Badawi Of Arabia
Raif Badawi is an atheist, like me, who spends much of his time writing online. The difference being that he lives in Saudi Arabia. A cruel tyranny that silences dissent, treats women like lesser persons, is turning historic Mecca into a tacky Las Vegas, and perpetuates an ultra-conservative interpretation of Islam that leads to horrific practices. Then my nation, the United States, the supposed “leader” of the free world, unabashedly supports this awful regime for oil, even as it carelessly bombed innocents in Yemen. That Badawi had the audacity to write what he did under such decadent tyranny, takes extraordinary courage.
He criticized the government. He criticized Islam. This is what got him into trouble. The Guardian reports that since 2012, Badawi’s been held by Saudi government for starting the blog Free Saudi Liberals, in which he often criticized the Wahhabi clerics. In 2013, he was initially charged with seven years in prison and 600 lashes, which was increased to 10 years in prison and 1000 lashes, after his family tried to appeal his sentence. This assault on Badawi is seen as a wider crackdown on activists in response to the Arab Spring of 2011. He was to be flogged 50 times a week and received the first set of lashings on the 9th of January.
The video of his flogging is highly disturbing.
Not just for the barbaric action itself, but for the response from those in the crowds. Secretly captured on cell phone (against Saudi rules, of course) the video picked up the banter of some spectators who said that he deserved decapitation. While another asks that the curse of Allah be upon him. When the brutality is finished, they cheer, “Allah Akbar!” Were the tyrants not to charge Badawi of any crime, perhaps some of these people would do it for them. Religious fundamentalism is a fearsome and corrupting force, it hides behind the veneer of divine authority to teach rather medieval ways of seeing the world. We know well of these fundamentalists in the United States, they listen to Pat Robertson, they watch Fox News, they voted for Sarah Palin. Though such lunatics aren’t exclusive to America, or even Christianity.
A friend of Badawi’s, Ali A. Rizvi, has said, “The public likely considers Raif guilty of blasphemy and apostasy. A 2013 Pew Research poll found that large numbers in Muslim countries favor the death penalty for leaving Islam — including 88% of Egyptian and 62% of Pakistani Muslims, as well as majorities in Jordan, Malaysia, Palestine, and Afghanistan.” This particular Pew poll excludes the views from Saudi Arabia, so it’s difficult to get a number on how many in that country support these extremist policies. Though, given the cries in the crowds, it is probably far from fringe. Indeed, the Saudi’s much lauded Grand Mufti is silent in the face of Badawi’s torture. Rizvi himself grew up in Saudi Arabia, so he knows these attitudes well. Further, he noted the irony of how these conservative edicts go against the rebellious founding of Islam,
“Some time ago, just 50 miles east of where Raif is being held today, another dissident once spoke of change, of challenging the status quo, of radical new ideas that would ultimately transform his society. He was ostracized, persecuted, and eventually driven from his city by those wanting to kill him. He was Mohammed, the Prophet of Islam; his persecutors, the Quraysh tribe of Mecca.”
The Badawi case is not only harmful to secularists and freethinkers in Saudi Arabia, but Muslims, as well, particularly those of a liberal bent. As the journalist Deborah Orr has explained,
“To all those who proclaim bafflement at the actions of those punishing Badawi with such gross barbarity, the answer can only be that it is being done to remind Muslims that they should fear and respect Islam. This cruelty to Badawi is a cruelty to all Muslims, who are being exhorted to fear nothing more than the temptation to start thinking for themselves.”
There has been an outpouring of criticism of the Saudi regime since the Badawi lashing. Amnesty International’s campaign is at the forefront, declaring Badawi a “prisoner of conscience” and saying, “We are asking Saudi Arabia to quash Raif’s conviction and overturn his unjust prison sentence, fine, media and travel ban — and stop flogging him immediately. Flogging is a barbaric medieval ‘punishment’ that constitutes torture — there is never justification for its use.” While Badawi’s wife, Ensaf Haidar, has campaigned tirelessly for his release, saying, “I feel destroyed. But I don’t want to sit in a corner and cry.”
I must say, however, that it’s rather disgusting to see the stranglehold that the Saudi’s repugnant royal family has on American politicians. This isn’t to say that the US has done nothing. Jen Psaki of the State Department has called on Saudi Arabia to “cancel this brutal punishment”, while various members of Congress, such as James P. McGovern, have signed a bipartisan letter which asks the Saudi king to “cancel the sentence.” I just fear that their words, which are welcome, will be just that, words. Will the US show the courage to stand up to the Saudi royal elite? Don’t get your hopes up.
When the tyrant King Abdullah died, Obama and Kerry became dutiful, royal subjects. American prostration towards our Saudi masters has become so predictably gross, that the media clung to Michelle Obama’s refusal to wear a hijab as an act of defiance. A mere fashion choice is the standard of dissent, apparently, when it comes to the Saudi fascists. This is particularly depressing, when one considers that the United States was founded on its distaste for blue bloods and their divine right of kings. Though it seems that we are, once again, under the heel of tyrants. Understandably, the realpolitik of the situation may demand compromise on our behalf, especially if we want a steady supply of oil, but surely our politicians could show a little more discomfort in this very awful relationship. It would appear that in today’s environment, a radical document like the Declaration of Independence could only get the approval of Washington if the Koch Brothers endorsed it.
