Saudi blogger receives first 50 lashes of sentence for 'insulting Islam'

From the Guardian:

Badawi was sentenced last May to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes. He had criticized Saudi Arabia’s powerful clerics on a liberal blog he founded. The blog has since been shut down. He was also ordered to pay a fine of 1m riyals or about $266,600.

Rights activists say Saudi authorities are using Badawi’s case as a warning to others who think to criticise the kingdom’s powerful religious establishment from which the ruling family partly derives its authority.

London-based Amnesty International said he would receive 50 lashes once a week for 20 weeks. The US, a close ally of Saudi Arabia, has called on authorities to cancel the punishment.

More here.

So...why is the US so cozy with the Saudis again? I always need reminding, especially when everybody's nose is rubbed in the fact that, you know, the Saudi government totally sucks. Oh yeah, the oil, that's right. And who cares about lashing when Americans apparently love torture? No wonder they hate our freedom.

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