1000 Lashes: Because I Say What I Think
By Raif Badawi and Lawrence M. Krauss
4/5
()
About this ebook
Raif Badawi, a Saudi Arabian blogger, shared his thoughts on politics, religion, and liberalism online. He was sentenced to 1,000 lashes, ten years in prison, and a fine of 1 million Saudi Riyal, over a quarter of a million U.S. dollars. This politically topical polemic gathers together Badawi’s pivotal texts. He expresses his opinions on life in an autocratic-Islamic state under the Sharia and his perception of freedom of expression, human and civil rights, tolerance and the necessary separation of state and religion.
Related to 1000 Lashes
Related ebooks
The Trouble with Islam: A Muslim's Call for Reform in Her Faith Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Islamophobia: Understanding the Roots and Rise of Fear Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5On the Sociology of Islam: Lectures Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A God Who Hates: The Courageous Woman Who Inflamed the Muslim World Speaks Out Against the Evils of Islam Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unveiled: How the West Empowers Radical Muslims Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Salman Rushdie the Believer: A Satanic Journey Mirroring Belief Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIslam: An American Religion Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Marriage and Slavery in Early Islam Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Misquoting Muhammad: The Challenge and Choices of Interpreting the Prophet's Legacy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Answering Atheism And Agnosticism Series (Answering Bertrand Russell) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSharia Compliant: A User's Guide to Hacking Islamic Law Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Caged Virgin: An Emancipation Proclamation for Women and Islam Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5To the Cross and Back: An Immigrant's Journey from Faith to Reason Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Blasphemer: The Price I Paid for Rejecting Islam Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGuiding The Youth Of The New Generation Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Life of Mohammed: The Sira Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Progressive Muslims: On Justice, Gender and Pluralism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Return to Ruin: Iraqi Narratives of Exile and Nostalgia Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGoodbye Chomsky, and Other Essays on Language Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIslam: What Non-Muslims Should Know Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Standing Alone: An American Woman's Struggle for the Soul of Islam Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Defending Muḥammad in Modernity Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Second Person Singular: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Desperately Seeking Paradise: Journeys of a Sceptical Muslim Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Allah, Liberty and Love: The Courage to Reconcile Faith and Freedom Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Summary of Reza Aslan's No god but God (Updated Edition) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsKarachi Raj Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFollowing Muhammad: Rethinking Islam in the Contemporary World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5What Do Muslims Believe? Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The American Muslim Teenager's Handbook Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Social Science For You
Becoming Cliterate: Why Orgasm Equality Matters--And How to Get It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fervent: A Woman's Battle Plan to Serious, Specific, and Strategic Prayer Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5My Secret Garden: Women's Sexual Fantasies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Like Switch: An Ex-FBI Agent's Guide to Influencing, Attracting, and Winning People Over Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A People's History of the United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You're Not Listening: What You're Missing and Why It Matters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of Witty Banter: Be Clever, Quick, & Magnetic Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Verbal Judo, Second Edition: The Gentle Art of Persuasion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5100 Amazing Facts About the Negro with Complete Proof Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All About Love: New Visions Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Come As You Are: Revised and Updated: The Surprising New Science That Will Transform Your Sex Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5King, Warrior, Magician, Lover: Rediscovering the Archetypes of the Mature Masculine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ghosts of the Tsunami: Death and Life in Japan's Disaster Zone Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Women Don't Owe You Pretty Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row (Oprah's Book Club Selection) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Human Condition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Just Mercy: a story of justice and redemption Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Denial of Death Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for 1000 Lashes
10 ratings1 review
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A very informative book, great writing, good information and wonderful.
