Saudi foreign minister on gang-rape victim’s sentence: “These things happen”
posted at 9:05 pm on November 26, 2007 by Allahpundit
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By “these things” he means unjust rulings generally, not lashing a raped woman to ribbons because she violated some archaic cultural taboo. That particular thing is a specialty of Sharialand.
We already sort of knew that the royals and the courts were at odds on this but it’s nice to have it confirmed.
A senior Saudi official on Monday sought to distance his government from a court’s decision to sentence a woman who was gang-raped to 200 lashes.
“Unfortunately, these things happen. Bad judgments occur in legal systems,” Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal told reporters while in Washington to attend a Middle East peace conference in Maryland…
Faisal said the judgment was being used to vilify the Saudi government even though it was not responsible because the courts are independent.
“Issues like that, bad judgments by the courts, happen everywhere, even in the United States,” he said. “It is a process that is still going on. This is being reviewed by a legal process and we hope it will be changed.”
The reason the courts are independent in what’s otherwise an absolute monarchy is because they apply shari’a, which trumps all earthly powers, of course. The royals are trying to wrest control of the judiciary from the Wahhabis by replacing the current crop of nutjobs on the supreme court with a new court stacked with royal appointees but the Economist warns us not to underestimate the stubbornness of primitive traditions.
In the meantime, just the men we want to help bring peace at Annapolis, eh?
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F##k the Saudis, they make me sick.
They are just Taliban with a lot more money and oil.
That’s about it.
That and we have sold our collective soul to them.
MB4 on November 26, 2007 at 9:13 PM
What a bunch of inbreds.
Zorro on November 26, 2007 at 9:14 PM
What a lier.
Oh yah that’s right, Muslims can lie to infidels.
MB4 on November 26, 2007 at 9:15 PM
The Sauds get their legitimacy by allowing the courts to remain in power.
If they had been stamped on years ago there would have been no Bin Laden
Seriously Mecca is the main source of Saudi Arabia’s wealth. Dont think its oil. Billions of people make thier pilgrimages to Mecca and it floods millions into the Saudi economy
If the House of Saud tried to change that then they’d lose that influx of money
William Amos on November 26, 2007 at 9:20 PM
This is just incredibly stupid, yet, we have people in this country who support CAIR and other Islamic organizations that wish to institute sharia law in this country. By the way, did I read the article correctly that the woman’s male companion was also raped by these seven men? OUCH!
dawgyear on November 26, 2007 at 9:23 PM
“These things” should happen to him. Then we would see them stop happening.
bloggless on November 26, 2007 at 10:05 PM
Well then, it sounds like the answer is to have every member of the independent courts who render these messed up decisions raped, then whipped for being raped. Fair is fair.
Patrick S on November 26, 2007 at 10:31 PM
I have a dream that sometine in my lifetime an invention will be made that renders oil worthless.
Once that happens, they can eat their sand and drink their oil.
Dare to dream.
JayHaw Phrenzie on November 26, 2007 at 11:07 PM
Well I feel better. We can all go to bed now.
How third-world backward can you get? With all of their wealth and resources, this is the best they have? It’s insane. Saudi Arabia should be a model of modernity by now. How much money and resources has the U.S., alone, pumped in to that country? Yet here we are – in 2007 – bewildered at how backward these people really are. How they live in modern times through the eyes of centuries past? I’ll never understand it.
thedecider on November 26, 2007 at 11:20 PM
It’s time for the Colter doctrine:
Invade their countries
Kill their leaders
Convert them to Christianity
…problem solved
Mojave Mark on November 27, 2007 at 1:01 AM
So then you can translate “whoopsie-daisy” into Arabic.
thejackal on November 27, 2007 at 8:15 AM
That the Saudi King allows this tortured woman further abuse proves what he is and is not. May he suffer her experience this day.
maverick muse on November 27, 2007 at 8:21 AM
The woman’s ex-”friend” conveniently disappeared from the story at a point implicating him for arranging the entire incident.
What a sad story, the woman fell for the forbidden, intrigue, looking for a friend. Would her situation be the same or similar had she refused to cooperate with her ex-”friend” and simply told her husband the situation when being blackmailed? Would he abuse her for having internet dialogue prior to their own personal relationship? Would her husband himself have cast her to the wolves?
What a misfortune, being born female in a patriarchal society.
maverick muse on November 27, 2007 at 8:32 AM
And this group is supposed to be representative of moderate muslims, a creature that as far as I am concerned is non-existent. When is the world going to wake up and admit that these middle eastern muslims are a lost cause, a society that has refused or been unable to evolve and therefore will not be able to survive as we move into the future. Anyone that thinks the practitioners of this cult can live in modern day civilizations is a denyer.
rayvet on November 27, 2007 at 8:52 AM
The Saudi Arabian royal family learned as far back as the Roosevel administration that the State Department will genuflect to the Saudis regardless of Saudi behavior. The Saudis learned that the issue of human rights does not apply to Saudi Arabia. Jimmy Carter, who was forever lecturing the rest of the world about human rights never uttered one word about Saudi violations of human rights. And where are all the members of the Washington press corps today? The Washinton press corps, including representatives of the New York Times, were at the Saudi embassy when the Saudis discovered, horror of horror, that there were Israeli reporters there for the press briefing. The Israelis were forcibly removed from the press briefing while the entire Washington press corps remained silent. Not one reporter even protested. One member of the Washington press corps said that he would ask the questions that the Israeli reporters would have asked. Then this reporter demanded to be congratulated for his “courage”.
Larraby on November 27, 2007 at 10:07 AM
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