Saudi Arabia Joins U.N. Human Rights Council

[trencherman]

Using the HRC to campaign AGAINST human rights - now that's what I call a perversion!

B.

Ever heard of the best way to rob a bank is to own it?

How about Mugabe being awarded some sort of peace prize? Some times I think the world has gone mad.

 

[W!nston]

... Some times I think the world has gone mad.

The lunatic is in the hall
The lunatics are in my hall
The paper holds their folded faces to the floor
And everyday the paper boy brings more

Pink Floyd - Brain Damage (With Lyrics)

​

 

[skyward]

Saudi Arabia has a terrible human rights record. Why are they still Canada’s ally?

Prime Minister-designate Justin Trudeau‘s yet-to-be-named foreign minister will inherit a file of hot-button global issues — not least of which is a secretive arms deal with Saudi Arabia, a country with a long record of human rights violations.

The contract is worth nearly $15 billion and would create a reported 3,000 jobs. But there are fears that in doing so Canada would be arming a government with a history of cracking down on dissent, among an array of other human rights abuses — effectively supplying light armoured vehicles that could be used against Saudi civilians...

Saudi Arabia has executed at least 134 people so far this year, UN High Commission for Human Rights.

The Saudi government has been slammed for upholding the death sentence of 21-year-old Ali Mohammed al-Nimr, set to be beheaded at any time...

Anon URL

 

[skyward]

Saudi Arabia's New King Likes Beheading People Even More Than His Predecessor

Saudi Arabia has executed at least 151 people this year, the most since 1995 and far above the annual figure in recent years, which rarely exceeded 90.

On Monday Amnesty International criticized the wave of executions, calling it "a grim new milestone in the Saudi Arabian authorities" use of the death penalty.

"The Saudi Arabian authorities appear intent on continuing a bloody execution spree which has seen at least 151 people put to death so far this year — an average of one person every two days," said James Lynch, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Amnesty International. "The use of the death penalty is abhorrent in any cirstance but it is especially alarming that the Saudi Arabian authorities continue to use it in violation of international human rights law and standards, on such a wide scale, and after trials which are grossly unfair and sometimes politically motivated..."

...the men kneel on the pavement in what appears to be a public square which the unverified video says is located in the Saudi port city of Jeddah. The executioner wields a long curbed sword, raises it above his head, and with a quick chop to the back of each man's neck, decapitates them before a crowd of onlookers and near a busy street.

Anon URL

Britain's government wants to sell even more weapons to Saudi Arabia

Britain's foreign Secretary Philip Hammond told Newsnight that he'd like the country to sell even more weapons to Saudi Arabia...

When asked by Newsnight whether he would like to see an increase in weapons sold to Saudi Arabia, Hammond said "we’d always like to do more business."

Anon URL

 

[skyward]

Stop Turning Blind Eye to Saudi Radicalizing Programs

Saudi Arabia played a key role in preparing the ground for the terror attacks in Paris by financing enormous radicalization programs targeting Muslims in France and other European countries...

Al-Ahmed also pointed out that at the G-20 summit in Turkey following the Paris attacks, the Saudi king skipped the moment of tribute to the Paris attack victims.
"He intentionally skipped it," al-Ahmed asserted...

Anon URL

U.S. approves $1.29 billion sale of smart bombs to Saudi Arabia

The Pentagon's Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA), which facilitates foreign arms sales, notified lawmakers on Friday that the sales had been approved, it said in a statement.

The lawmakers now have 30 days to block the sale, although such action is rare since deals are carefully vetted before any formal notification...

Providing the munitions to Saudi forces would also help deter its enemies, and "directly conveys U.S. commitment to the RSAF's current and future ability to sustain combat operations..."

The proposed sale includes 22,000 smart and general purpose bombs, including 1,000 GBU-10 Paveway II Laser Guided Bombs, and over 5,000 Joint Direct Attack Munitions kits to turn older bombs into precision-guided weapons using GPS signals.

