Woman with a Spray of Flowers, Safavid Iran, 1575 CE (Photo credit: mesosyn.com)
How can one publish a post dated 22 June on 24 June? Well, it’s possible.
My post on Arabization and Islamization is dated 22 June 2017 because it was first published privately on 22 June 2017. I didn’t know whether or not I should publish it. There are individuals who wish to know whether or not Iranians are Arabs, but many of us were witnesses to the 1979 Iranian Revolution and the departure of the Shah of Iran. There were tragic moments.
Most Iranians, 90 to 95%, are Shia Muslims and Iran is not a member of the Arab World.
For information on Europe and the Middle East, you will find answers at Eyes on Europe & the Middle East. There are frequent changes to the current conflicts in the Middle East. Keeping up with events and alliances is too difficult.
I should point out that Bashar al-Assad, the President of Syria, is an Alawite Muslim (Shia Islam). Most Syrians however are Sunni Muslims and Syria has /had many minorities. Sadly, many Syrians have been killed or have walked out of their country. Moreover, Syria’s cultural heritage is being destroyed. (See Destruction of Cultural Heritage by ISIL, Wikipedia.)
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I am profoundly disturbed by the atrocities committed by ISIL and by Human Rights violations in the Middle East and in North Korea. In particular, it worries me to know that US President Donald Trump travelled to Saudi Arabia and signed a US$110 bln arms deal.
The President knows, or should know, that there is enmity between Saudi Arabia and Iran. I am glad however that Europe is still a United Europe.
It’s a very short post. I have commitments at the moment. Things will slow down.
Reproduction of the world’s oldest example of animation, dating back to the late half of the 3rd millennium BCE, found in Burnt City, Iran (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Many of us are confused. Who is a Muslim? Who is an Arab? Are Arabs Muslims and / or Muslims Arabs?
Arabs are people indigenous to the Arabian Peninsula, also called Arabia. Saudi Arabia is an Arab country and most of its citizens are Muslims, a religion. Saudi Arabs are Sunni Muslims (a religion) but many are Wahhabis, a fundamentalist Muslim sect. However, Saudi Arabia is home to a Shia Muslim population.
The people of Iran/Persia are notArabs, but most are Muslims, Shia Muslims. Syrians are Shia Muslims, but Syria is also inhabited by Sunni Muslims. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is an Alawite Shia Muslim.
Arabian Peninsula
Persia/Iran
The Arabian Peninsula (left) and Iran/Persia (right)
The Arabian Peninsula is home to Arabs, but the people of Iran were Arabized in the 7th century CE. (See Arab Conquest of Persia, Wikipedia.)
The map below shows the three expansions of Patriarchal Caliphates, or Arabization.
Arab Conquests from 661 to 750
Age of the Caliphs. Expansion under the Prophet Muhammad, 622-632. Expansion during the Patriarchal Caliphate, 632-661. Expansion during the Umayyad Caliphate, 661-750 (Photo credit: Caliphate, Wikipedia.)
Saudi Arabia
Sunni Islam (± 75%)
Wahhabism: fundamentalism
an Absolute Monarchy
Human Rights violations
Raif Badawi
Saudi Muslims are Sunni Muslims, but many are Wahhabis. As described in Wikipedia, Wahhabism is “ultraconservative,” “austere,” “fundamentalist,” or “puritan(ical).” Saudis behead, crucify, mutilate, flagellate and imprison unjustly. Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy, which means that King Salman has divine rights. (See Divine right of kings, Wikipedia.) Raif Badawi has been in a Saudi jail for five years because he had a website in which he advocated greater liberalism in Saudi Arabia.
Mr Badawi appealed his first sentence: 6 years of imprisonment and 600 lashes. Upon appealing his sentence, in 2015, Raif was sentenced to a 10-year term in jail, 1,000 lashes, and a fine of approximately $250,000.00. Upon his appeal, Raif Badawi was also accused of apostasy, an accusation which carries a death sentence. Mr Badawi’s wife, Ensaf Haidar, a human rights activist, lives in my community with her three children by Mr Badawi. They are our cause, but it could be a desperate cause. Saudi Arabia is an extremely rich country. It was the first country President Trump visited in his official capacities.
