The Saudi Arabian “morality police” have been busy these past weeks handing out gruesome penalties for crimes that would be considered misdemeanors in the U.S.
Sharia, of course, has different standards than we do and those standards are harsh and deadly. Sharia has no set code of laws that can be relied on to assure equal justice. It relies on religious texts and the interpretation of those using the texts. In short, the law can be whatever the morality police want it to be.
This week, the morality police executed two sets of brothers for possession of hashish. They were all beheaded, as is the practice in Saudi Arabia. The relatives of those beheaded say that the men were tortured before they died. (Saudi Arabia also uses the firing squad, but the preferred method of killing is the sword.)
In addition, a 24-year-old homosexual was snagged in a sting operation and was sentenced to 450 lashes and three years in prison. The 450 lashes will be meted out in 15 sessions.
Liberal law professor Jonathan Turley noted: “He can consider himself lucky under Sharia law. If he were married, he would have been stoned to death. Other punishments for simply being gay include chemical castrations, imprisonment and execution.”
The Saudi morality police (The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice), have also sentenced a businesswoman to a month in prison and 50 lashes for the “crime” of insulting members of the morality police.
As Reuters reports: “Incidents of heavy-handed behavior by the morality police have come under growing criticism on social media from inside the kingdom in recent years, straining relations between Saudi citizens and the official body.
“The appeals court in Mecca upheld the sentence, passed by a district court in Jeddah, after the woman was found guilty of “cursing the morality police” and calling them “liars”, the Arabic-language daily reported.
“It said the patrol had entered her cafe to check there were no breaches of morality or other laws in the conservative Muslim kingdom, and that some of her employees had then run away because they were breaking immigration rules.”
The morality police patrol public spaces to enforce strict dress codes and a 30-minute store closure during Islam’s noon, afternoon, sunset, and evening prayers.
by Editor2
Sorce – Religious Freedom Coalition
