Pity 23-year old Hamza Kashgari, a journalist from Saudi Arabia who is staring at a possible death penalty for tweeting, inter alia, the following social and quasi-religious comments, the first addressing the Prophet Mohammed on his birthday and the second being a more general comment on Saudi Arabia's attitude to women:
On your birthday, I find you wherever I turn. I will say that I have loved aspects of you, hated others, and could not understand many more
and;
No Saudi women will go to hell, because it's impossible to go there twice.
Similar tweets in the UK would arouse little comment. Nobody has been libelled, nobody has been mobbed, nobody has incited hatred or made racist, sexist or homophobic comments. To me the first comment seems innocuous, there is a lot to be confused about in the Koran and in Mohammed's life, as there is in the Christian Bible and Jesus' life. The second comment is directed against the living hell that confronts a female child born into Saudi Arabian society - owned and traded by the family menfolk and with less legal rights than her brothers, life can be tragic for Saudi women (remember the teenage girls pushed back, by the religious police, into a burning school to die horribly because their hair wasn't covered!).
Saudi Arabia is not, however, a democracy, but is an oppressive mediaeval theocracy where poorly educated religious leaders hold sway (yes they have learnt the Koran off by heart, but they are not capable of dealing with human nature and have less general knowledge than the average 10-year old in the UK). Hamza Kashgari was the victim of a Facebook campaign calling for his execution and received 30,000 critical comments in 24-hours (presumably on twitter). The young man booked a flight to New Zealand and fled the country. Unfortunately he had to transit through Malaysia, a country that feigns human rights standards (although they still cane people). There he was seized and, despite attempts by lawyers to protect him, handed over to the Saudi police since Malaysia saw him as a terrorist (original claims that Interpol was involved have been rejected). Shame on Malaysia.
There are more articles spreading world wide, but whether they will have a positive effect on the Saudi Authorities is another matter.
http://www.bing.com/search?q=Hamza+Kashgari&pc=FACEBK&form=FBKFTA
Interestingly, those of us who tweet or blog in support of Hamza Kashgari run the risk of being hauled before a Saudi court at some time in the future:
http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/saudi-arabia/saudi-tweeter-s-supporters-may-face-court-summon-1.980045#.Tzj6yaXOhQs.twitter
Since Malaysia has supported the Saudis in this matter one wonders whether other countries will deport/extradite re-tweeters at the behest. That should prove interesting.
I wonder what will become of those of us who have joined the Free Hamza Kashgari page on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/groups/217865731642049/members/
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