Iran / Persia fell to Islam in the 7th century. Iran is one of the world’s oldest civilizations, dating back to Sumer: 4000 BCE. It was Elam and Elamites spoke the Elamite language. It flourished as the Achaemenian Empire or Achaemedid Empire (ca. 550 BCE – 330 BCE). Persepolis was the capital of the Achaemedid Empire. It was conquered by Alexander the Great (334 BCE) and Hellenized. It was the Seleucid Empire (312 BCE – 63 BC; defeated in 238 BCE), the Parthian Empire (247 BCE – 224 BCE) and the Sasanian Empire (224 to 651 CE, or the Arab conquest).
It was named Persia from the Greek Persis (see Persepolis, Wikipedia). The Arab conquest of Iran saw the decline of the Persian language as well as the religions of Persia, Zoroastrianism and Manichaeism. Iran had much to contribute to the Islamic Golden Age, from the 8th century to the 13th century. It’s conversion to Shia Islam occurred under the Safavid Dynasty (Safavid Shahs) in the 15th century. By the 18th century, under Nader Shah,
“Persia briefly possessed what was arguably the most powerful empire at the time.” (See Iran, Wikipedia.)
Iran is multicultural. It comprises Persians (61%), Azeris (16%), Kurds (10%), and Lurs (6%). Iran is not a member of the Arab World. (See Iran, Wikipedia.)
Panel with striding lion Neo-Babylonian, ca. 604 – 562 BCE, Mesopotamia (Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY)
The magnificent lions shown above date back to a pre-Islamic Persia. Works I showed in a post entitled Islamic Art featured the art of Iran and other Muslim countries. The second lion is a hybrid or zoomorphic beast. His hind legs are those of a griffin, a legendary animal.
Turkey is also a Muslim country. Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire, (Eastern Orthodox Christianity) fell to the Seljuk Turks in 1453. Constantinople became the capital of the Ottoman Empire, but although it is home to Muslims, 75% of whom are Sunnis, and others Alevis, Shia Muslims, Turkey was not Arabized. Turkey became a Persianate society. Wikipedia quotes Marshal Hogdson:
“The rise of Persian had more than purely literary consequences: it served to carry a new overall cultural orientation within Islamdom. … Most of the more local languages of high culture that later emerged among Muslims … depended upon Persian wholly or in part for their prime literary inspiration. We may call all these cultural traditions, carried in Persian or reflecting Persian inspiration, ‘Persianate’ by extension.”
Turkey was not Arabised and Iran differs from Saudi Arabia. Iran is home to Shia Muslims and Saudi Arabia is inhabited by Sunni Muslims and Wahhabis. They are different entities. Iran is not a member of the Arab World. The 22 states making up the Arab World are listed under Arab World (please click). Iran’s cultural heritage is extremely rich. As well, it has a parliament. As noted above, in 1979, Iran refused to be Westernized.
A map of the Arab world, based on the standard territorial definition of the Arab world, which comprises the 22 states of the Arab League (Comoros is not shown). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Not only has a reversion of Arabization begun, but so have attempts to create a more liberal Islam. The Arab Spring started with the Tunisian Revolution on 17 December 2010. (See Arab Spring, Wikipedia.) The Tunisian Revolution was successful. It led to greater democratization. However, other Muslims societies are also seeking reforms. Raif Badawi is in a Saudi jail because, as noted above, he advocated a more liberal Saudi Arabia. The Saudis still behead people.
