Silenced: How Apostasy and Blasphemy Codes Are Choking Freedom Worldwide (71 page)

24
. “Saudi Arabia,”
International Religious Freedom Report 2007
. For background, see “The Shiite Question in Saudi Arabia,” International Crisis Group, Middle East Report N°45–19, September 2005,
http://www.crisisgroup.org/en/regions/middle-east-north-africa/irangulf/saudi-arabia/045-the-shiite-question-in-saudi-arabia.aspx
.

25
. “Saudi Arabia,”
International Religious Freedom Report 2009
.

26
. Hudson Institute/Institute for Gulf Affairs,
2008 Update: Saudi Arabia’s Intolerance
, 13.

27
. “Saudi Arabia,”
International Religious Freedom Report 2007
.

28
. Stephen Schwartz, “
Shari’a
in Saudi Arabia, Today and Tomorrow,” in
Radical Islam’s Rules
, ed. Paul Marshall (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005), 30–31.

29
. “Saudi Arabia,”
International Religious Freedom Report 2007
.

30
. Translation of statement provided by Ali al-Ahmed of the Institute for Gulf Affairs; “Saudi Clerics Slam Shias, Hezbollah,”
Reuters
, June 1, 2008,
http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/printArticle.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=221969&version=1&template_id=37&parent_id=17
.

31
. Middle East Media Research Institute. “Recent Rise in Sunni-Shi’ite Tension (
Part III
): Sectarian Strife in Saudi Arabia,”
Inquiry & Analysis
482, December 16, 2008,
http://www.memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=ia&ID=IA48208
.

32
. “Saudi Arabia: An Upsurge in Public Executions,” Amnesty International,
http://www.amnestyusa.org/document.php?lang=e&id=4FBA416ABC8805C2802569A600603109
.

33
. “Blasphemer Executed in Saudi Arabia,”
Arab News
via Moneyclips, September 4, 1992; “Saudi Arabia, Religious Intolerance: The Arrest, Detention and Torture of Christian
Worshipers and Shi’a Muslims,” Amnesty International, 14, 1993,
http://www.amnestyusa.org/document.php?lang=e&id=F9ABD6A906FEFB03802569A600603A2B
; Communication to the Government of Saudi Arabia from UN Special Rapporteur Abdel Fattah Amor, August 31, 1993, as presented before the UN Commission on Human Rights, January 20, 1994.

34
. See Schwartz, “Shari’a Today and Tomorrow,” 29, 35; Additional cases of persecution of Shias are available from the Institute of Gulf Affairs,
http://www.gulfinstitute.org/artman/publish/index.shtml
.

35
. “Denied Dignity: Systematic Discrimination and Hostility Toward Saudi Shia Citizens,” Human Rights Watch, 2009,
http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2009/09/03/denied-dignity-0
.

36
. Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies 2009,
Bastion of Impunity, Mirage of Reform
, 174–75.

37
. Kelly McEvers, “Sorcery Charges on the Rise in Saudi Arabia,” NPR, December 21, 2009,
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121715788
; “Lawyer Beheading Planned in Saudi Sorcery Case,”
CNN.com
, April 1, 2010,
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/03/31/saudi.arabia.sorcery/index.html
.

38
. Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies,
Bastion of Impunity, Mirage of Reform
, 175; “Grumbling and Rumbling: Shia Unhappiness Is Rattling Regimes in Saudi Arabia and Elsewhere in the Gulf,”
The Economist
, February 26, 2009,
http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13185773
; “Denied Dignity: Systematic Discrimination and Hostility toward Saudi Shia Citizens,” Human Rights Watch, 2009, 15–23,
http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2009/09/03/denied-dignity-0
, which also reports (p. 11) that in June 2009, another Shia was reportedly sentenced to 400 lashes and three months’ prison for allegedly cursing God. The judge is also reported to have insulted Shias.

39
. United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, “Saudi Arabia: USCIRF Concerned by Misleading Claims about Release of Religious Prisoners,” November 6, 2006. For an overview, see “The Ismailis of Najran: Second-class Saudi Citizens,” Human Rights Watch, September 2008,
http://www.hrw.org/reports/2008/saudiarabia0908/
.

40
. Brian Whitaker, “A Bad Joke,”
Guardian
, September 14, 2006,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2006/sep/14/abadjoke
.

41
. “Saudi Religious Prisoner on Strike until Death,” Saudi Information Agency, September 8, 2006,
http://www.arabianews.org/english/article.cfm?qid=192&sid=2
.

