Faith-Based Saudi Censorship, A Lesson for America

American Christians calling for censorship based on religious beliefs should look to Saudi Arabia for an indication of what faith-based government means. There, government recently sentenced “prominent Saudi blogger [Raif Badawi] to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes for insulting Islam,” Fox News reports.

Badawi’s wife, Ensaf Haidar, “who fled the nation two years ago and now lives near Montreal,” said,

I am very shocked by the news, but the Saudi government is radical Muslim. [Badawi] is the leader of the Saudi liberal movement, and the government wants to make a symbol out of him.

Philip Luther of Amnesty International said of Badawi:

He is a prisoner of conscience who is guilty of nothing more than daring to create a public forum for discussion and peacefully exercising the right to freedom of expression.

Let us hope the Saudi government overturns this vicious, rights-violating sentence. And let us hope Americans come to see that when religion is mixed with government, rights-violations inexorably ensue.

Related:

• “No Substitute for Victory”: The Defeat of Islamic Totalitarianism
• Courageous Iranian Women Unveil

About Ari Armstrong

Ari Armstrong blogs at AriArmstrong.com, and he has written for publications including the Denver Post and Complete Colorado. He is the author of Values of Harry Potter: Lessons for Muggles, a book exploring the heroic fight for life-promoting values in the Potter novels.

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