The weapons are made by Boeing Co (BA.N) and Raytheon Co (RTN.N), but the agency told lawmakers the prime contractors would be selected in a competition...

Saudi Arabia, one of the largest buyers of U.S. weapons, was approved in September for a potential second sale of 600 Patriot-PAC-3 air defense missiles made by Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N), a deal valued at $5.4 billion.

Last month, the U.S. government also approved the sale to Saudi Arabia of up to four Littoral Combat Ships made by Lockheed for $11.25 billion.

Anon URL

Abdel Bari Atwan: Inside How the U.S. & Saudi Arabia Aided Growth of the Islamic State

Two days after the Paris attacks, President Obama met Saudi Arabia’s King Salman for a bilateral meeting at the G20 summit in Turkey on Sunday. The following day, the Pentagon revealed the U.S. State Department has approved the sale of $1.29 billion in smart bombs to Saudi Arabia for its attack on Yemen. We speak to Abdel Bari Atwan about how the U.S. invasion of Iraq and the Saudi funding of jihadist movements helped the Islamic State grow.

Anon URL

 

[skyward]

The government of Saudi Arabia has beheaded more people this year than ISIS.

Anon URL

 

[skyward]

Saudi Arabia: beheadings reach highest level in two decades
theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/02/saudi-arabia-beheadings-reach-highest-level-in-two-decades

Number of people executed for non-lethal offences and drug-related crimes is on the rise in the kingdom, which follows Sharia law



Saudi Arabia executes 47 people, incl prominent Shiite cleric, on terror charges
rt.com/news/327698-saudi-executions-terror-charges/

Saudi Arabia has executed 47 people for terrorism, including the prominent Shi'ite Muslim cleric Nimr al-Nimr, the Interior Ministry said Saturday. His execution has stirred particular outrage among the kingdom's critics, saying the cleric's death aims to “set the region on fire.”

 

[skyward]

UK military 'working alongside' Saudi bomb targeters in Yemen war

telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/saudiarabia/12102089/UK-military-working-alongside-Saudi-bomb-targeters-in-Yemen-war.html

Adel al-Jubeir
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Saudi Arabia

Saudi foreign minister confirms claims that British military advisers are in operation room of heavily criticised bombing campaign.

British military advisers are in control rooms assisting the Saudi-led coalition staging bombing raids across Yemen that have killed thousands of civilians, the Saudi foreign minister and the Ministry of Defence have confirmed.

The Saudi air force, along with the United Arab Emirates and other Gulf allies, have backed the internationally recognised government in Yemen against a rebellion that swept much of the country from the north.

But this coalition has been heavily criticised for striking civilian targets, and Britain is under particular fire as a major weapons supplier to the Saudi air force.

[Saudi Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jubeir] said that the West would have to live with the Saudi use of the death penalty, primarily by public beheading.
“On this issue, we have a fundamental difference,” he said. “In your country you do not execute people and we respect it. In our country the death penalty is part of our laws, and you have to respect this, as it is part of the law in the United States and other countries.”

 

[skyward]

Saudi Arabia Is Killing Civilians with US Bombs
telesurtv.net/english/opinion/Saudi-Arabia-Is-Killing-Civilians-with-US-Bombs-20160125-0004.html

By Marjorie Cohn | 25th January 2016

The U.S. government is the primary supplier of Saudi weapons. In November 2015, the U.S. sold $1.29 billion worth of arms to Saudi Arabia. It included more than 10,000 bombs, munitions, and weapons parts manufactured by Raytheon and Boeing, as well as bunker busters, and laser-guided and “general purpose” bombs.

A month earlier, the United States had approved a $11.25 billion sale of combat ships to Saudi Arabia. The U.S. also provides intelligence and logistical support to the Saudi-led coalition. During the past five years, the U.S. government has sold the Saudis $100 billion worth of arms. These sales have greatly enriched U.S. defense contractors.

