Saudis' tough line on gays

[emad]

Brian Whitaker
Saturday April 9, 2005
The Guardian

Dozens of Saudi men caught dancing and "behaving like women" at a party have been sentenced to a total of 14,200 lashes, after a trial held behind closed doors and without defence lawyers.
The men were also given jail sentences of up to two years.

They were arrested last month when the police in Jeddah raided a party which was described by a Saudi newspaper as a "gay wedding".

"Prosecuting and imprisoning people for homosexual conduct are flagrant human rights violations," Scott Long, of the US organisation Human Rights Watch said. "Subjecting the victims to floggings is torture, pure and simple."

HRW said it had established that 31 of the men received prison sentences of six months to one year, plus 200 lashes each. Four were jailed for two years with 2,000 lashes.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/saudi/story/0,11599,1455792,00.html

[varun]

1. And this is a US ally?

in what? Terrorising the gays?

[megatherium]

6. we wouldn't give them the time of day except for the damn oil. nt

[Raster]

7. except for the damn oil and the fact they own the bush* family`

lock, stock and barrel. It never was "The Manchurian Candidate." It was always The Riyahdian Candidate.

[Laughing Mirror]

2. Time was, not so long ago in the US

when a prison sentence for "dancing and behaving like women" (horrible unthinkable unspeakable crime) might not get you 2,000 lashes, but it might very well get you banishment from your community, psychological terrorism, and the loss of career and livelihood as well.

Wonder how long Saudi Arabia will take to catch up with where US is today on human rights for gays?

[PurityOfEssence]

3. but what if they LIKE being flogged?

Wouldn't that make the gummint sadist complicit in an unnatural act?

That's the problem with fundamentalism: it's never that simple when you really get down to it...

(Seriously, though, people who have problems with sex are always messing things up.)

[SnowBack]

5. There's NOTHING funny about this...

These men are being BEATEN, and you make a joke about it...

[Deja Q]

4. 14,200 lashes?! Sounds fatal to me. Organized violence toward scapegoats

is appalling AND is a big human rights violation.

Anyone who openly promotes and executes violence deserves the lashings.

[dsc]

14. not per person

My best guess is that there were 142 people getting 100 each.

[Raster]

8. "...behaving like women..." That says it all. Simply "behaving"

as a woman can get you killed. I continually wonder why women in the hard-core muslim countries don't take matters into their own hands and bitch-slap the men into submission.

[0007]

9. Doesn't it bother the Bush family or the Carlyle Group members

that they deal and buddy with a backward country that flagrantly violates Human Rights?

[leeman67]

10. ummm....actually no. Afterall...

if Bush's Xtian fundamentalist supporters had their way, gays wouldn't be treated much better here, and perhaps worse.

[Rockerdem]

11. It sounds like theyre easing up a little

Why no death penalty? Theyre going softer than the fundies in this country.

[rodeodance]

13. um...wonder if the bush gang will push this one? (of course not0

[Bo]

12. Happily living in the 7nth century with moham

[MADem]

15. Hmmm, seems to me like the monkey

...invaded the wrong country. Human rights violations, indeed!

[Smarmie Doofus]

16. Behaving like women ? Does that mean wearing one of those...

head-toes beekeeper-like thingies?

[Toucano]

17. Maybe they were cleaning???

I know it's not funny, but it helps a little.

[saltpoint]

18. "Oh, yes, the Saudis! Royal family, oil family," Dubya said --

-- in response to his father's exultation of the family's international cohorts in criminal tyranny.

"They dress funny, but they're good people," brother Jeb added.

------
I keep thinking of the rich and dynamic high-civilization world of the peak of the Ottoman Empire and then I read accounts like this denoting torture of human beings because of same-sex desire . . .

[w4rma]

19. freaky fundamentalists (nt)

[Zorra]

20. More dangerous conservative fundies with diseased minds.

But hey, anything the Saudis do is just fine with our neocon government.

After all they did do an awfully big political favor for the PNAC and the the Bush family when they knocked off the World Trade Center on 9/11. When you ask, "Who gained from 9/11?", what answer do you come up with?

[ScotTissue]

21. Appalling

Which are treated worse in Saudi Arabia: women, homosexual individuals, foreigners, Shia or dogs?

I almost included Jews, but I don't think the Holy Peninsula would SURVIVE the presence of an actual Jew.

Disgrace! Disgrace! Shame on the Saudis.

[yurbud]

22. PHOTO: Did the GOP provide the entertainment? (Gannon)