OUTRAGE

"Raif Badawi cropped" by Ensaf Haidar - Picture provided by PEN International.

Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons -



Raif Badawi has been victimized and brutalized by a government supported vigorously by the United States Government. Saudi Arabia's Supreme Court has just upheld a barbaric sentence of 1000 lashes and 10 years in prison for writing. Yes. For writing.

 

Badawi is an intelligent blogger. At 31, he has very mature views of what it means to be free and intellectually responsible, despite living in a backward country. Unfortunately, he lives under an evil monarchy, propped up by Western oil interests and tourism based on Islamic fanaticism.

 

An apologist for the Saudi royals and aristocracy told BBC this morning that the Supreme Court's decision as a newly "independent judiciary" was a step forward for the Saudi government. Really? This shows the baseline insanity of any government ruled by the delusions of religion and hereditary superiority.