Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Well, It Isn’t Called Yahoo News For No Reason

Take about missing the point:

Riyadh (AFP) - Saudi Arabia executed on Wednesday a man who donned women's clothing in a bid to escape after shooting dead a soldier and police officer, state media said.

Salih bin Yateem bin Salih al-Qarni was beheaded in the southwestern city of Abha, the official Saudi Press Agency said.

Qarni was intially arrested on other charges and was transported in an official vehicle by the soldier and a member of the Muttawa religious police.

"He shot them with a gun that he was carrying," the SPA said, without explaining how he obtained the weapon.

After stealing the keys from the security officer driving the vehicle, Qarni chewed some narcotic qat "and disguised himself in women's clothing" in an attempt to flee, but was recaptured, it said.

Saudi women are required to cover from head to toe, often with only their eyes exposed.

The report did not say when the escape bid occurred.

Qarni is the latest of 69 Saudis and foreigners executed in the kingdom this year, despite international concern.

Rape, murder, apostasy, drug trafficking and armed robbery are all punishable by death under the kingdom's strict version of Islamic sharia law.

So a couple of observations:

  1. This guy murdered two people in cold blood.  I’m pretty sure his execution has nothing to do with wearing women’s clothing.
  2. Despite their strict laws, it sounds like the Saudis, unlike the US, actually has a speedy trial process.
  3. If Saudi women did not want to wear coverings, they will give it up.  As it stands, these women choose to wear these coverings.  Yes, they are beaten if they do not wear them, but if enough women got together and stopped wearing these garbs, there wouldn’t be enough men to enforce the law.
  4. Besides apostasy, pretty much everyone in the West agrees that rape, murder, drug trafficking, and armed robbery are crimes.  The Western justice system seems to sympathize with the criminals though, rather than the victims.

Yahoo news lives up to its namesake.