Saudi Arabia is known to have some extreme and radical laws when it comes to freedom of expression. And it seems they have outdone themselves by punishing a 28-year old Atheist man for expressing his views on Twitter.
A Saudi Arabian court sentenced the man, whose identity is withheld, to 10 years in prison and 2,000 lashes for his belief. The court also fined him 20,000 riyals or approximately $5,300.
The “religious police” tasked with monitoring social networks discovered more than 600 tweets ridiculing the Quranic verses, denying the existence of God, accusing all prophets of lies and saying their teaching fueled hostilities.
In 2014, the late King Abdullah announced a series of laws specifically directed towards curbing any form of political defiance and protests that may result in a social unrest. Some of the new unnecessarily harsh laws defined atheists as terrorists. Article one of the new provisions defined terrorism as:
“calling for atheist thought in any form, or calling into question the fundamentals of the Islamic religion on which this country is based.”
This is religious extremism in action. This is a complete and total lack of freedom of religion. This is religious persecution by any definition. This is what the Christian RWNJs are calling for in America – persecution of anyone that doesn’t believe as they do. These are not the principals on which this country was founded.
Perhaps it is time to take a long hard look at how the U.S. got to this point and step up and do something to fix it before it gets to the extreme that it has in other countries. It is time to remember our First Amendment rights.
The following video is graphic distasteful, and NSFW. Please view with that in mind.
Graphic video outlining Saudi Arabia’s Most Barbaric Punishments:
Featured image from IBTimes video. Modified to cover graphic image.
