Outrage Over Beating Death Of "Unchaste" Five-Year Old Girl

[dales]

Outrage over Saudi 'blood money' in girl's death



RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Online activists in Saudi Arabia are calling for harsher punishments for child abuse after reports that a prominent cleric received only a light sentence after confessing to the beating death of his 5-year-old daughter.

The social media campaign gaining momentum Sunday is the latest attempt to use the Internet to pressure the kingdom's ultraconservative rulers.

Saudi media reports say Fayhan al-Ghamdi, a frequent guest on Islamic TV programs, was arrested in November on charges of killing the girl. The reports said he questioned the child's virginity.

Saudi media say he was freed last week after serving a short prison term and agreeing to pay $50,000 in "blood money" to avoid a possible death sentence.

The money was presumably offered to the girl's mother or other relatives.


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/news/world/articl ... z2JrfwRQqY

[oldr_n_wsr]

Shakes head.

[dgs49]

Obviously, he is a sick bastard. Sounds like the sort of sadist who would know personally that the girl was not a virgin because he had a role in it.

[Jarlaxle]

Islam is a cancer on the human race...exhibit 645,829. Sad, but not surprising for a culture and a cult stuck in the 12th century.

[Econoline]

I've said it before: when there are near to 2 billion members of a religion, even a minuscule percentage of crazies constitutes a sizable number; I don't think it's legitimate to generalize about any large group on the basis of a minuscule percentage of its members.

[oldr_n_wsr]

But the Saudi gov almost condones the behaviour.

[Big RR]

"Almost condones"? What does this mean and where did you find any evidence of this?

[MajGenl.Meade]

Sheiksakes head.

Fixed

[oldr_n_wsr]

"Almost condones"? What does this mean and where did you find any evidence of this?

Saudi media say he was freed last week after serving a short prison term and agreeing to pay $50,000 in "blood money" to avoid a possible death sentence.

Someone in their court system (aka Saudi gov) gave him short time and a fine. If that is not "almost condoning" what he did, well then we'll have to disagree.

[Big RR]

I presume he was tried in the islamic courts (sharia justice) and not by the government of Saudi Arabia, but I really don't know.

[oldr_n_wsr]

I presume he was tried in the islamic courts (sharia justice) and not by the government of Saudi Arabia, but I really don't know.

Aren't they kinda the same?

[Jarlaxle]

Different kind of shit in the same septic tank.

[Big RR]

I presume he was tried in the islamic courts (sharia justice) and not by the government of Saudi Arabia, but I really don't know.

Aren't they kinda the same?

To a certain extent, but then SA is in a pretty big quandary; the country is surrounded by millions of fundamental islamic idiots, and it contains two of th most holy islamic sites in Mecca and Medina (much like a modern day crusades). If the government were to totally throw out the islamic orthodoxy that the fundmanetalists demand, it would be overrun by crazies trying to take back these sites from the heathens. Yet they are more progressive than some of the other countries in the area, and have instituted modest, but real, reforms. In a very real way it's a country that exists in both worlds. Now, I am not an apologist for the Saudi government, and I have no idea where it stands on this issue, but it is one of our best allies in the area.

[Sue U]

Fundamentalist (Sunni) Islamic orthodoxy (a/k/a Wahhabism) has been the distinguishing feature of the Saudi "government" ever since its creation under Abd'al-Aziz Ibn-Saud in the 1920s. The Q'uran and Sharia are the governing rules of Saudi civil and criminal law (with the exception of administrative law recently created for corporate commerce and oil/natural resource matters). Saudi courts do not adhere to principles of the rule of law as it is known in elsewhere in the world. The Wahhabist/Salafi movement created and based in Saudi Arabia -- which holds considerable sway over much of the Sunni world, not least because it is the guardian of Mecca and Medina -- is among the most backward, reactionary and repressive philosophies in the universe. Perhaps the only Islamic school of thought that is arguably worse is the revolutionary fundamentalist Shia cabal now running Iran.

[oldr_n_wsr]

So we are back to the courts backed by the gov giving him a lenient sentence thus condoning (at least partially) the behaviour.

[Sue U]

From what I can tell, Saudi courts seem to be more an arm of the religious establishment than of the government per se, as their primary task is to apply Sharia.

[Econoline]

Any time religion (any religion) and government (any government) are joined together no good can come of it.

[Big RR]

True, but then we have to take our allies as we find them. Even Israel grants rabbinical courts certain jurisdiction, often superior to that of the civil courts.

[Econoline]

Even Israel grants rabbinical courts certain jurisdiction, often superior to that of the civil courts.

Like I said....

[oldr_n_wsr]

Again, if the gov allows it, then it is the govs law or at least it is in complicity.