Why has the United States “usually looked the other way or issued carefully calibrated warnings in human rights reports as the Saudi royal family cracked down on dissent and free speech and allowed its elite to fund Islamic extremists,” in the words of New York Times’ David Sanger? “In return,” Sanger writes, “Saudi Arabia became America’s most dependable filling station, a regular supplier of intelligence, and a valuable counterweight to Iran.” Saudi Arabia, and close U.S. ally Israel, opposed the Iran nuclear deal.

In April 2015, the U.S. government prevented nine Iranian ships loaded with relief supplies from reaching Yemen. President Barack Obama also sent an aircraft carrier to the area to enforce the Saudi embargo on outside supplies. According to UN estimates, 21 million people lack basic services, and over 1.5 million have been displaced. UNICEF notes that six million people don’t have enough food.

The U.S. government should immediately halt arms transfers and military support to Saudi Arabia and support an independent investigation into U.S. arms transfers and war crimes in Yemen. The United States must stop participating in and call for an end to the de facto blockade so that humanitarian assistance can reach those in need, engage in diplomatic efforts to end the conflict, and ratify the Arms Trade Treaty...

[T]he Saudis contributed $10 million to the Clinton Foundation before Hillary Clinton became Secretary of State. In 2011, the year after the State Department had doented myriad serious human rights violations by Saudi Arabia, Hillary Clinton oversaw a $29 billion sale of advanced fighter jets to the Saudis, declaring it was in our national interest.

The deal was “a top priority” for Secretary Clinton, according to Andrew Shapiro, an assistant secretary of state. Two months before the deal was clinched, Boeing, manufacturer of one of the fighter jets the Saudis sought to acquire, contributed $900,000 to the Clinton Foundation.

Hillary Clinton now says the U.S should pursue “closer strategic cooperation” with Saudi Arabia.

 

[skyward]

Emails Show Hillary Clinton Aides Celebrating F-15 Sales to Saudi Arabia: “Good News”
theintercept.com/2016/02/22/saudi-christmas-present/

The shockingly brutal Saudi air campaign in Yemen has been led by American-made F-15 jet fighters...

The planes, made by Boeing, have been implicated in the bombing of three facilities supported by Doctors Without Borders (Médicins Sans Frontières)...

A few years earlier, as secretary of state, Hillary Clinton made weapons transfer to the Saudi government a “top priority,” according to her closest military aide.

And now, newly released emails show that her aides kept her well-informed of the approval process for a $29.4 billion sale in 2011 of up to 84 advanced F-15SA fighters, manufactured by Boeing, along with upgrades to the pre-existing Saudi fleet of 70 F-15 aircraft and munitions, spare parts, training, maintenance, and logistics.

The deal was finalized on Christmas Eve 2011. Afterward, Jake Sullivan, then Clinton’s deputy chief of staff and now a senior policy adviser on her presidential campaign, sent her a celebratory email string topped with the chipper message: “FYI — good news.”

The email string was part of a new batch of emails from Clinton’s private server, made public on Friday evening as the result of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.

One American official, whose name is redacted in the emails, said he had just received confirmation that Prince Salman, now the king of Saudi Arabia but at the time the senior Saudi liaison approving the weapons deal, had “signed the F-15SA LOA today” and would send scanned doents the following day.

“Not a bad Christmas present,” he added.

Another official, whose name is also redacted, confirmed that a Saudi general who had been working with U.S. officials was “pleased, as are all of us,” and said he would soon contact executives at Boeing.

The congratulatory tone continues through the email chain with other officials, also with redacted names, calling the weapons deal “Great news!”

On December 26, Jeremy Bash, then-chief of staff at the Pentagon, sent the email string, titled “F-15SA Christmas Present,” to Sullivan, who sent it to Clinton with his own note at the top.