Saudi Arabia is an Arab country, but Iran is not. Iran, however, is a Muslim country. It is home to Shia Muslims mainly, There are other religious groups in the Middle East. Islam however is one of the Abrahamic religions. Jesus, Isa ibn Maryam, was a prophet in the Abrahamic religions. (See Jesus in Islam, Wikipedia.) However, Muhammad, who was born in Mecca, founded Islam. He was 40 when the archangel Gabriel, brought him messages from God. Christianity is rooted in Judaism, one of three Abrahamic religions, the third being Islam:
Judaism (seventh century BCE),
Christianity (first century CE),
Islam (seventh century CE).
I will close by quoting Wikipedia
“The Abrahamic religions, also referred to collectively as Abrahamism, are a group of Semitic-originated religious sects that claim descent from the practices of the ancient Israelites and the worship of the God of Abraham.” (Read more under Abrahamic religions, Wikipedia.)
I would like to express my condolences to the people of Britain. On 22 May 2017, only two months after the 22 March Westminster bridge attack, the Manchester Arena was targeted. Twenty-two (22) persons were killed, including 8-year-old Saffie Rose Roussos, and 53, perhaps more, were wounded. The victims were attending a performance by American singer Ariana Grande.
The killer has been identified as 22-year-old Salman Abedi who was born to Libyan parents in Manchester, England, on 31 January 1994. French and British authorities have confirmed that Salman Abedi travelled to Syria and was radicalized.
Once again, it would be my opinion that the attacker, 22-year-old Salman Abedi, who has been described as a “regular kid,” may have acted in response to the current wave of Islamophobia, in the United States especially. The President’s professed Islamophobia may be incitement to murder.
On Monday, 29 May 2017, “two men were stabbed to death on an Oregon train trying to stop an anti-Muslim rant.”
President Trump was in Europe last week, but he first visited Saudi Arabia. After his visit, the Saudis suggested that President Trump’s Islamophobia was a ploy aimed at attracting votes. He, Donald Trump, would not allow would-be killers to enter the United States.
This was a callous response to the European Migrant Crisis[1]and, contrary to the Saudis’ view, Mr Trump “made good” on his campaign promises. On 27 January 2017, a newly-inaugurated President Donald J. Trump issued Executive Order 13769 restricting the entry of Syrian refugees[2] into the United States and imposing a travel-ban affecting seven countries of the Middle East: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. (See Executive Order 13769, Wikipedia.)
In late March, the Canadian government passed an anti-Islamophobia motion in an attempt to protect its Muslim citizens. I would never have suspected the government of my country would have to resort to a forceful measure to discourage discrimination.
I should also note that the New Year’s eve attack on Istanbul has revealed a reëmergence of a fear, and probably dislike, of the United States in Turkey.
Turkey is an officially secular country, but at birth, citizens of Turkey are registered as Muslims. (See Religion in Turkey, Wikipedia). Istanbul, the former Constantinople, was the capital of the Ottoman Empire, which was defeated during World War I.
Since the 15 July 2016 coup d’état, harshly repressed by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, there has been a shift away from the West in Turkey. On 4 January 2017, New York Times journalist Tim Arango reported that: “instead of unifying to confront terrorism, Turkish society is fracturing further with each attack. The West, symbolized by the United States, is the perennial bogeyman.”
Turkey is a member of NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, l’Organisation du Traité de l’Atlantique Nord, l’OTAN (see Member States of NATO).
Conclusion
I will conclude by quoting writer, journalist and commentator Fareed Zakaria. On 4 May 2017, Mr Zakaria wrote that “Trump is turning other countries against the United States.”
President Trump is now attacking Germany, and Adam Taylor of the Washington Post reports that “even Angela Merkel’s political rivals are on her side against Trump.” Of course! President Trump is attacking Germany, all of Germany!
In fact, Europe is folding back. On 28 May, German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke in no uncertain terms when she stated that the continent, we, “really must take our fate into our own hands.”
[2] Refugees from the Middle East are Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans. Most are Muslims, but Canada has also welcomed Christians, Armenians and Assyrians (Syriacs) and Yazidis, whose faith combines a number of beliefs. The persecution of Yazidis by ISIL was genocidal.
