{"id":52435,"date":"2015-01-12T12:00:37","date_gmt":"2015-01-12T12:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=52435"},"modified":"2015-05-05T21:27:04","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T20:27:04","slug":"global-outrage-at-saudi-arabia-as-jailed-blogger-receives-public-flogging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2015\/01\/global-outrage-at-saudi-arabia-as-jailed-blogger-receives-public-flogging\/","title":{"rendered":"Global Outrage at Saudi Arabia as Jailed Blogger Receives Public Flogging"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kingdom stays silent as protesters contrast its opposition to Paris attacks on free speech with its own attacks on free speech.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Saudi<\/a>

Saudi blogger Raif Badawi<\/p><\/div>\n

11 Jan 2015 – <\/em>Saudi Arabia is remaining silent in the face of global outrage at the public flogging of the jailed blogger Raif Badawi, who received the first 50 of 1,000 lashes on Friday [9 Jan 2015], part of his punishment for running a liberal website devoted to freedom of speech in the conservative kingdom.<\/p>\n

Anger at the flogging \u2013 carried out as the world watched the bloody denouement of the Charlie Hebdo and Jewish supermarket jihadi killings in Paris \u2013 focused on a country that is a strategic ally, oil supplier and lucrative market for the US, Britain and other western countries but does not tolerate criticism at home.<\/p>\n

Badawi was shown on a YouTube video<\/a> being beaten in a square outside a mosque in Jeddah, watched by a crowd of several hundred who shouted \u201cAllahu Akbar\u201d (God is great) and clapped and whistled after the flogging ended. Badawi made no sound during the flogging and was able to walk back unaided afterwards.<\/p>\n

\u201cRaif was escorted from a bus and placed in the middle of the crowd, guarded by eight or nine officers,\u201d a witness told Amnesty International.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was handcuffed and shackled but his face was not covered. A security officer approached him from behind with a huge cane and started beating him.<\/p>\n

\u201cRaif raised his head towards the sky, closing his eyes and arching his back. He was silent, but you could tell from his face and his body that he was in real pain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Badawi\u2019s wife, Ensaf Haidar, told the Guardian from Montreal on Sunday: \u201cMany governments around the world have protested about my husband\u2019s case. I was optimistic until the last minute before the flogging. But the Saudi government is behaving like Daesh [a derogatory Arabic name for Islamic State or Isis].\u201d<\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia joined other Arab and Muslim countries in condemning the murder of 12 people at the Paris satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo but angry comments highlighted its double standard in meting out a cruel punishment to a man who was accused of insulting Islam.<\/p>\n

One cartoon circulating on social media<\/a> showed a man resembling Badawi being flogged alongside the words: \u201cSaudi Arabia condemns the terrorist attack on freedom of expression in Paris\u00a0\u2026\u201d Another image showed a pencil being flayed by whips<\/a>.<\/p>\n

One woman at Sunday\u2019s Paris solidarity rally carried a placard declaring: \u201cI am Raif Badawi, the Saudi journalist who was flogged.\u201d Others protested at the presence of the Saudi foreign minister.<\/p>\n

Badawi was sentenced last May to 10 years\u2019 imprisonment and 1,000 lashes \u2013 50 at a time over 20 weeks \u2013 and fined 1m Saudi riyals (\u00a3175,000). He has been held since mid-2012, and his Free Saudi Liberals website, established to encourage debate on religious and political matters in Saudi Arabia, is closed.<\/p>\n

He is expected to receive another 50 lashes this Friday.<\/p>\n

Arabic Twitter users condemned Saudi Arabia for behaving like Isis \u2013 part of the argument that the fundamental values promoted by the Saudi state do not differ from those that are carried to a brutal extreme by the jihadi group that controls parts of Syria and Iraq.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust a reminder,\u201d tweeted one Tunisian woman. \u201cThose who criticise Isis, which beheads and flogs people, and lines up children to watch, are the ones who are making excuses for the flogging of a man in Saudi Arabia. They are all Isis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia is one of five Arab countries in the US-led coalition fighting Isis. It has arrested hundreds of people for alleged links to terrorism and imposed penalties on those travelling abroad to fight \u2013 though it still wants the overthrow of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad.<\/p>\n

About 2,500 Saudis have fought with Isis.<\/p>\n

The US, EU and others publicly urged Riyadh not to go ahead with the flogging. Britain\u2019s Foreign Office said: \u201cThe UK condemns the use of cruel and degrading punishment in all circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesman said on Sunday that concerns about the case continued to be expressed \u201cat all levels\u201d. There is no sign that the Saudis\u2019 western allies will take any punitive action to back up their protests.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Saudis have a policy for inside the country where they want to show that they are pious and protect the faith,\u201d said Ali al-Ahmed, of the Washington-based Institute for Gulf Affairs.<\/p>\n

\u201cOutside they project the opposite impression, that they are liberals and that it\u2019s ordinary people who are savage and conservative.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why the west says: \u2018Yes, we need to protect the Saudi royals because the alternative is Osama bin Laden.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s worked for the Saudis and it gives the west an excuse not to support any kind of change or reform.\u201d<\/p>\n

Badawi\u2019s punishment is part of a wider campaign against domestic dissent. His lawyer, Waleed Abu al-Khair, was sentenced to 15 years in prison last July because of criticism of human rights abuses.<\/p>\n

His case resumes on Monday, with the government reportedly seeking an even harsher sentence.<\/p>\n

Fadhil al-Manasif is facing 14 years in prison on charges stemming from his assistance to journalists covering protests over the treatment of Shia Muslims in the Sunni-dominated country.<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 theguardian.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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