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December 11, 2005
Saudi Arabia: Teachers Who Offended Islamic Scholars Pardoned
We brought you the bizarre story of Muhammad al-Harbi, the chemistry teacher who was sentenced to jail and flogging in November for "mocking Islam" and also studying witchcraft. He was also accused of favouring Jews and Christians.
The legal move against him was made by a students whom Mr al-Harbi had refused a chance to re-sit an exam they had failed. The students had been assisted in bringing the case by Islamic studies tutors at the Al-Fowalliq High school in Ein Al-Juwa in Al-Qassim.
According to the Scotsman, Mr al-Harbi, who had been sentenced to three years in jail and 750 lashes (50 lashes per week performed in a public market), was granted a royal pardon last week by King Abdullah. All charges against him have been dropped.
Mr al-Harbi, whose main crime seems to be that he told his students that Islam does not condone acts of terrorism, was the subject of human rights groups' protests.
Another teacher who was harshly punished and who was the subject of human rights protests is Mohammad al-Suhaimi. Mr al-Suhaimi had been sentenced to three years in jail with 300 lashes for encouraging homosexuality and adultery. He was set free, and charges dropped.
Mr al-Suhaimi claimed that he had upset fundamentalist colleagues by telling his students that love was noble, and that it was better to love than fear God. He had told Arab News: "I teach teenagers who need love and affection at a difficult period in their lives. I will not turn everything in their lives into fear and terror, especially their relationship with God."
The Scotsman reports that Human Rights Watch is currently lobbying King Abdullah about the case of Indian migrant worker Puthan Veettil Noushad. In April 2003, a court in Damman sentenced Noushad to have his right eye gouged out, as punishment for an incident where he had a brawl with a Saudi customer, in which the Saudi national lost the sight in one eye.
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at December 11, 2005 10:37 PM
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