ISLAM and barbarity go together like a dog and fleas – and nowhere is this more apparent than in Saudi Arabia, where a court has just sentenced a 75-year-old Syrian woman to 40 lashes, four months imprisonment and deportation from the kingdom for “mingling” with two men.
According to the Saudi daily newspaper Al-Watan, (via CNN), Khamisa Mohammed Sawadi’s woes began last year when a member of the religious police entered her house in the city of Al-Chamli and found her with two unrelated men – Fahd and Hadian.
Fahd told the policeman that he had the right to be there, because Sawadi had breast-fed him as a baby and was therefore considered to be a son to her in Islam. Fahd, 24, added that his friend Hadian was escorting him as he delivered bread for the elderly woman. The policeman then arrested both men.
In 2007, a 19-year-old gang-rape victim in the Saudi city of Qatif was sentenced to 200 lashes and six months in prison for meeting with an unrelated male. The seven rapists, who had abducted the woman and man, received sentences ranging from ten months to five years in prison. The case sparked international outrage, and Saudi King Abdullah subsequently pardoned the woman and the unrelated male.
Saudi Arabia follows a strict interpretation of Islam called Wahhabism and punishes unrelated men and women who are caught “mingling”.
Al Watan obtained the court’s verdict and reported that it was partly based on the testimony of the religious police. In his ruling, the judge said it had been proved that Fahd was not the Sawadi’s son through breastfeeding.
Fahd was sentenced to four months in prison and 40 lashes; Hadian was sentenced to six months in prison and 60 lashes.
Sawadi told the newspaper that she planned to appeal against the sentence.
The case has sparked anger in Saudi Arabia. Saudi women’s rights activist Wajeha Al-Huwaider told CNN:
It’s made everybody angry because this is like a grandmother. Forty lashes – how can she handle that pain? You cannot justify it.
The actions of the religious police have come under increased scrutiny in Saudi Arabia recently, as more and more Saudis urge that the commission’s powers be limited.
Last week, the religious police detained two male novelists for questioning after they tried to get the autograph of a female writer, Halima Muzfar, at a book fair in Riyadh, the capital of the kingdom.
Al-Huwaider added:
This is the problem with the religious police … watching people and thinking they’re bad all the time. It has nothing to do with religion. It’s all about control. And the more you spread fear among people, the more you control them. It’s giving a bad reputation to the country.
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
March 9th, 2009 at 10:03 pm
What kind of animal will they get to administer the punishment, whipping this old lady to within an inch of her life?
March 9th, 2009 at 10:21 pm
@Alun: A koranimal.
March 9th, 2009 at 11:57 pm
I think its fair to say that one of the most vile places on earth is Saudi Arabia. If a huge asteroid or a nuke happened to make that entire place cease to exist, the whole world would breathe a collective sigh of relief. I can think of no other society on this planet more full of tyrants and cowards.
March 10th, 2009 at 1:23 am
nullifidian,
Nice one!
Alun,
I watched a video on YouTube of one of the executioners ‘working’ in saudi arabia. He’s mad as you can imagine. There will be no shortage of people to do this kind of thing and as I’m sure you are well aware, in many places cursed by islam the ordinary citizens take it upon themselves to administer punishment, including execution, at the drop of a hat, right there and then when the ‘crime’ is committed.
This guy beheaded people. He was the son of an executioner and inherited his swords. He had a collection of swords which he was obviously very proud of and was interviewed on TV from his home where the interviewers (one of whom was a woman which surprised and shocked me at the same time) took a very light hearted approach to the line of questioning and his answers. He talked about this in front of his young children too though he explained that his eldest son was training (I wonder what that involves) to do the same job. That’s ok then I suppose.
He was very proud to be carrying out allah’s punishment
It is a mad sick place and no doubt about it.
March 10th, 2009 at 4:25 am
I get this picture of a medieval executioner. Slightly mentally/physically retarded with a black leather hood concealing his identity and bags of enthusiasm.
Friend of mine used work as an engineer in their oilfields. He told me that if there was some sort of public judicial punishment going off, the police would make sure any westerners in the vicinity got an eyeful.
He also mentioned what to do if you happen across an item of value in the street. Walk on by, just leave it and don’t even think of handing it in to the police lest they accuse you of theft and we all know the consequences.
I’m off to work now and I shall definitely be “mingling”.
March 10th, 2009 at 5:02 am
It’s giving a bad reputation to the country.
Woah! Easy with the present participle, Al-Huwaider!
March 10th, 2009 at 5:13 am
My comment from the Catholic article back there is even more relevant here….Really makes you wonder: how obvious does evil have to be, before superstitious people recognise it, and reject it?
March 10th, 2009 at 7:14 am
The phrase “Muslim woman” is becoming more oxymoronic to me every time I hear about abuse like this.
March 10th, 2009 at 10:16 am
The sooner the oil runs out the better. Then they can go back to camel buggering and pointing at the shiny metal birds.
March 10th, 2009 at 10:49 am
And we kiss their assses because they have oil, this is a country still in the dark ages and always will be because of their back assward religion, just like the rcc still lives in the dark ages
March 10th, 2009 at 3:22 pm
If there is a god, he certainly played a hilarious prank, making our civilization dependent on a natural resource controlled by the least rational and compassionate culture. And it’s not just Texas…
March 10th, 2009 at 8:43 pm
This is the problem with the religious police … watching people and thinking they’re bad all the time. It has nothing to do with religion. It’s all about control.
That’s it in a nutshell. It’s all about control.
March 10th, 2009 at 10:42 pm
I’m just wondering who this “religious police” model themselves on… the Spanish Inquisition or the Gestapo?
Actually thinking about it, they probably predate both.