IN DEFENSE OF COMMON SENSE
By Hetty Gray
# 206
January 16, 2015
“The Warp and the Wept”
In the wake of the Paris Charlie Hebdo slaughter and the subsequent siege at the kosher grocery in Paris, we hear a smattering of rebuttal from Islamic clerics. I so wish I could believe what I hear. One man clearly put the onus on Saudi Arabia and its push for a strident ideology that adheres to the strict form of Islam. To give you an idea of its practice, consider a man who will be publicly flogged every week for a long time because he chose to criticize Islam.
The following details come from a worldwide site reflecting the views of moderate Muslims who see a crass hypocrisy in the way they describe the Paris attacks and the flogging of an Internet blogger. Saudi Arabia on Friday publicly flogged a blogger sentenced to 1,000 lashes for insulting Islam, with Amnesty International condemning his punishment as a “vicious act of cruelty”.
A Saudi court in September upheld a sentence of 10 years in prison as well as the flogging for Raef Badawi, who has been behind bars since June 2012. Badawi was also ordered to pay a fine of one million riyals ($267,000, 192,00 euros).
The 30-year-old received a first installment of 50 lashes on Friday and is expected to have 20 weekly whipping sessions until his punishment is complete. Witnesses said that Badawi was flogged after the weekly Friday prayers near Al-Jafali mosque in the Red Sea city of Jeddah as a crowd of worshipers looked on. Have you seen this news on television, heard it on radio, or read it on line? Likely not. Paris overshadowed it.
What is really appalling is that it is not an isolated case. It is very common in Saudi Arabia, a country proudly touted as one of America’s allies. Isn’t it thought provoking to see the difference dissent makes here at home.
While Badawi waits his flogging, Boston’s I-95 corridor (both northbound and southbound) is shut down by two lines protesters chained together among highway barrels holding signs that read “black lives matter.” Of course, black lives do. All lives matter. In the end, it’s how those lives are lived — but that is another discussion altogether.
The seminal question is this. Where would these people in Boston, black or white, choose to live — America where their voices are heard and punishment is probably being hauled off to jail and fined, where opportunities exist for those who work hard, or in the Middle East where dissent is forbidden and where women exist as less than second class citizens? I wonder how far Beyoncé, with her phenomenal voice and beautiful body, would have gone had she been born in the a country where women’s rights are nonexistent?
Of course, there will always be diametrically opposed views on women’s roles; but — at the very least — women should be able to receive a decent education. That is impossible in many areas of the world today. It seems as if such attitudes come from history books and harken back centuries. Sadly, they do not. These values and norms are alive and thrive among many Muslim societies.
As others will agree, this dichotomy has no easy solution. Men are perceived superior, women inferior. It is hard to reconcile seventh- century practices in a twenty-first century world, but we face that situation today.
There are, undoubtedly, many pillars of Islam that deserve perpetuity. Care for the poor, sincere prayer, and peace come to mind. The reality is that we see very little of these. What we do see is that Muslims kill more Muslims than any other group. How tragic.
In the international community, all our world leaders need to come together to see the threat for what it is. If, as many contemporary moderate Muslim clerics claim, this push for death and destruction is truly a skewing of the Islamic faith, then it is up to the faithful to stand up for their faith and counter this warp.
Fabric weaves threads together to make a strong whole. So do societies. We describe the fabric elements as warp and weft. The unwieldy challenge we face today is the product of the warp of a major faith. In its wake, untold numbers of people wept.
Think about it. Better yet, pray about it.