A few weeks ago, I attempted to publish a post on the Syrian Civil War. I was at a bit of a loss, but one of our colleagues suggested helpful reading. I thank him sincerely.
The link below leads to a brief account of the war in Syria, produced by the BBC. It is not as fresh an account as I would like it to be, but it is a concise and, I believe, accurate account.
Canada has been welcoming refugees from Syria. However, the Civil War in Syria is part of a larger problem and it has multiple origins, not all of which constitute interference and intervention on the part of the West. Much of this problem is endemic as many of these countries are autocracies where law is faith and faith is law. It’s called the Sharia law and it may be applied to oppress the innocent and the powerless who should be protected under the terms of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. For instance, it can be extremely useful to dictators as well as terrorist organizations. They can destroy lives with a clear conscience by choosing a literal, not to say distorted, interpretation of Sharia law.
That is how countries in the Midde East differ from one another. Some countries choose a liberal interpretation of Sharia law. Some don’t. If the power of a leader is threatened, a literal reading of Sharia law may save him. He clamps down. In other words, the countries of the Middle East are autocracies buttressed by a legal system that is also a religion and, in certain countries, such as Saudi Arabia, empowered by money. Petrolium is a product other countries need.
Let’s take a closer look.
A Stallion, painting by Habibalah of Save (active ca. 1590-1610) Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
Lady Holding a Flower, painting by Muhammadi of Herat (active Qazvin, c. 1570-1578; Herat, c. 1578-87) Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
On the contrary, the Arab Spring invited a more liberal interpretation of Islam’s sacred texts. Religious texts are open to interpretation. They demand exegesis which is “a critical explanation or interpretation of a text, particularly a religious text.” (See Exegesis, Wikipedia.) The response to the Arab Spring was not “a critical explanation or interpretation of a text,” the Qur’an and the Hadith, but a stricter interpretation of a text.
Justice, real justice, can be served without beheadings, mutilation, torture and wrongful detention. On 21 August 2013, Bashar al-Assad allegedly ordered the use of a chemical weapon, sarin, that killed hundreds of innocent Syrians and, among them, many children. The victims may have been Sunni Muslims, but although he is an Alawite Shiite, Assad is westernized and he is married to the British-born daughter of Sunni Muslims whom he met when he was studying ophthalmology in London.
His reaction was not that of a God-loving Alawite Shia Muslim, but that of a despot. Assad dug in his heels to protect his position as President of Syria. He could have introduced some measure of democracy, but he chose otherwise and he seems to have relinquished part of Syria to the so-called Islamic State, or was it taken from him?
Members of Daesh/Isil behead, mutilate, stone to death, burn people alive, drown people alive. They crucify, torture, enslave, rape, &c, on what is still Syrian soil. How can the people of Syria survive wedged between attacks from rebel factions and raids by Daesh? Allah does not approve.
Sharia Law
Raif Badawi.
Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr
Consequently, although it may seem like a pious observance of Islam’s laws, the imprisonment of Raif Badawi and the execution in early January 2016 of Sheik Nimr al-Nimr and 46 other detainees, was not altogether deference to a prophet. King Salman of Saudi Arabia, a Whahhabi Sunni Muslim, was protecting his absolute monarchy and to do so, he put Sharia law into his own service: to rule unopposed. Raif Badawi, a Shia Muslim, imprisoned and he may be flogged again because he asked for more liberalism in Saudi Arabia. In fact, Raif Badawi may be executed. He has been moved to an area of the prison in which he is held where detainees await execution. SheikhNimr al-Nimr was also advocating more tolerance, but loudly.
As I suggested above, sharia law is a gift to dogmatic leaders in the Arab world. Making conflicts look sectarian also benefits our belligerents: Sunnis are battling Shiites and Shiites are battling Sunnis, Islam’s two main branches is very useful. It takes blame away from perpetrators. They keep Sharia law at their fingertips. Sharia law is the mask behind which these tyrants stand.
