments but says they have “no presence” in Saudi Arabia. Of course not, Amnesty and human rights have no presence.
Cheers
mhg


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Arabian Peninsula, Death Penalty, Saudi Arabia

Chopping Season Premiere: Saudi Arabia Chops Three Heads Publicly……..

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“Three Saudis were beheaded on Saturday in the western city of Taif after being convicted of killing fellow citizens in two separate incidents, state news agency SPA reported. Mahfoudh bin Ali Al Kenani was beheaded by the sword for stabbing to death Ali Saeed al-Khazmari because of a feud between them, SPA said. Meanwhile, two brothers, Mohammed and Saud al-Jaeed were also executed for shooting dead fellow citizen Hilal bin Sayel al-Harthi, SPA said in another statement…….”

It looks like the beheading season has started again in Saudi Arabia, just in time for the holy month of Ramadan. That “event” in Taif was the premier gala, sort of like the opening gala of the San Francisco Opera season. More to follow.
Cheers
mhg


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Death Penalty, Human Right, Saudi Arabia, Slavery

Another Asian Housemaid Beheaded, about Stoning……….

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“An Indonesian woman was beheaded by the sword on Saturday after being convicted of murdering a Saudi woman, the interior ministry said. The woman named Roiaiti Beth Sabotti Sarona, according to a transliteration from Arabic, was found guilty of killing Saudi Khairiya bint Hamid Mijlid by striking her repeatedly on the head with a meat chopper and stabbing her in the neck, the ministry said in a statement carried by the official SPA news agency. The ministry did not elaborate on the motives of the crime, nor it did disclose the relation between the two women. But Indonesian officials say that around 70 percent of the 1.2 million Indonesians working in Saudi Arabia are domestic staff…….”

It is not as painful as stoning, at least it is a faster death. It is quicker, unless the swordsman misses and does not decapitate the first time. Then there will have to be a second time.
Equality under the law: a few months ago a Saudi housewife was convicted of torturing and killing her Asian housemaid. The housewife paid about $10,000 blood money to some Sri Lankan relative and was free.
Cheers
mhg


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Culture, Death Penalty, Israel, Religion, WTF

Rabbinical Court: Look who Almost Got Stoned in Israel………

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“A Jerusalem rabbinical court condemned to death by stoning a dog it suspects is the reincarnation of a secular lawyer who insulted the court’s judges 20 years ago, Ynet website reported Friday. According to Ynet, the large dog made its way into the Monetary Affairs Court in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighbourhood of Mea Shearim in Jerusalem, frightening judges and plaintiffs. Despite attempts to drive the dog out of the court, the hound refused to leave the premises. One of the sitting judges then recalled a curse the court had passed down upon a secular lawyer who had insulted the judges two decades previously. Their preferred divine retribution was for the lawyer’s spirit to move into the body of a dog, an animal considered impure by traditional Judaism. Clearly still offended, one of the judges sentenced the animal to death by stoning by local children. The canine target, however, managed to escape………”

As far as I know all cases of being stoned in Israel have been of the, well, weedy, greeny, cannabis kind, or worse (a value judgment here). This is a first sentence of actual stoning, with real rocks. This dog missed an opportunity to become a cause célèbre, a la poor Sakinah Ashtiani of Iran.
Occasionally some of these Jewish rabbis act as if totally stoned out of their minds, just like many Muslim ones, almost. Some Muslim clerics have issued fatwas for the elimination of man’s best friend, but none has recommended that they be stoned. As far as I know.
Before anyone gets the wrong idea, Christians in Europe have for centuries sentenced and executed innocent four-legged animals on various suspicions. They probably don’t do it anymore.
Cheers
mhg


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