Throughout all of this, keep in mind that when we apologize for the crimes of authoritarians, we spit in the faces of their victims. Badawi knows these consequences better than I. He feels them on his back.
Writings of a Dissident
Unfortunately, only one of Raif Badawi’s essays has been translated, though fragments of his works have been put up by Ian Black in The Guardian. It is these sources which I will discuss. Not a full or proper examination, I realize, but it’s the best I can do. If we want to honor Raif Badawi, then we should share and discuss the writings that have caused such controversy.
Badawi was proud of his secularism, an idea that some in the West shirk from, “Secularism respects everyone and does not offend anyone.” He knew this because religious dogmas were what censored freethinking Arab minds, “As soon as a thinker starts to reveal his ideas, you will find hundreds of fatwas that accused him of being an infidel just because he had the courage to discuss some sacred topics. I’m really worried that Arab thinkers will migrate in search of fresh air and to escape the sword of the religious authorities.” For sure, some Arabs do flee their oppressive regimes in some cases, but others courageously stand against them. During one of the highlights of the Arab Spring: Tahrir Square, Egypt, Badawi saw the shift as a hopeful one:
“It is a revolution, led by students and the marginalised, a revolution in every sense of the word … that is … a decisive turning point … not only in the history and geography of Egypt but everywhere that is governed by the Arab mentality of dictatorship and security. It is not yet clear whether is Egypt is about to change, but it is our hope that a new Egypt will emerge from the painful birth pangs its people are experiencing … after years of subservience and oppression.”
What emerged from the Arab Spring would change the world, and lead to success in Tunisia, but bloodshed in Egypt, Libya, and Syria. Though the legacy of Tahrir Square surely lives on in the hearts and minds of protesters in Gezi Park, Zucotti Park, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Caracas, Abuja, Euromaidan, Ferguson, Baltimore, and beyond. Badawi was right about the birth pangs of revolution, they are painful and sometimes violent. Though what guides these young people is the promise of liberalism, and what a promise it is. As Badawi described it,
“For me, liberalism simply means, live and let live. This is a splendid slogan. However, the nature of liberalism — particularly the Saudi version — needs to be clarified. It is even more important to sketch the features and parameters of liberalism, to which the other faction, controlling and claiming exclusive monopoly of the truth, is so hostile that they are driven to discredit it without discussion or fully understanding what the word actually means. They have succeeded in planting hostility to liberalism in the minds of the public and turning people against it, lest the carpet be pulled out from under their feet. But their hold over people’s minds and society shall vanish like dust carried off in the wind.”
Saudi Arabia’s pseudo-liberalism is flaunted best in their destruction of valuable holy sites at Mecca for a fake Big Ben, Hilton Hotels, and shopping malls. They chose McDonald’s over Locke. Hell, even the Saudi McDonald’s is segregated by gender. Avicenna weeps. It is this type of dogmatism, under the mask of liberalism, that Badawi hoped wouldn’t corrupt Arab justice movements. For instance, he supported the Palestinian cause for freedom (as I do), but feared that ultra-conservatives like Hamas threatened to turn the cause towards fundamentalism. Some leftists in the West tend to excuse and whitewash Hamas as a “social services group”, whose resistance is “legitimate.”
If you think I’m putting up a strawman, just rewatch that video of Bernie Sanders being overrun by his apologetic supporters during a town hall. His crime? Simply pointing out that Hamas isn’t the sort of group you’d want to be neighbors with. I wonder if these propagandists for Islamofascism realize that Hamas once called Osama Bin Laden a “martyr” and an “Arab holy warrior.” The leftists who attacked Sanders could learn a thing or two from Badawi,
“I’m not in support of the Israeli occupation of any Arab country, but at the same time I do not want to replace Israel by a religious state … whose main concern would be spreading the culture of death and ignorance among its people when we need modernisation and hope. States based on religious ideology … have nothing except the fear of God and an inability to face up to life. Look at what had happened after the European peoples succeeded in removing the clergy from public life and restricting them to their churches. They built up human beings and (promoted) enlightenment, creativity and rebellion. States which are based on religion confine their people in the circle of faith and fear.”
Separation of church and state, a value to be cherished. Badawi knows, because in Saudi Arabia, their evangelists have far more influence on the state than ours. One such cleric called for the punishment of astronomers, because they can cause skepticism of sharia. This is a strange viewpoint, given that Muslims played an important role in preserving the Ptolemaic traditions during the Middle Ages, but we’ll not mention Nasir al-Din Tusi to these ignoramuses. Badawi touched on it with a sense of humor,
“Actually, this venerable preacher has drawn my attention to a truth that had been hidden from me and my dear readers — namely, the existence of the so-called “Sharia astronomer”. What a wonderful appellation! In my humble experience and in the course of my not inconsiderable research into the universe, its origins and the stars, I have never once come across this term. I advise NASA to abandon its telescopes and, instead, turn to our Sharia astronomers, whose keen vision and insight surpass the agency’s obsolete telescopes. Indeed, I advise all other scholars the world over, of whatever discipline, to abandon their studies, laboratories, research centres, places of experimentation, universities, institutes etc. and head at once to the study groups of our magnificent preachers to learn from them all about modern medicine, engineering, chemistry, microbiology, geology, nuclear physics, the science of the atom, marine sciences, the science of explosives, pharmacology, anthropology etc. — alongside astronomy, of course. God bless them! They have shown themselves to be the final authority with the decisive word in everything, which all mankind must accept, submit to and obey without hesitation or discussion.”