If one has read Molière’s Tartuffe (1664 to 1669), one knows that Tartuffe’s devotion is a mask he wears to seduce Orgon’s wife, using casuistry. Orgon is the name of the head of the household. All members of Orgon’s family know that Tartuffe is an impostor, but Orgon needs someone who can take sin out of sinning, which is Sharia law‘s main virtue. Tartuffe makes is possible for Orgon to be a tyrant. So does Sharia law.
Conclusion
The debate has been to determine whether the conflicts in the Middle East are secular (wordly) rather than sectarian (religious). In the Middle East, were it possible, separating faith and fate would probably help quell atrocities. But it would have to come from within. As noted above, to a large extent, Sharia law is a violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
But it appears we have a new Hitler.
Hitler invaded other countries and killed 6,000,000 Jews as well as people he looked upon as ‘abnormal’, by his standard. At this point, I find it very difficult not to compare the atrocities perpetrated by the Nazis to atrocities perpetrated by Isil/Daesh. Nazism was a cancer and so is Daesh/Isil.
So far, fewer people have died in the conflict in Syria than Jews in Hitler’s death camps, but the life of those who have fled has been taken from them. Various countries are taking in refugees, but refugees have lost their home.
In short, although the West went on Crusades in the Middle East, although Western countries were “protectorates” and partitioned Palestine as if it were theirs to partition, at the centre of crises in the Middle East is a thirst for power and for blood. Lives do not matter. Limbs do not matter, and Allah is a mere tool in the hands of tyrants, which is a sin.
However, it remains our duty to let the countries of the Middle East determine their future, to respect their wish for self-determination as well as their culture, when it does not infringe upon basic human rights, formulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
A new Hitler and rekindled Fascism.
We do have a new Hitler and rekindled fascism: Isil/Daesh, that must be neutralized or eliminated. In an earlier post, I suggested starvation: no weapons, no food &c. Others probably have better solutions than my humble: don’t give them weapons.
Therefore, allow me to repeat that the Prophet Muhammad’s teaching can be encapsulated in his “mercy to all the creation.”
An Angel playing a Flageolet by Edward Burne-Jones (Photo credit:WikiArt.org)
Let me pause so I can wish all of you a Merry Christmas.
You have been very dear to me for several years. In fact, you have been at times a life-line and, because of you, I have researched many topics. I knew these existed, but I took a closer look.
Your posts are informative, lovely, and always a pleasure to read or view.
An Angel playing a Flageolet
Sir Edward Burne-Jones was William Morris‘ friend from the moment they met at Oxford until Morris’ death in 1896. They shared a passion: beauty, the Middle Ages in particular. Burne-Jones is a little somber.
They, Walter Crane, and other members of the Arts and Crafts Movement domesticated beauty and beauty can be domesticated. The apartment I live in has been a disappointment. It has inadequate soundproofing, etc. But what a fine space. It was beautifully designed and a joy to decorate.
A Contract with Saudi Arabia
Raif Badawi: to be flogged
no intervention by Canada’s Prime Minister
I will close by asking you to pray for Raif Badawi. Saudi Arabia is showing no compassion. Flogging Raif Badawi will resume, but he will be flogged indoors. He asked for more tolerance and is therefore innocent. Being flogged will kill him.
Canada’s new Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, has decided not to intervene on Raif’s behalf because, under the previous government, Canada signed a lucrative contract with the Saudis: 15 billion dollars for supplying light armoured vehicles.
Therefore, on the one hand Canada is welcoming refugees, but on the other hand, it is providing weapons to a country that has long been violating International Law. Shame on us!
I hope these vehicles will be not be given to Isis. Saudi Arabia’s position with respect to Isis is difficult to assess.
Disarmed and hungry, Isis cannot survive. All its lines of supply should be cut off, including food if necessary. Otherwise, one strike will lead to another and the conflict will not end.
Planes filled with refugees are arriving in Canada, but the government will fall short of its goal of transporting 10,000 refugees before 2016. Quebec was to greet 3,650. Will it?