David Sirota and Andrew Perez have previously reported for the International Business Times that Clinton’s State Department was heavily involved in approving weapons sales to Saudi Arabia. As weapons transfers were being approved, both the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Boeing made donations to the Clinton Foundation. The Washington Post revealed that a Boeing lobbyist helped with fundraising in the early stages of Hillary Clinton’s current presidential campaign.

Jeremy Bash is now managing partner at Beacon Global Strategies, a consulting firm that provides advice to Clinton on foreign policy while providing paid advice to the military contracting industry.

Executions in Saudi Arabia reach ‘frightening’ rate as 70th prisoner in 2016 is killed
independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/executions-in-saudi-arabia-reaching-alarming-rate-as-70th-prisoner-is-killed-a6917226.html

Saudi Arabia is executing people at a "frightening" rate, campaigners have warned, after it emerged the kingdom had killed its 70th prisoner of the year bringing the total number to almost half that of 2015...

Saudi Arabia does not release annual tallies, though it does announce individual executions in state media throughout the year. Most people beheaded in the oil-rich kingdom are beheaded by sword.

 

[skyward]

A woman beheaded in the road. Five headless corpses hanging from cranes. As a doentary exposes the horror of life in Saudi Arabia, why DOES Britain cosy up to this kingdom of savagery?
dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3502079/Saudi-Arabia-s-kingdom-savagery-DOES-Britain-cosy-butchers.html

-Middle Eastern nation is one of the world's bloodiest and most secretive

-Yet Saudi Arabia remains one of Britain’s closest allies worldwide


Five bodies hang from a pole suspended between two cranes, a public display which serves as a reminder to those who might contemplate a life of crime.
They belonged to a gang of five robbers, all of whom were publicly beheaded before their corpses were hoisted high in the air, where they remained for days...

A woman dressed in black is held down at the side of a public road by four Saudi policemen, after she has been convicted of killing her stepdaughter.
She is executed with a sword blow to the neck, as she screams: ‘I did not do it.’

...In another beheading scene, the executioner, dressed in the white robes typically worn by Saudi men, raises his curved sword above his head and brings it down in a single sweep...

Yet Saudi Arabia remains one of Britain’s closest allies...

Our leaders conveniently overlook the truth about the desert kingdom...

One of the secret cameramen asks a 14-year-old Saudi boy what he is taught at school. Back comes the reply: ‘The Christians should be punished with death until there are none left. They should be beheaded.’

...Our nation’s friendship with Saudi Arabia means collaborating with a regime that persecutes its own citizens with a savagery that defies imagination.

 

[skyward]

Obama may be preaching 'tough love' to Saudi – but arms sales tell another story

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/apr/22/us-saudi-arabia-weapons-arms-deals-foreign-policy

22nd April 2016

When President Barack Obama arrived in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday for a meeting of Gulf leaders, he was greeted at the airport by the governor of Riyadh, instead of the Saudi king. Unlike his previous visits, Obama’s arrival was not broadcast on Saudi state television with its usual pomp and cirstance. It was one sign of how livid Saudi leaders are at Obama and his administration – the decades-long Saudi-US alliance has rarely been more tense.

Saudi rulers believe that Obama has shifted US foreign policy to be more friendly toward Iran, especially after his administration expended considerable political capital to reach a nuclear deal with Tehran last summer. Obama also reduced direct US involvement in the Middle East, resisting calls to intervene military in Syria and to send more US troops to Iraq. And Saudi leaders were particularly upset after Obama suggested in an interview with The Atlantic magazine that they should figure out ways to “share the neighborhood” with Iran.

Despite Saudi anger and US public perception, Obama has not fundamentally altered the “special relationship” between the kingdom and the United States. As Obama has preached a kind of tough love – telling the Saudis that he won’t commit US military resources to reflexively support them against Iran – his administration has dramatically ramped up arms sales to the kingdom and other Gulf allies. Since 2010, the Obama administration authorized a record $60bn in US military sales to Saudi Arabia. Since then, the administration concluded deals for nearly $48bn in weapons sales – triple the $16bn in sales under the George W Bush administration...

