Saudi prosecutor demands death penalty for Shi'ite cleric

[Bosonic]

Source: Reuters

A Saudi Arabian prosecutor has demanded the death penalty for a Shi'ite Muslim cleric whose arrest last summer led to deadly protests in the Sunni-ruled kingdom, local media reported on Wednesday.

Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, long seen as a radical leader in the Shi'ite minority, appeared in court on Monday for the first time since his arrest in July, the Saudi Gazette reported.

The prosecutor, accusing him of "aiding terrorists" and instigating unrest, said he was guilty of "waging war on God", a crime in sharia, or Islamic law, that automatically carries the death penalty, al-Riyadh daily reported. Saudi Arabia has no written legal code and judges have wide discretion to deliver verdicts based on their interpretation of sharia and without reference to precedent.

Tension is already running high over this month's arrest of 16 Shi'ites accused of spying for Riyadh's regional rival Iran. Tehran has denied spying in the kingdom and Shi'ite community leaders have said they do not believe the charges.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/27/us-saudi-shiite-cleric-idUSBRE92Q0DR20130327

[DetlefK]

1. No written legal code? What's this? The Middle Ages?

Even the judges in Genghis Khan's kingdom, 800 years ago, had two books of law: One for actual laws and one for judicial precedents.

[sofa king]

4. For Saudis, yes, it pretty much is the Middle Ages.

Saudi Arabia's domestic policy is completely dominated by the Wahhabis. The movement was a reactionary gnashing of the teeth at the progressive ideas... of the fucking Enlightenment in the 1700s. It was a movement to return to the "good old days" of the middle ages.

No, I am not kidding at all about that. They hyper-conservative Islam of Saudi Arabia was installed just about the same time that the U.S. adopted its Constitution. It looks to me like chieftains didn't like the idea of their people learning, probably because when they did learn, they knew well enough to get the fuck out of that backwards place as soon as they could.

Everything they are today is the direct result of other nations helping them along while they deny the very concept of institutional knowledge--certainly part of the reason for no written law.

As soon as they can't pay for that help, they'll be back to stealing each others' goat herds in the desert.

[Ash_F]

5. Your history lesson is a little off on timeline, and left out British involvment.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unification_of_Saudi_Arabia

Things would have been so different if that had gone another way. The events in this period contributed more to radical Islam as we see it today(and 9/11) more than anything else.

[sofa king]

7. I stand corrected.

In my defense, I would point out that British interference in that region can be safely assumed at virtually all points in time from the 1700s to World War II and beyond, heh heh. That would be funnier if it were less true.

But yes, my post above is too shorthanded and cynical to be factually correct, which means that my bitterness has clouded my objectivity. I need to work on that!

[Ash_F]

8. It's good

I just wanted to point out that the resurgence of the house of Saud happened only in the last century. It is not a 300 year old institution, but rather a zombie of an older one. We can thank Britain for resurrecting it(over oil). Things weren't as bad in the intervening period.

The fact that it has not lasted 300 years should give us some hope.

[DetlefK]

6. The Middle Ages were the Golden Age of Islam for a simple reason:

Europe was a quagmire of neverending wars, started for both national and religious reasons. Combine that with the hostility towards other religions than Christianity.
The Islamic countries on the other side allowed Christians and Jews to keep on, although a religion-tax was imposed on them. This general openness for ideas allowed the Arabs to become the world-leaders in medicine and math.

And now it's the other way round: Europe has peace and acceptance for other cultures/religions, while the arab countries have dictatorships and theocracies.

Can you name one company from the Middle-East that's a global player?
Can you name one industry from the Middle-East that's a global-player? Engineering? Medicine-Chemistry-Biology? Electronics? No?
Can you name one famous scientist from this area?
Can you name a scientific field of which you've heard that arab universities are focused on?
How about famous artists and authors that aren't chastised and threatened for their free-thinking?

And they really think that just being as religious as back then (without the love for arts and science they had back then) will do the trick?

[geek tragedy]

3. How does one 'wage war on God?' nt

[Alamuti Lotus]

9. by opposing the royal family that believes it has a monopoly on such concepts

fairly simple, actually.

[geek tragedy]

10. Oh, like it is running against Republicans then. nt