Altogether, Canada will take in 25,000 refugees and 15,000 civil servants are working to make sure the normal procedure is followed. Refugees must be identified before they board the planes that will fly them to Canada. They cannot otherwise be supplied with a Social Insurance Number (SIN or NAS) and a Health Insurance Card as soon as they arrive. The Syrian Civil War has created a bureaucratic nightmare for host countries. Canada must nevertheless give Syrians a home.
It will be a humble Christmas, but it will be Christmas. We are now past the Winter Solstice. It occurred on 22 December. Nights will be shorter and shorter.
Montreal city council is lending its support to Raif Badawi, as well as his wife and three children who are currently living in Quebec. (Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press) (Caption and photo credit: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation)
It was not my intention to post a revised version of my article on Relativity and the Rule of Law, but it happened. This post, on Raif Badawi, also published itself automatically.
The Montreal City Council
A unanimous vote
A message sent to Ottawa
According to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the municipal council of the city of Montreal voted unanimously to ask that Raif Badawi be released and join his wife and children in Quebec. Denis Coderre, the mayor of Montreal and a former Minister of Immigration at the Federal level, Ottawa, is asking that the Canadian Government provide Raif Badawi with a special permit granting him the status of landed immigrant. Mr Badawi would be given a Canadian passport.
Badawi’s wife Ensaf Haidar lives in Quebec with their three children. She has been actively petitioning the government to step in on behalf of her husband and seek his release from a Saudi jail. (Fred Chartrand/CP) (Caption and photo credit: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation)
Humanitarian and Compassionate Grounds
Mr Badawi has now been detained for three years and was flogged on 9 January 2015. He would be released on Humanitarian and Compassionate grounds. He has a wife and three children in Canada and should be allowed to join them.
Ensaf Haidar, Mr Badawi’s wife, has appeared on television programmes Canadians do not miss: Tout le monde en parle (Everyone is talking about it) and As it happens.
Mr Badawi’s case is being reviewed by the Saudi Supreme Court. Canada has a friendly relationship with the Saudi government. Whether or not this factor will help Mr Badawi is impossible to predict.
Raif Badawi will not be flogged today, 23 January 2015. In fact, he may not be flogged again. He is not robust and suffers from diabetes. Consequently, he might not survive another flogging. Mr Badawi has not been sentenced to death.
As you all know, Mr Badawi’s case has been referred to the Supreme Court. This, in my opinion, voids his earlier sentence. They may not agree.
Condolences and a Plea
However, I have an option. I can appeal to the royal family. I am therefore asking King Salman to spare Mr Badawi further floggings and possible death by torture, and to put him on a plane to Canada. We are waiting for him. He might need a wheelchair.
I cannot change the laws of Saudi Arabia. If the laws of Saudi Arabia are to be changed, it is for Saudis to change them.
I am told that flogging is popular in Saudi Arabia, which means that I may be laughed at if I suggest the laws of Saudi Arabia should be in keeping with the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights and concomitant International Law. It may take forever before I am heard.
The Feasible
Therefore, all I can do is, first,
offer my sympathies to the royal family. King Abdullah has died and the new king is King Salman, his half-brother;
second, beg the new king, King Salman, to show mercy and release Raif Badawi. The government of Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy. I must therefore go straight to the King himself and Saudi Arabian authorities, his entourage.
I live in a country where freedom of expression is unhindered, except for libel, defamation, incitement to violence, etc. Therefore, I cannot understand why Mr Badawi is serving a jail sentence of ten years for advocating more tolerance towards liberals in Saudi Arabia. Moreover, I live in a country where citizens are not subjected to flogging. For me, what is happening to Raif Badawi makes no sense, but for the Saudis, the values I am promoting may seem ridiculous.
One Act of Clemency
I am therefore using my blog to ask for clemency, one act of clemency. That is all I can ask for and perhaps obtain. I am therefore asking King Salman to release Mr Badawi because his children need a father and his wife, a husband.