42
. “Saudi Arabia: Mentally Ill Prisoner Put in Solitary,” Human Rights Watch, February 2, 2007,
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2007/02/01/saudi-arabia-mentally-ill-prisoner-put-solitary
; “Saudi Arabia,”
International Religious Freedom Report 2007
. Personal correspondence between Ali Al-Ahmed and Msgr. Pietro Parolin, Undersecretary for the Holy See’s Relations with States, January 15, 2008, confirms that the Vatican raised the case with Saudi officials. On the sentence, “Saudi Religious Prisoner on Strike until Death,” SIA News, September 8, 2006, says the sentence was changed in 1999; “Saudi Arabia: Pardon Ismaili Sentenced to Death,” (Letter), Human Rights Watch, October 10, 2006,
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/10/10/saudia14372.htm
, implies he still faced a death sentence, as does “Saudi Arabia: Stop Trials for Insulting Islam,” Human Rights Watch, May 13, 2008,
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2008/05/12/saudi-arabia-stop-trials-insulting-islam
; Whitaker, “A Bad Joke,” says the King met with Hadi’s father and may have reduced the sentence.

43
. “Saudi Unrest Blamed on ‘Sorcerer,’ ”
BBC News
, April 25, 2000,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/725597.stm
; Ahmed Al-Haj, “Saudi Security Forces, Ismaili Protestors Clash, Many Said Dead,”
AP
, April 24, 2000; “Three Foreigners Hurt in Unrest Linked to Ismaili Minority: Saudi Minister,”
Agence France Presse
(henceforth
AFP
), April 25, 2000; Schwartz, “Shari’a Today and Tomorrow,” 29–30.

44
. Sources agree on their arrest but differ as to their sentences; see “Civil and Political Rights, Including Questions Regarding Torture and Detention: Report of Special Rapporteur Nigel Rodley,” UN Commission on Human Rights, January 25, 2001,
http://www.unhchr.ch/Huridocda/Huridoca.nsf/0/9d0d08575ef2e1528025687e00516e7a?Opendocument
;
Amnesty International document MDE 23/78/00, October 8, 2000,
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/MDE23/078/2000/en
.

45
. “The Ismailis of Najran,” Human Rights Watch, September 22, 2008,
http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2008/09/22/ismailis-najran
.

46
. Report on Saudi Arabia, United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, May 2003.

47
. UN Commission on Human Rights, “Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Question of Torture, Theo van Boven, Submitted Pursuant to Commission Resolution 2002/38,” E/CN.4/2003/68/Add.1, February 27, 2003,
http://www.unhchr.ch/Huridocda/Huridoca.nsf/(Symbol)/E.CN.4.2003.68.Add.1.En?Opendocument
; Amnesty International, “Incommunicado Detention/Fear of Torture/Possible Prisoners of Conscience,” document 23/002/2002, February 19, 2002,
http://www.amnesty.org/en/…/MDE23/002/2002/en/…/mde230022002es.html
.

48
. World Report 2003–Saudi Arabia, Human Rights Watch,
http://www.hrw.org/legacy/wr2k3/mideast6.html
; Schwartz, “Shari’a Today and Tomorrow,” 29.

49
. “Ismaili Leader’s Sentence Reduced after International Protest,” Saudi Information Agency, May 28, 2002,
http://www.arabiaradio.org/english/article.cfm?qid=25&sid=3&printme=1
.

50
. “Saudi Ismaili ‘Arrested over Petition to King,’”
AFP
, May 15, 2008,
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=92040
; Reuters, “Saudi Shiite Held after Meeting King,”
Kuwait Times
, May 19, 2008,
http://www.kuwaittimes.net/read_news.php?newsid=MTMzNjMxMTY5NA
; Andrew Hammond, “Saudi Shiites Oppose Plan to Settle Sunnis,” Reuters, February 18, 2008,
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L05508688.htm
.

51
Center for Islamic Pluralism,
http://www.islamicpluralism.org/
.

52
. Paul Marshall, ed.,
Religious Freedom in the World
(Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2008), 348.

53
. Adnan R. Khan, “The Push for Religious Reform Is Allowing Sufis to Step into the Pen,” March 3, 2005,
http://www.sunniforum.com/forum/archive/index.php?t-4762.html
; Mahmoud Ahmad, “Makkah Bids Farewell to Maliki,”
Arab News
, October 31, 2004.

