A Rape in Saudi Arabia

A woman in Saudi Arabia was kidnapped and gang raped by seven men. The men were convicted and sentenced to prison. Unfortunately, at the time the woman was kidnapped she was in a car with a male friend who was not a relative.

That, according to the medieval thinking prevalent in Theocracies, violates Islamic Law and therefore the woman was also convicted and sentenced to six months in jail and 90 lashes. She appealed the verdict and the Saudi General Court increased the sentence to 200 lashes!

That’s a lot of lashes. That could be an effective death sentence depending upon how the lashes are applied and with what.

And these are the “Good Muslims,” the so-called “Moderate Muslims.” Tell me again how Islam is a religion of peace?

There was an international hue and cry over the verdict but the Saudi court defended it by simply saying that the charges were “proven.” That’s not the point you morons! The point is you might want to consider crawling a little closer to the 21st Century!

The reaction from our State Department was, given the attitude of the Bush Administration toward religion and women and the financial ties of the Bush family with Saudi Arabia, muted beyond all acceptability.

Clearly trying so hard to be “respectful” of the Saudi’s religion, the closest the State Department came to criticizing the verdict was a statement by one spokesman that the verdict "causes a fair degree of surprise and astonishment."

DUH, ya think? Well, I don’t have to be respectful. This is beyond barbaric. Do you really need any additional evidence that Islam is the religion of barbarism and intolerance? Do you really need any additional indication of the horrors that can occur when religion is given any kind of power whatsoever?

Religion needs to be relegated to the margins of society and not only in this country, but everyplace. If we don’t manage to make this happen, the future is going to be a very unpleasant place.