Please release Raif Badawi.
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My kindest regards to all of you.
Black Stork in a Landscape, ca. 1780 India, probably Lucknow, Colonial British Watercolor on European paper (Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY)
The Old man and the Youth, painting by Reza-ye Abbasi (ca. 1565 – 1635) (Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY)
“There are limits…”
Pope Francis was in the Philippines recently and commented on the concept of freedom of expression. He said:
“‘There is a limit. Every religion has its dignity … in freedom of expression there are limits.’
He gestured to Alberto Gasparri, who organises papal trips and was standing by his side, and added: ‘If my good friend Dr Gasparri says a curse word against my mother, he can expect a punch. It’s normal. It’s normal. You cannot provoke. You cannot insult the faith of others. You cannot make fun of the faith of others.’
Cautioning against provocation he said the right to liberty of expression came with the obligation to speak for ‘the common good’.”
Yes, there are limits to freedom of expression, but Raif Badawi respected these limits in that he spoke for “the common good” and did so “peacefully.” He is in fact an excellent example of what seems too repressive a judiciary in Saudi Arabia. According to Amnesty International, he is “detained solely for peacefully exercising his right to freedom of expression,” which makes him a prisoner of conscience.
Raif Badawi: a “Gratuitous, violent sentence”
Mr Badawi was originally sentenced to a seven-year term in prison and 600 lashes: flagellation. Upon appeal, he was condemned to a ten-year term in prison, a fine of approximately $266,000, and to nearly double the number of lashes: 1,000. Both the original and second sentences puzzle me.
If an appeal for clemency leads to a harsher sentence, one may have reason to believe that the harsher sentence is a “gratuitous, violent sentence,” as described by the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) (See Raif Badawi, Wikipedia.) Furthermore, one is also led to suspect that the initial sentence was a “gratuitous, violent sentence.” I fail to see how Mr Badawi insulted Islam and, in this regard, the discrepancy between his two sentences may point to a wrongful conviction, not to mention vindictiveness.
Moreover, if flogging Mr Badawi on Friday 16 September could have imperiled his life, it would be my opinion that the remaining 950 lashes would have killed him. Torture is a violation of human rights, but in Mr Badawi’s case, it would appear that flagellation conceals a death sentence: death by flagellation, which is, in the extreme, a “gratuitous, violent sentence.” As I wrote in an earlier post, Raif Badawi was not sentenced to death. If torture leads to Mr Badawi’s death, justice will not have been served.
However, given that Mr Badawi’s case has been referred to the Supreme Court of Saudi Arabia, I should think that both his earlier sentences no longer have any validity and that the Supreme Court has a clean slate, i.e. the Cartesian, René Descartes‘ tabula rasa. (See Le Discours de la méthode, deuxième partie, the Discourse on the Method, second part.[1] The text can be read online in both the original French and in translation. See Sources and Resources.
Conclusion
Pope Francis stated that “the right to liberty of expression came with the obligation to speak for ‘the common good’.” All Mr Badawi advocated is more tolerance and leniency towards liberals in Saudi Arabia, which was a legitimate request. Remember La Fontaine‘s “The Oak and the Reed.” The sturdy and mighty oak is felled by a powerful storm, but the reed bends, and it does not break: “Je plie, et ne romps pas.”
I am confident that once the Supreme Court of Saudi Arabia has reviewed Mr Badwani’s case, king Abdullah and Saudi officials will free him. King Abdullah’s status in the United Nations allows me to think that having been apprised of the facts, he will be “reasonable” and release Raif Badawi. I cannot presume otherwise.
It may be unrealistic, but I hope countries everywhere will soon live in harmony: no terrorists, no strikes, no warmongers…
[1] René Descartes, textes présentés par André Bridoux, Œuvres et Lettres (Gallimard, Bibliothèque de La Pléiade, 1953), p. 137. tabula rasa means a table that has been cleared up
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