“A vicious act of cruelty.” That was how Amnesty International described the public flogging of Saudi blogger Raif Badawi, who is currently serving a ten year prison sentence for “insulting Islam”. His punishment was meted out last Friday, when he was brought, shackled and handcuffed, before a crowd of spectators outside al-Jafali mosque in Jeddah. He was lashed 50 times on his back and legs, as he will be every Friday over the course of 20 weeks, until he has received the full 1000 lashes that his sentence demands.
His “only crime”, according to Amnesty’s deputy Middle East director Said Boumedouha, “was to exercise his right to freedom of expression” by setting up a liberal website to promote public discussion of religion and politics. For the Saudi authorities, however, the threat of online debate is as severe as any protest. As Saudi human rights activist Hala al-Dosari puts it, “they don’t want people to start questioning religion, the legitimacy of the Saudi ruling family or the distribution of wealth” in Saudi society. “Inciting terror in people” is their way of deterring political dissent, she says.
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