 

[SoleLove]

I now have a question. Is Islam (in general) pro-gay or anti-gay? What would you choose between Sharia law and LGBT rights? I think the answer is simple... (I'd obviously choose the latter). The problem these days is any criticism of Islam and the policies of countries such as Iran or Saudi Arabia is seen as racist and Islamophobic.

 

[james1981]

I now have a question. Is Islam (in general) pro-gay or anti-gay? What would you choose between Sharia law and LGBT rights? I think the answer is simple... (I'd obviously choose the latter). The problem these days is any criticism of Islam and the policies of countries such as Iran or Saudi Arabia is seen as racist and Islamophobic.

You've hit on something here. There is this weird acceptance of both LGBT rights and all forms of Islam. I am no religious scholar so I'm sure others will correct me, and please do, but many Islamic governments do not accept LGBT people. Would you travel to Saudi Arabia - you can't unless you are Muslim. Even then, Saudi Arabia is a crazy fundamentalist country that happens to be sitting on a shit load of oil, which is lucky for the House of Saud. Also, would you travel to Iran or Yemen? If you're found engaging in homosexual activity you will be put to death. Probably not places you want to go to.

What I am uneasy with is people who defend Islam in toto and also defend LGBT rights. The answer is so much more nuanced than that. There are certainly many moderate and reasonable and nice Muslims who understand and accept LGBT people.

I guess what I worry about is that some people scream they are progressive, yet also scream that they support some of the most oppressive regimes. I wish the world was this simple, but it's much more nuanced. There's plenty of terrible LGBT people out there for instance.

 

[brmstn69]

A woman beheaded in the road. Five headless corpses hanging from cranes. As a doentary exposes the horror of life in Saudi Arabia, why DOES Britain cosy up to this kingdom of savagery?
dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3502079/Saudi-Arabia-s-kingdom-savagery-DOES-Britain-cosy-butchers.html

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend"...

The western governments tolerate the Saudi regime because they are in conflict with Iran, and Iran is considered a huge threat to the western world.

 

[gb2000ie]

You've hit on something here. There is this weird acceptance of both LGBT rights and all forms of Islam. I am no religious scholar so I'm sure others will correct me, and please do, but many Islamic governments do not accept LGBT people. Would you travel to Saudi Arabia - you can't unless you are Muslim. Even then, Saudi Arabia is a crazy fundamentalist country that happens to be sitting on a shit load of oil, which is lucky for the House of Saud. Also, would you travel to Iran or Yemen? If you're found engaging in homosexual activity you will be put to death. Probably not places you want to go to.

The most 'famous' (infamous perhaps) Islamic countries are in the middle-east. That leads a lot of people to conflate the two - to assume that those countries are representative of all Muslims, and that most Muslims live in those countries. Those countries are extremist theologies. That is the problem.

The country on this planet with the highest Muslim population is a secular democracy - Indonesia. There are three times as many Muslims in south-east-Asia than in the middle-east. There are also Muslims living all over the world.

The Muslims who choose to leave the extremist nations in the middl-east and move to secular nations often do so precicely because they disapprove of things like Sharia law. That is not universally true, but these people seem to get ignored a lot of the time.

To underline this point, London has just elected a left-wing liberal Muslim mayor.

The utterly contemptable extremistm of the rulling classes in the middle-east theocracies is not representative of all Muslims. But, that reality is often overlooked in dicussions like this. It's common for people to generalise too far, and hence labele millions of perfectly reasonable Muslims with the extremes of the middle-eastern theocracies.

Theologically, Islam and Christianity have very similar views on Homosexuality.

What I am uneasy with is people who defend Islam in toto and also defend LGBT rights. The answer is so much more nuanced than that. There are certainly many moderate and reasonable and nice Muslims who understand and accept LGBT people.

