Respect Other Religions at Your Peril

[BPSCG]

If you want to understand why murderous Islamic extremists still pour out of the Middle East, consider a small drama under way in Saudi Arabia right now.

A few weeks ago, one of the nation's most senior religious authorities directed that two reporters for a mainstream Saudi newspaper be executed for publishing stories suggesting that religions other than Islam are worthy of respect.

(...snip...)

So far, the two reporters, Abdullah bin Bejad al-Otaibi and Yousef Aba al-Khail, have not been put under the sword. They are still working at their newspaper, Al Riyadh. But they are reported to be terrified, and they have called on the government for protection. It has not responded, and the other Saudi papers have barely even mentioned the controversy.

(...snip...)

But the debate over the reporters offers a window into Saudi thinking and helps explain why so many Saudis dedicate themselves to anti-Western jihads. If a respected religious authority calls for the execution of someone who simply suggests that people holding other faiths deserve respect, doesn't that tell Saudis that the lives of Christians, Jews, Hindu and Buddhists are of lesser value?

Abdul-Rahman al-Barrak, a 75-year-old sheikh, issued the fatwa calling for the journalists' death. In Saudi Arabia, he is a leading authority on Wahhabism, the country's fundamentalist form of Sunni Islam.

"It's disgraceful that articles containing this kind of apostasy should be published in some papers in Saudi Arabia," he wrote last month. If the reporters do not repent, they "should be killed," he wrote.

Barrak is not just some cranky old miscreant. He is a member of the Saudi legislature, appointed by the king. Barrak spent a long career in senior positions at a respected government-funded university.

Soon after, 20 other senior Saudi clerics stood up to enthusiastically endorse Barrak's fatwa. Later, about 100 human-rights advocates from across the region condemned the edict, calling it intellectual terrorism. That had little visible impact in Riyadh.

But a striking feature of this episode is that the Saudi government has not said or done anything about it - probably because King Abdullah realizes that many and perhaps most members of Saudi Arabia's religious establishment agree with Barrak.

(...snip...)

But even if he were so inclined, the king cannot easily interfere with a religious edict - especially one issued by a member of his own government. So instead, he issued a tepid appeal for an international inter-faith dialogue between Muslims, Christians and Jews "to help end inter-religious tensions," the Saudi government said.

(...snip...)

Barrak's history is littered with pronouncements that many in the West would consider outrageous. A few years ago he decreed that Sunni Muslims not only had the right but also the duty to kill Shiite Muslims who openly practice their faith. (Among Saudi fundamentalists, talking about killing Shiites is a popular intellectual blood sport.)

Link

 

[Beerina]

1. It's interesting they believe in a god who needs the help of mortals to murder His political enemies. I mock and shame them.

2. Why do you hate America?

 

[Ian Osborne]

Yes Beeps, why do you hate America? The Saudis are our friends, remember. It's the other lot who call for the death of anyone they perceive to be an enemy of Islam that are the enemy...

 

[UnrepentantSinner]

Until Bandar Sultan cuts Jerry Jones' head off in the Cowboy's private suite, I refuse to accept this sort of slander of all Muslims because of the acts of a few crazies.

Well, either that or I refuse to accept that we'll* have another Super Bowl victory until Jones is deposed somehow... enjoy that stadium Arlington...

*And yes, I have divided loyalties between the Patriots and the Cowboys, but don't get me started.

 

[mrbaracuda]

Nothing new here from "peaceful and tolerant Islam". Funny though they bring up Wahhabism, when their law system seems to be mainly based on Hanbali fiqh. In any case, this verdict just supports the work of noble men like this one. Think of his family! I mean kids! Male kids.

 

[Darth Rotor]

Until Bandar Sultan cuts Jerry Jones' head off in the Cowboy's private suite, I refuse to accept this sort of slander of all Muslims because of the acts of a few crazies. Well, either that or I refuse to accept that we'll* have another Super Bowl victory until Jones is deposed somehow... enjoy that stadium Arlington...

*And yes, I have divided loyalties between the Patriots and the Cowboys, but don't get me started.

That's a youtube video I'd probably click on more than once.

DR