Saudi Arabia gives man death sentence for "doubting the existence of God."

Source

Courtesy of Middle East Eye:  

A court in Saudi Arabia has sentenced a Palestinian poet to death for renouncing his religious faith, according to documents seen by Human Rights Watch. 

Ashraf Fayadh was handed the sentence on Tuesday on charges of “doubting the existence of God,” according to court documents seen by the group’s Saudi Arabia researcher, Adam Coogle. 

Fayadh, who was born to Palestinian parents but grew up in the Gulf kingdom, was arrested by religious police in late 2013 after a reader complained that one of his books, his 2008 poetry collection Inner Teachings, could encourage people to renounce Islam. 

Fayadh, now 50, was released after a day due to lack of evidence, but was rearrested in January 2014 in the southwestern city of Abha. 

The poet was arrested in a coffee shop after watching a game of football, and was threatened with being deported to Gaza, his father told France24 at the time. 

Fayadh was initially sentenced to four years in prison and 800 lashes, but an appeal judge this week increased the sentence, handing down the death penalty.

Remember this is a Muslim country with whom WE have a special relationship.

In fact our former President seemed to have a crush on their former leader King Abdullah.

And our current President did not seem to have any problem cozying up to his successor King Salman.

The country has money to burn, and they send their children to some of the best schools in the world, and yet they STILL consider it reasonable to murder a man for using his critical thinking skills.

If America were really a place that respected freedom above all else, it would immediately cut ties with his back water country and tell them not to give them a call until they managed to drag themselves into the 21st century.

Is now a good time to remind everybody that fifteen of the nineteen 9-11 hijackers were Saudi nationalists?

Anti-Muslim blogger Pamela Geller holds a "Draw Mohammad" contest and surprise, surprise, there's a shooting. Update!

Courtesy of The Guardian: 

Two gunmen have been killed and a security guard injured during what appears to be an attack on a contest for cartoon depictions of the prophet Muhammad in a Dallas suburb. 

The gunmen drove up to the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland shortly before 7pm on Sunday where the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI) were hosting the exhibition and contest. 

According to city authorities an unarmed guard at the event was shot at before the men were engaged and killed by police. 

Authorities immediately locked down the center, evacuating the 200 participants at the event and sealing off large areas including a nearby shopping mall. 

A bomb squad was called in after reports of a possible incendiary device at the scene of the incident. Police said a “bomb container trailer” had also been deployed in which to place any suspect device. 

A police spokesman said two males had been killed and their bodies were still lying outside their car hours later.

There is still an ongoing investigation and I am sure more information will be available later. 

However what we do know is that this incident could not have worked out better for event organizer Pamela Geller.

This from Raw Story: 

“The idea we are going to bridge our freedom, our most basic inalienable right, in order to not offend savages is egregious,” Geller said. “It is outrageous. This is a war and the war is here.” 

“There’s an enemy among us,” she said. “They need to crush our freedoms, our emotions — basic freedoms. They handled this situation brilliantly.” 

Geller said about 300 attendees sang the “Star-Spangled Banner” and “God Bless America” as they were evacuated to a safe room after a suspicious backpack was found. 

“They understand the fight,” she said. “We need to stand up for freedom of speech. The idea that a cartoon, a funny cartoon – by the way, we had held the contest – the Muhammad contest. It was won by a former Muslim, that that cartoon would compel devout followers to slaughter is outrageous. It is unspeakable. It is monstrous.” 

Geller disagreed that she or her organization are controversial. “A free speech conference is not controversial,” she said. 

“Shooting people is controversial. There is a moral inversion. There’s a problem here. The American people need to stand up for the basic founding principle. The principle — it’s offensive speech, it’s the First Amendment. It’s not the Eighth or Tenth, it’s the First Amendment. Who will decide who is good or what is forbidden? The Islamic State? Muslim groups?”

Actually Geller and her group are incredibly controversial, and it could be argued that they purposefully antagonize the Muslim community in the hopes of having incidents like this occur.

Courtesy of the New York Daily News: 

She calls herself an advocate for those who have been victimized by religious extremists, but critics say that Pamela Geller and her controversial anti-Islamic groups are as hateful and extreme as those she seeks to condemn. 

And this courtesy of SPLC:

Pamela Geller is the anti-Muslim movement's most visible and flamboyant figurehead. She's relentlessly shrill and coarse in her broad-brush denunciations of Islam and makes preposterous claims, such as that President Obama is the "love child" of Malcolm X. She makes no pretense of being learned in Islamic studies, leaving the argumentative heavy lifting to her Stop Islamization of America partner Robert Spencer. Geller has mingled comfortably with European racists and fascists, spoken favorably of South African racists, defended Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic and denied the existence of Serbian concentration camps. She has taken a strong pro-Israel stance to the point of being sharply critical of Jewish liberals.

Though many have now forgotten Geller and her shadowy groups were also behind the creation of the poorly made film "Innocence of Muslims" that was either the cause, or the excuse, for the killings at Benghazi which the conservatives have been trying to blame on President Obama and Hillary Clinton.

Yeah Geller is certainly a nasty piece of work.

However that is no excuse for what happened here.

Killing people for disrespecting your religion, or for daring to draw a caricature of your prophet, does nothing but demonstrate an underlying insecurity ingrained within your belief system and a defensiveness that only serves to make your entire religion seem crazy.

And yes, I know all too well that hundreds of years ago Christianity was even more aggressive toward its detractors and that the rivers ran red with the blood of atheists, intellectuals, and those embracing other religions.

Update: You knew it was coming, Rush Limbaugh blames the  shooting on President Obama.