Saudi Arabia Culture Equal To
or greater than US culture?
A court in the ultra-conservative kingdom of Saudi Arabia is punishing a female victim of gang rape with 200 lashes and six months in jail, a newspaper reported on Thursday.
The 19-year-old woman — whose six armed attackers have been sentenced to jail terms — was initially ordered to undergo 90 lashes for “being in the car of an unrelated male at the time of the rape,” the Arab News reported.
But in a new verdict issued after Saudi Arabia’s Higher Judicial Council ordered a retrial, the court in the eastern town of Al-Qatif more than doubled the number of lashes to 200.
I wouldn’t want to make any summary judgments. Refrain from judging please. Incidentaly, anyone happen to know what supra-culture Saudi Arabia’s culture would fall into?
November 15th, 2007 at 11:08 pm
According to how I envision the terms, this seems more like law than culture, and more like Islam than Middle East.
It seems as though you have to define two terms clearly and unambiguously enough that there can be no confusion as to what lies within them and outside of them, before we can have any meaningful discussion on this issue.
1: Culture
2: Middle East
November 16th, 2007 at 10:51 am
I don’t understand what the point of this post is, other than to point out the brutality of Islamic law towards women to feel even more superior to an entire region of people.
You have not forgotten that the Saudis are some of Bush’s most valued business partners, right? And that they harbor and sponsor terrorism? And that Bush invaded a secular nation (Iraq) while completely side stepping this nation of Muslim extremists? Oh wait, by side stepping I meant sold them $20 billion in arms.
I really do not understand how you can square all of this in your mind other than Orwellian doublethink.
November 16th, 2007 at 12:48 pm
Don’t question Steve Michael. He is a part of a member of the supreme culture. A postion he earned through hard work.
November 16th, 2007 at 4:49 pm
I’m unhappy with the Bush family’s association with the Saudis.
Im all about invading Saudi Arabia and setting up up a democracy there. However Iran comes first with that whole weapons of mass destruction thing.
November 16th, 2007 at 6:06 pm
So Steve, if Bush is providing the Saudis with weapons that will be used to kill our troops in this war you advocate, doesn’t that make him guilty of the same thing you’re accusing the Iranians of?
Interesting that you decline to define your terms, providing me an opportunity to mock an argument you used in conversation. Perhaps you once again need to protect your right to redefine your terms in such a way as to render your original statement tautological, should you begin to lose an argument. I can see it now: “You may -think- you have a counterexample to Middle Eastern culture being bad, but what I really meant by ‘culture’ was ‘badness’! Therefore I am right!”
Since you accuse me of never extending, I would like to submit an equally insightful extension: badness is bad in any geographic context.
Come to think of it, we should probably get a definition of what you mean by ‘bad’ in this context as well. You seem willing to flip-flop between ‘it’s inferior to Western culture’ and ‘it’s harmful regardless’ - deflecting attempts to address either of those positions by claiming that you really meant the other.
Is it any surprise that people are hesitant to answer broad, loosely defined questions from you when, judging by your hesitation to specify what you mean, your argumentation relies on… ’selectively defining’ terms within those questions?