54
. Faiza Saleh Ambah, “In Saudi Arabia, a Resurgence of Sufism,”
The Washington Post
, May 2, 2006,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/01/AR2006050101380.html
.

55
. Schwartz, “Shari’a Today and Tomorrow,” 28–29.

56
. “Saudi Woman Faces Death for Witchcraft,”
Telegraph
, February 15, 2008,
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1578803/Saudi-woman-faces-death-for-witchcraft.html
. Saudi Maher al-Luqman, an entertainer who walks on nails and eats glass and fire, says that the religious police “have stopped us for two years, branding us as sorcerers, and calling for people to fight us and report us.” Circus shows have been banned as “contrary to Islam.” “The Perils of Eating Fire in Saudi Arabia—Nael Shyoukhi,”
Reuters
, July 21, 2010,
http://wwrn.org/articles/33894/
.

57
. Reuters, “Saudi Executes Egyptian for Practicing ‘Witchcraft,’” ABC News (Australia), November 2, 2007,
http://abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/11/03/2080777.htm?site=news
.

58
. Amnesty International, “World 2007 Death Penalty statistics, notes and case studies,” April 15, 2008,
http://www.amnestyusa.org/document.php?id=ENGACT500142008
. “Egyptian Faces Death over Saudi Koran Desecration,”
Reuters
, April 18, 2007,
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20070418–1015-saudi-crime-koran.html
. In March 2009, the Muttawa arrested a “sorcerer” for practicing magic and providing spiritual services to men and women who rejected Islam; “Hai’a Combat with Sorcerers, Magicians,”
Saudi Gazette
, March 16, 2009,
http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentID=2009031532193
. Other reported arrests for witchcraft between 2006 and 2009 include, in October 2006, Eritrean expatriate Muhammad Burhan. Wafiqat al-Hazza’, a Shia woman, was detained for carrying a Shia prayer book at the Jordanian-Saudi border in 2008 and sentenced to six months for witchcraft. In 2009, a Saudi was arrested for smuggling a book discussing witchcraft into the country and an expatriate for using “sorcery” and “charlatanry” to solve others’ romantic problems. On March 10, 2010, the General Court in Medina
upheld the death penalty against forty-six-year-old Ali Hussein Subat (also called Shahrzad) for publicly practicing black magic; see Donna Abu-Nasr/
Associated Press
, “Rights Group Rejects Saudi Witchcraft Charges,”
ABC News
, November 25, 2009,
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wirestory?id=9171764&page=1
; “Denied Dignity: Systematic Discrimination and Hostility Toward Saudi Shia Citizens,” Human Rights Watch, 2009, 11,
http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2009/09/03/denied-dignity-0
; Dominic Waghorn, “TV Presenter on Death Row for Witchcraft,”
Sky News
, November 24, 2009,
http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Saudi-Arabia-Ali-Sibat-Sentenced-To-Death-For-Witchcraft-Over-TVPredictions/Article/200911415466364)
; “Saudi Court Upholds Death Sentence against ‘Sorcerer,’ ”
Arabian Business.com
,
http://www.arabianbusiness.com/583567-saudi-court-upholds-death-sentence-against-sorcerer
.

59
. “Saudi Arabia: Stop Trials for ‘Insulting’ Islam,” Human Rights Watch, May 13, 2008,
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2008/05/12/saudi-arabia-stop-trials-insulting-islam
; “Saudi Arabia Court Ratifies Beheading of Turkish Barber,”
TurkishPress
, May 1, 2008,
http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=228978
; Ebtihal Mubarak, “Turkish Barber Detained Over Profane Remarks,”
Arab News
, April 17, 2008,
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article=109032
.

60
. “President Gul May Save Turkish Man Sentenced to Death in Saudi Arabia,”
Today’s Zaman
, April 14, 2008; “President Gul intervenes to Save Turk in Saudi Arabia,”
Turkish Daily News
, April 14, 2008.

61
. Ebtihal Mubarak, “Blasphemy Case Moves to Appeals Court,”
Arab News
, April 21, 2008,
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article=109150&d=21&m=4&y=2008
; “Uskul pleads with Saudi Authorities for Turk Facing Death Penalty,”
Today’s Zaman
, April 21, 2008; “Saudi Barber Faces Beheading for Cursing,” UPI.com, May 30, 2008,
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2008/05/30/Saudi_barber_faces_beheading_for_cursing/UPI-76321212159442/
.