The most senior judge in Saudi Arabia has said it is permissible to kill the owners of satellite TV channels which broadcast immoral programmes.
Sheikh Salih Ibn al-Luhaydan said some "evil" entertainment programmes aired by the channels promoted debauchery.
Dozens of satellite television channels broadcast across the Middle East, where they are watched by millions of Arabs every day.
The judge made the comments on a state radio programme.
He was speaking in response to a listener who asked his opinion on the airing of programmes featuring scantily-dressed women during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
"There is no doubt that these programmes are a great evil, and the owners of these channels are as guilty as those who watch them," said the sheikh.
"It is legitimate to kill those who call for corruption if their evil can not be stopped by other penalties."
Royal dilemma
Given his position as the country's most senior judge, the sheikh's views can not be easily dismissed, says BBC Arab affairs analyst, Magdi Abdelhadi.
Clerics like Sheikh al-Luhaydan represent a huge dilemma for the Saudi royal family, our correspondent adds.
On the one hand, Saudi rulers need their support to claim that they rule in the name of Islam.
But on the other hand, fighting militant Islam can be difficult when the country's top judge calls for the beheading of those he views as immoral broadcasters.
Honestly, how many TV producers are there in Saudi Arabia?
"The rifle itself has no moral stature, since it has no will of its own. Naturally, it may be used by evil men for evil purposes, but there are more good men than evil, and while the latter cannot be persuaded to the path of righteousness by propaganda, they can certainly be corrected by good men with rifles."
Additionally, do these clerics ever have a solution to anything that doesn't involve killing other people? On top of their messed-up, seriously repressed sexuality, they've got a disturbing fixation on death.
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Obvious solution: broadcast hardcore porn into Saudi Arabia from anywhere they can't get to. Make sure there's no DRM or pay-per-view restrictions whatsoever.
Mayabird wrote:Additionally, do these clerics ever have a solution to anything that doesn't involve killing other people? On top of their messed-up, seriously repressed sexuality, they've got a disturbing fixation on death.
I believe the sexual repression causes the death fixation. It's an old trick used by authoritarian religions to keep the people ready to snap into a murderous rage at their command, usually at anyone who has any different belief.
What are they going to do given the fact much of TV in Saudi Arabia is foreign cable channels ? Behead some Indian or Lebaneese music video producers for featuring "scantily clad women" ?
I have to tell you something everything I wrote above is a lie.
What are they going to do given the fact much of TV in Saudi Arabia is foreign cable channels ? Behead some Indian or Lebaneese music video producers for featuring "scantily clad women" ?
After Van Gough was killed and the Cartoon Riots/protests, I wouldn't put it past someone to do just that.
Via money Europe could become political in five years" "... the current communities should be completed by a Finance Common Market which would lead us to European economic unity. Only then would ... the mutual commitments make it fairly easy to produce the political union which is the goal"
Einhander Sn0m4n wrote:Obvious solution: broadcast hardcore porn into Saudi Arabia from anywhere they can't get to. Make sure there's no DRM or pay-per-view restrictions whatsoever.
Wouldn't that be great, a hardcore porn equivalent of Radio Caroline transmitting from international waters. The only problem I can see is that if the Saudis don't sink the broadcast ship themselves, they'll whine to Uncle Sam or pull the old oil embargo card to get the USN to do it. Of course, the whole scenario is ridiculous anyway, but surely we can dream?
Somebody explain to me, why the Lebanese do not have problems with scantily clad women in music videos or television?
Some of pretty sexy Haifaa clips come in mind.
(Though no doubt, fact that she is singer and wear skimpy clothing sometimes contributed to the fact that she was denied rights to a child during her divorce.)
What are they going to do given the fact much of TV in Saudi Arabia is foreign cable channels ? Behead some Indian or Lebaneese music video producers for featuring "scantily clad women" ?
Issue a fatwa like the one that kept Salman Rushdie in hiding in fear for his life for most of the 1990s?
hawkwind wrote:Somebody explain to me, why the Lebanese do not have problems with scantily clad women in music videos or television?
Some of pretty sexy Haifaa clips come in mind.
(Though no doubt, fact that she is singer and wear skimpy clothing sometimes contributed to the fact that she was denied rights to a child during her divorce.)
J.
Maybe it has something to do with Lebanon being a Shi'a/Sunni/Alawite/Christian/Druze country, rather than a more strictly Sunni or Shi'a country, like Saudi Arabia, or Iran.
Being more of a heterogenous crossroads society might make for being a little bit more liberal, in some areas.
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Ok, so what I'm getting out of this is basically all we have to do to break the Wahhabist's brains is airdrop a shitload of porn mags and lube all over the region and they'll be to busy fapping or trying to stop each other from fapping to bother the rest of us.
Someone call Larry Flynt and get a shitload of C-130s...
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Mayabird wrote:Additionally, do these clerics ever have a solution to anything that doesn't involve killing other people? On top of their messed-up, seriously repressed sexuality, they've got a disturbing fixation on death.
The same is true of the militarist faction of American politics. In general, the mentality that people whose actions offend or harm you are motivated by simple "evil" rather than more complex psychological reasons is bound to lead to this kind of thinking. If someone is possessed by "evil" or working on the side of "evil", and the world is locked in a death-struggle between "good" and "evil", then it is perfectly reasonable to kill him.
"It's not evil for God to do it. Or for someone to do it at God's command."- Jonathan Boyd on baby-killing
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