Which is why I argue it is unfair and counter-productive to turn this into an anit-Islam thing instead of an anti-extremist thing. What religion you pervert in order to do beastly things is not the important thing, it's the extremism that's key, and the extremist that must be faught against.

I guess what I worry about is that some people scream they are progressive, yet also scream that they support some of the most oppressive regimes. I wish the world was this simple, but it's much more nuanced. There's plenty of terrible LGBT people out there for instance.

I have not seen anyone on these boards scream support for Saudi, or Iran, or indeed any of their neighbours.

Looking at this complexity from another angle, what I see is a need to fight the conflation of the extremists in the middle-east with all of Islam. The worst of the extremists in the middle-east are striving to convince the people there that the west is out to destroy all of Islam, and that they have no choice but to fight in a holly war. Every time someone in the west makes sweeping generalisations about all Muslims, they strengthen this recruiting tool, and make the problem that little bit worse. Making these overly broad generalisations also alienates ordinary Muslims, and makes it less likely that they will be comfortable coming forward and reporting radicalisation to the authorities. That dynamic makes terrorist attacks in the western world more likely, which is obviously deeply undesireable.

My argument is that anger directed too broadly is counter-productive, and feeds the extremism that I believe each and every member here detests.

B.

 

[gb2000ie]

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend"...

The western governments tolerate the Saudi regime because they are in conflict with Iran, and Iran is considered a huge threat to the western world.

And because they have a lot of oil. If there was no oil in the middle-east it would be a very different place indeed.

B.

 

[gb2000ie]

I now have a question. Is Islam (in general) pro-gay or anti-gay? What would you choose between Sharia law and LGBT rights? I think the answer is simple... (I'd obviously choose the latter). The problem these days is any criticism of Islam and the policies of countries such as Iran or Saudi Arabia is seen as racist and Islamophobic.

Islam and Sharia are not equivalent. Neither are the policies of the theocracies in the middle east and Islam.

When people assign a beliefe in Sharia law to all Muslims, or assign the evils of the middle-eastern theocracies to all Muslims, they are making a broad generaliation that does not reflect reality. I think it's entirely appropriate to push back against those kinds of generalisations. They are not factually sound, and there is a strong argument that they are counter-productive. On a personal level, I also find them unfair.

I consider criticism of the evils of middle-eastern theocracies entirely justified, but I argue that it is important to target your criticism correctly. The millions of Muslims who have nothing, and want nothing, to do with those regimes should not be tarred with the same brush. The Muslims who make up the majority in the secular nation of Indonesia are very different to the Saud dynasty.

B.

 

[SoleLove]

Maybe, but the province of Banda Aceh of Indonesia is now applying Sharia, and people have already been imprisoned and oftentimes caned for homosexuality, consensual heterosexual relations outside of marriage, supposed adultery as well as gambling & drinking (even in moderation).

From the Almighty Daily Mail:
The whipping girl: Screaming in agony, a woman collapses as she and a man are caned under Sharia law in Indonesia merely for being 'seen in close proximity' to each other without being married

SHARIA LAW: THE ISLAM LEGAL SYSTEM DERIVED FROM THE KORAN
Sharia law is the legal system of Islam which is derived from both the Koran and the rulings of the religion's scholars.

It acts as a code that all Muslims are adhered to live to and include rules of prayers, fasting and donations to the poor and covers both public and private behaviour.

Offences are divided into two categories - hadd offences, which a serious crimes with set penalties and tazir crimes, where punishment is left to the the discretion of a judge.

Hadd offences include theft, which is punishable by the amputation of the offender's hand and adultery, which can result in being stoned to death.

Apostasy, or leaving the faith, is also against Sharia law and can also be punishable by death.

