The Steeple Times joins those calling for mercy and forgiveness for Raif Badawi
Raif Badawi was put in prison and sentenced to 1,000 lashes simply for setting up a website named Free Saudi Liberals.
Yesterday, the MailOnline featured a video of Badawi being publicly flogged in front of a braying crowd in 2015. Of it, his wife, Ensaf Haidar, tweeted: “This crowd is not a beach party, it’s how moderate Muslims act when they flog someone for expressing his own opinions.”
In comments to the MailOnline, Ms Haidar added:
“We have not heard anything from Raif or from Saudi Arabia, but we know that he will face further punishment – we are not told when.”
“We urge the newly crowned Prince Mohammed Ben Salman to pardon Raif and prevent the 950 lashings being carried out as this is putting Raif’s life at risk.”
“We also ask why the government in the UK – an ally of Saudi Arabia – remains silent, and that Prime Minister Theresa May uses her good relationship with Saudi Arabia to work for Raif’s immediate release and send him back home to Canada to his family.”
She is right. It is time Saudi Arabia showed mercy and forgiveness and until then their barbaric treatment of a decent man should be condemned by decent people everywhere.
Frankly it’s little more than I would expect from Saudi Arabia, a country that despite it’s protestations doesn’t have a scintilla of civility in it…savages.
I’m afraid I do not hold out much hope for the UK government intervening to help this man.
Remember the war in Yemen that the western media has largely chosen to ignore? Any decent person would weep at the sight of what Saudi Arabia has done to those people. There are children and babies who are so skeletal that they could rival the victims of the Ethiopian Famine.
Yet what did our MPs do? They overwhelmingly voted against a motion to stop selling arms to Saudi Arabia – despite evidence that SA is using British weapons to inflict these atrocities.
Or how about that case involving the Saudi prince who brutally murdered his servant in a London hotel? He was originally sentenced to life in prison with a minimum 30-year period before he could be considered for parole.
But then something mysterious happened. His sentence had barely begun when Saudi Arabia approached Britain for a ‘prisoner-swap’ deal – and he was promptly released and flown back to his country.
Where Saudi Arabia is concerned, the sad truth is that governments care far more about money and oil than they do about people’s lives.
on this Ella is spot on
The Saudi’s are just vile. If they had no oil we would treat them with the utter contempt they deserve
The Yomping Yodeller won’t do anything. It is all about arms sales and lucrative contracts and trying to boost trade figures, which by the time Brexit is dealt with will be non existent. That lot of incompetents are still trying to wriggle out of the massive sum owed to the EU it is obligated to fork out. It’s time for her to fork off.