Book preview
1000 Lashes - Raif Badawi
Foreword by Lawrence M. Krauss
RAIF BADAWI
1000 LASHES
BECAUSE I SAY WHAT I THINK
Edited by CONSTANTIN SCHREIBER
Translated by AHMED DANNY RAMADAN
Greystone Books LogoVancouver/Berkeley
Copyright © 2015 by Raif Badawi
Translation © 2015 by Ahmed Danny Ramadan
Foreword © 2015 by Lawrence M. Krauss
Endnotes © 2015 by Constantin Schreiber
1000 Peitschenhiebe. Weil ich sage, was ich denke © by Ullstein Buchverlag GmbH, Berlin.
Published in 2015 by Ullstein Verlag
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced,stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written consent of the publisher or a license from The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright). For a copyright license, visit www.accesscopyright.ca or call toll free to 1-800-893-5777.
Greystone Books Ltd.
www.greystonebooks.com
Cataloguing data available from Library and Archives Canada
978-1-77164-209-5 (pbk.)
978-1-77164-210-1 (epub)
Editing by Constantin Schreiber
Copy editing by Shirarose Wilensky
Front cover design by Sabine Wimmer,
Berlin Cover photo courtesy of Ensaf Haidar
Distributed in the U.S. by Publishers Group West
We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the British Columbia Arts Council, the Province of British Columbia through the Book Publishing Tax Credit, and the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund for our publishing activities.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
• • •
Foreword
Preface
Editor’s Note
Introduction
1 Religious Vocation Entraps the Freedom of the Arab Thinker
2 Defaming the Intellectuals and the Inquisition Courts: Turki al-Hamad as an Example
3 Let’s Lash Some Astronomers
4 No to Building a Mosque in New York City
5 Yes! I Will Fight Theists and Religious Thoughts
6 Tahrir Square Brought Students Back to Hard Work
7 The Traveler’s Marriage and the Borrowed Ram
8 The Kingdom Come of the Syrian Spring
9 A Male Escort for Every Female Scholar
10 The Day of the Nation
11 Mixed or Divided
12 Let’s Talk about Enlightenment
13 Is Liberalism Against Religion?
14 The Book
15 The Arab Spring between the Secular Choice and the Myth of Examples
Notes
Original Publications
Biographies
Foreword
• • •
I wanted to break the walls of ignorance...
RAIF BADAWI
FREETHINKING
AND Saudi Arabian
are two descriptors that rarely appear in the same sentence, and for good reason. The former is officially outlawed by the government and religious leaders associated with the latter. For this reason, it is difficult to get a real sense of the difficulties experienced by those who live in Saudi Arabia and who do not want to be shackled by the chains of myth, hatred, and ignorance that are the hallmark of religious fundamentalism.
Most freethinking young people choose to leave the country and work in a more enlightened environment, or if they choose to stay, they keep their views to themselves. One such individual did not: Raif Badawi. For that he was tried and convicted and originally sentenced to death, a sentence that was then reduced to ten years of imprisonment, one thousand lashes, and a fine of a million Saudi riyals.
I confess I learned only relatively recently about Raif Badawi, following an article in the Guardian about his sentence and the fact that he had received the first installment of fifty lashes. I was sufficiently horrified that I relayed the article in tweets and posts so that others could learn of this most recent affront to human dignity by a dictatorial regime that is portrayed in much of the Western media and by the U.S. government as a friend of the West.
Such is the power of propaganda in our society that the Saudi regime is portrayed as benign and friendly amid an otherwise violent and dangerous world in the Middle East. We read about ISIS, Iran, and Al-Qaeda but rarely about the violent medieval forms of justice meted out in our oil-rich ally.
By attempting to silence those who criticize the status quo in their country, the Saudi government obviously hopes to not only better control those within its borders but also the perception of that country as seen by those from outside. Thus, it is more important than ever that the words of Arab thinkers and writers who oppose the oppression in their country reach out beyond its borders.
After reading about Raif, I was led to examine the blogs for which he had been convicted. Far from being dogmatic and strident, as I had expected, they are often filled with irony and sarcasm. His blogs, largely composed in the period of 2010 to 2012, before his arrest, span a wide variety of topics, from his (premature, in retrospect) enthusiasm about the Arab Spring uprising then beginning in Egypt to his prescient