{"id":6102,"date":"2012-02-20T08:51:50","date_gmt":"2012-02-20T15:51:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=6102"},"modified":"2012-02-20T08:51:50","modified_gmt":"2012-02-20T15:51:50","slug":"president-obama-you-shame-the-us-by-rewarding-the-tyranny-of-al-saud-with-an-outstreched-hand-and-grateful-commerce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=6102","title":{"rendered":"President Obama, you shame the US by rewarding the tyranny of al-Saud with an outstreched hand and grateful commerce"},"content":{"rendered":"

A fatal tweet<\/strong>
\nYoung Saudi man faces execution for Muhammad comments
\n17 February, 2012 – Washington Times<\/p>\n

In America, sending the wrong tweet can mean embarrassment, ostracism or losing your seat in Congress. In Saudi Arabia, it can cost you your head.<\/p>\n

Hamza Kashgari is a 23-year-old journalist who wrote for the daily al-Bilad in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. On Feb. 4, the observance of Muhammad\u2019s birthday, Mr. Kashgari sent out three tweets expressing what he would say if he met Islam\u2019s founder. \u201cOn your birthday, I will say that I have loved the rebel in you, that you\u2019ve always been a source of inspiration to me, and that I do not like the halos of divinity around you. I shall not pray for you,\u201d the first read. \u201cOn your birthday, I find you wherever I turn. I will say that I have loved aspects of you, hated others, and could not understand many more,\u201d went the second. The third tweet said, \u201cOn your birthday, I shall not bow to you. I shall not kiss your hand. Rather, I shall shake it as equals do, and smile at you as you smile at me. I shall speak to you as a friend, no more.\u201d<\/p>\n

The messages immediately caused controversy. Some welcomed and retweeted them, but thousands more angry Saudis called for Mr. Kashgari\u2019s head for supposedly insulting Muhammad. He deleted the offending messages but soon lost his job. Last week, he attempted to flee to safety in New Zealand but was intercepted as he tried to pass through the Muslim country of Malaysia and whisked back to Saudi Arabia in a private jet. He is being held incommunicado in Jeddah while a prosecutor collects evidence to bring a case against him for \u201cdisrespecting God\u201d and \u201cinsulting the prophet.\u201d A conviction on either charge could bring the death penalty.<\/p>\n

Freedom of thought is a capital crime in the Saudi kingdom. On Monday, Sheikh Saleh bin Fowzan Al Fowzan of the supreme committee of scholars in Saudi Arabia said, \u201cWe should first verify that this man did insult \u2026 Muhammad in his article on Twitter \u2026 if verified, then he must be killed.\u201d There are reports that those who expressed public support for Mr. Kashgari\u2019s message also could face the same charges; even a retweet could lead to the chopping block.<\/p>\n

This is not merely a Saudi internal affair. When an Islamic theocracy may execute someone for a tweet, it\u2019s an affront to humanity. \u201cI view my actions as part of a process toward freedom,\u201d Mr. Kashgari said shortly before his arrest. \u201cI was demanding my right to practice the most basic human rights – the freedom of expression and thought – so nothing was done in vain.\u201d These words may be his epitaph. …more<\/a><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A fatal tweet Young Saudi man faces execution for Muhammad comments 17 February, 2012 – Washington Times In America, sending the wrong tweet can mean embarrassment, ostracism or losing your seat in Congress. In Saudi Arabia, it can cost you your head. Hamza Kashgari is a 23-year-old journalist who wrote for the daily al-Bilad in more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[247],"tags":[1847],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6102"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6102"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6103,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6102\/revisions\/6103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}