Other offences against Sharia law include denying Mohammed, gambling, drinking alcohol and women talking to a man, who is not her husband or relative.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-region-s-sharia-law.html?ito=social-facebook


More news items:
Strict sharia forces gays into hiding in Indonesia's Aceh (If I were them, I'd leave!!!)
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-indonesia-religion-gay-idUSKBN0K600W20141228

The gay sex worker who defied sharia law in Banda Aceh to organize
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap...esbians-Indonesia-undergo-rehabilitation.html

2 suspected Indonesian lesbians to undergo 'rehabilitation'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap...esbians-Indonesia-undergo-rehabilitation.html

Young couple among 18 caned in Indonesia's staunchly Islamic Aceh
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/af...-caned-Indonesias-staunchly-Islamic-Aceh.html

Whipped in front of a baying crowd, women wait their turn to be punished for having unmarried sex in only Indonesian province to implement Sharia law
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...Indonesian-province-implement-Sharia-law.html

Horrific pictures show young Indonesian woman sobbing as she is caned in public for having sex outside marriage - then carried off on a stretcher after she collapsed
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ide-marriage-carried-stretcher-collapsed.html

Cowering with fear on her knees, an Indonesian woman is whipped in front of a crowd... because she had started dating
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ndonesian-woman-whipped-crowd-dating-man.html

Indonesian 'whipping girl' caned for breaking Sharia Law 'DID have sex with her lover'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...llapsed-caning-punished-having-sex-lover.html

Indonesian city bans VALENTINE'S DAY after mayor declares 'youth should not be celebrating non-Islamic holidays'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...uth-not-celebrating-non-Islamic-holidays.html

Widow is gang-raped as 'punishment' for having an affair with a married man in Indonesia - and now she will be caned in public under Sharia law
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ed-man-Indonesia-caned-public-Sharia-law.html

Indonesia's Islamic Aceh province canes unwed couples
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/af...slamic-Aceh-province-canes-unwed-couples.html


Indonesia? Secular? Are you KIDDING me?!

Lady Gaga cancels Indonesia show after threat from Muslim extremists
Jakarta gig is called off over security concerns after Islamic Defenders Front vows to confront singer on way from airport
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/may/27/lady-gaga-indonesia-cancel-muslim

Indonesia is often held up by the US and others in the west as example of how Islam and democracy can coexist – 90% of the 240-million population is Muslim.

But a small, extremist fringe, has become more vocal – and violent – in recent years, sometimes attacking Christians and members of other religious minorities with clubs and machetes. They also targeted transvestites, atheists and others considered "blasphemous".

That's the thing! The simple fact the whole gig had to be cancelled, the authorities could not ensure her safety, public safety, and she could not even step foot into that country is a bloody red flag! Was that country truly secular, security would have been toughened up, and she would have been able to perform!


"This is a victory for Indonesian Muslims," said Salim Alatas, one of the leaders of the FPI. "Thanks to God for protecting us from a kind of devil."

Music lovers in Jakarta expressed outrage that the threats were able to force the show's cancellation. Lady Gaga fan Johnny Purba, 25, called it an embarrassment to Indonesia. "This only shows to the world how weak security forces are in this country, how police are afraid of a bunch of hardliners," he said.

"Gaga's two-hour show will not hurt Indonesian Muslims. For God's sake, she is not a terrorist!"


There is a real problem when a Sharia compliant nation that publicly canes people can get a social media app to reformat it's functions to be "sensitive".

What sort of precedence is this setting for other social media applications? – Brigitte Gabriel, president and founder of ACT for America
Indonesia warns messaging apps to drop same-sex emoticons
https://cqrcengage.com/act/app/document/11884064

 

[gb2000ie]

Something to bear in mind is that gay rights are only a very recent thing in Christian nations. I was a teenager when homosexuality was legalised in Ireland in 1993. That's not long ago. It's also noticeable that gay rights grew as Christian influences waned. Even today, there are Christian nations in Africa bringing in (or trying to at any rate) the death penalty for homosexuality.

Being anti-gay is not so much an Islamic thing as an Abrahamic religions thing. One of the few things that gets all the religious leaders in Jerusalem to work together is their opposition to Pride parades

B.