Raif Badawi

This is not my usual type of subject matter, but I find this story so shocking that I want to share it.

Raif Badawi

I’m talking about Raif Badawi, the Saudi Arabian blogger sentenced to ten years in prison, a large fine and 1000 lashes for organizing and publishing online material that the government of Saudi Arabia finds insulting to Islam.

Whatever crime a person might have committed, be it the most heinous murder, the cold blooded act of parading that person in public every Friday for 20 weeks and inflicting 50 lashes each time would be unthinkably and gratuitously brutal, and would lead to the question: “What sort of people dictate and condone such cruelty?”

 Raif was flogged for the first time last Friday, January 9. I have no idea how long he, or anyone else, can possibly live under such a regime, I have no idea how soon it will kill him, but it’s likely that it will. 

Western governments have asked Saudi Arabia to show mercy, so far to no avail.  Many people from around the word have written to support Raif’s family: his wife  Ensaf Haidar, and their children, Terad, Najwa and Miriam, who have taken refuge in Sherbrooke, Quebec.



Raif Badawi and children in better times

Here’s their video:    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8knc104u0yo

I would like to help keep his plight in the public eye, I would like to try to do something, however hopeless it seems, because I believe that every voice counts.  

 

I can still write to King Abdullah, President Obama, other leaders and Raif’s family, and I can take time every Friday to remember what is happening in Riyadh.

 

I can post to Facebook and Twitter, and I can share this story with you and ask you to tell other people about Raif Badawi, and not to forget him and his family.  So that’s what I’m doing this morning.

 Here's a link to the Amnesty page with details:

 

http://www.amnesty.org.uk/write-rights-raif-badawi-saudi-arabia#.VLOXyk7FLIV

 

Here’s the link for sending an email to President Obama:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/submit-questions-and-comments

 

 

Thank you.