The only article of Badawi’s that has yet been translated into English, is about the Park51 Islamic Center, which has been popularly dubbed the “Ground Zero Mosque.” He criticized what he viewed as insensitivity on behalf of the Muslims to the victims of 9/11,
“What hurts me most as a citizen of the area which exported those terrorists (without honor them, of course), is the audacity of Muslims in New York that reaches the limits of insolence, not taking any regard of the thousands of victims who perished on that fateful day or their families.
“What increases my pain is this (Islamist) chauvinist arrogance which claims that the innocent blood, which was shed by barbarian, brutal minds under the slogan ‘Allah Akbar’, means nothing when compared with the act of building an Islamic mosque whose mission will be to re-spawn new terrorists and demanding even that the mosque be constructed near the same area. This is a blatant affront to the memory of American Society in particular and humanity in general, none of whom accept in any way that scene of mass murder.”
I disagree with Badawi on this one, though I think he may have been misinformed by the salacious press reports at the time. Much of it trumped up by anti-Muslim bigot and far-right extremist, Pamela Geller. 60 Minutes, I believe, produced the definitive account of the controversy. To say that Park51 is a “mosque”, is like saying the YMCA is a “church.” Park51 is meant to be an Islamic community center, with only ten percent of the area set aside for prayer, while the rest would have a restaurant, a pool, a media tech library, an auditorium, and child care facilities, among other things. The owner got the idea from a Jewish Community Center he used to go to. In fact, when he first proposed the idea, it was met with enthusiastic approval. The area where Park51 is to be built was two blocks away from Ground Zero, the purpose of its creation was to help out a run-down community, not put the flag of Islamic imperialism on the graves of 9/11 victims. The rejection of Park51 seems to imply that the variant of Islam practiced by most Americans approves of the 9/11 attacks. This seems to me very far from the truth, as 9/11 had many Muslim victims.
Though Badawi notes something interesting in his blog post, “Suppose that we put ourselves a little in the place of American citizens. Would we accept that a Christian or Jew assaults us in our own house and then build a church or synagogue in the same area of the attack???? I doubt it.” His larger point was that Saudis refuse other religions the right to build their structures in the country, and so, have no right to speak on the so-called “mosque” in America,
“We reject the building of churches in Saudi Arabia not having been assaulted by anyone. Then what would you think if those who wanted to build a church are the same people who stormed the sanctity of our land? Was not what happened on Sept. 11 an assault on the sanctity of the land and the homeland? Of what land and what country? It is America.
“Furthermore, we have not asked ourselves how it is that America allows Islamic missionaries on its territory, and how it is that we reject under all circumstances the freedom to proselytize within our Kingdom’s land. We can no longer hide our heads like an ostrich and say that no one can see us or that no one cares. Whether we like it or not, we, being a part of humanity, have the same duties that others have as well as the same rights.”
Badawi’s last blog was a call for separation of church and state. While religion’s place being a personal one between a believer and a Creator, it has no business in regulating various citizens,
“No religion at all has any connection to mankind’s civic progress. This is not a failing on the part of religion but rather that all religions represent a particular, precise spiritual relationship between the individual and the Creator. ..However, positive law is an unavoidable human and social need because traffic regulations, employment law and the codes governing the administration of State can hardly be derived from religion.”
If only such separation existed in Saudi Arabia. The Guardian reports that Badawi’s flogging has been repeatedly postponed on medical grounds, though some suggest that the international pressure to release Badawi has brought this postponement. Though the postponement still offers us reason to hope. In a message to the United States, which “presents itself as a champion of human rights throughout the world”, Ensaf Haidar wrote this,
“Before his arrest, my husband wrote: “We want life for those who wish death to us; and we want rationality for those who want ignorance for us.” I carry his words and his courage with me on the darkest and most hopeless days. Raif inspires me and compels me to keep raising my voice.
“I will not stop until my husband is free.”
Raif Badawi ended his last blog post with a quote by Albert Camus, “The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.” Camus could just have easily been talking about Badawi. The royal Saudi elite are scared, they’re afraid the words of people like him will undermine their authority. They have good reason to fear, but they cannot stop future Badawis from disrupting the status quo. Once the dam is broken, you can’t push back the waters.
#FreeRaif
Sign Amnesty International’s petition to free Raif Badawi
https://www.amnesty.org.uk/actions/saudi-arabia-free-raif-badawi-flogged-blogger
Originally published at sansuthecat.blogspot.com on May 12, 2015, the essay has been edited and revised since its original publication for clarity.
