Two Hundred Lashes And Other Atrocities

Saudi Arabia holds itself up to the world as "guardians of the Islamic faith." Their ruler, King Abdullah, is called the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques. The Qur'an which is said to be the revealed word of God, says, "You will find the desert Arabs the worst in faith." Given their human rights abuses concomitant with their treatment of women in general, and their justice system in particular, I am more than inclined to agree. The latest contradiction of Sharia (Qur'anic Law) was the sentencing of a married Saudi woman to six months in jail and 200 lashes from the whip. Her crime was going out without a male relative and meeting with a man she had met on the internet prior to getting married. Before getting married, her one indiscretion was sending the man in question a photo of her without the traditional female head-covering. She agreed to meet with the man in order to retrieve the dubious photo. She was fearful of her husbanding finding out about the photo.

As she sat in the man's car negotiating the return of the photo, the car was surrounded by seven men who proceeded to rape her. According to her testimony, the "fifth and sixth man were the most abusive," by the time the seventh man climbed on top of her she couldn't feel her body anymore. The seven repeatedly raped her, she said. It should be mentioned that women in Saudi Arabia are not allowed to drive a car or travel anywhere without being accompanied by a male relative. The fact that the woman in question was married and met with a man that was not her husband, translated in the court's mind as adultery. Islamic law requires four witnesses to the act, in order to call it adultery. The penalty for adultery is stoning to death. Ironically, the only ones who could have given such testimony would have to have been her rapists. Perhaps the testimony of convicted rapists weighed most heavily on the judge's mind. Forget that her husband, whose honor the court sought to protect, supports his wife fully and is miffed at the Saudi judicial system, we'll have to trust that the judges know best. This is clearly in contradiction to the Sharia, that the Saudi court is sworn to uphold.

Next there is the curious case of the Irish school teacher in the Sudan who was teaching her students about animals. She asked her students to come up with a name for a teddy bear. They came up with the name Muhammad. Muhammad is a popular name in Muslim

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