Man Sentenced to Death for His Tweets and Topics You Did Not Know
 |
‘Man Sentenced to Death for Tweets: Peaceful Criticism on Social Media Brings Death Penalty.” That is a report from Human Rights Watch, about Saudi Arabia. You can read about this case in a report from the Associated Press, too. The AP says the case is the latest in a “wide-ranging crackdown on dissent.” The man sentenced to death is Muhammad al-Ghamdi, 54.
By the way, he had two X accounts. (Elon Musk has changed the name of the platform from “Twitter” to “X.”) One of the accounts had two followers, the other eight.
Last year, CNN reported,
When he bought Twitter, Musk tweeted,
The Saudi prince replied to him,
“Together all the way.” Sure.
At the Oslo Freedom Forum in May 2022, I spoke with Areej al-Sadhan, whose brother, Abdulrahman, is a political prisoner in Saudi Arabia. He was imprisoned for writing tweets critical of the government. He has, of course, been tortured, undergoing the usual hell.
I will provide one detail. When agents smashed his hand, they said, “Is this the one you tweet with?”
Obviously, the Saudi dictatorship is a popular one with many. Mohammed bin Salman, the boss, cuts a dashing figure. He is widely known by the initials “MBS.” He is popular with many of the same people who admire Vladimir Putin.
The Saudis have a lot of money to throw around, naturally. Six months after he left the White House, Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law, took $2 billion from them, for his private-equity firm. The Saudis are funding professional golf. Etc.
But it is well to remember that this dictatorship is a nasty, murderous one: the kind that tortures and kills people for tweeting.
• A report from the Washington Post begins,
A report from the JTA (Jewish Telegraphic Agency), published in the Times of Israel, begins,
And so on.
• Let me return to the subject of Saudi Arabia — for a report in the Guardian has just come to my attention:
What a miserable business. And the sisterly devotion of Areej — the love she has shown for Abdulrahman, consigned to a dungeon — is very moving, to me. I could tell when I met her and talked with her: She and her family will do anything for him. They will not let him be forgotten and abandoned.
MORE IN IMPROMPTUS
• From Iran, here is something heartening — heartening in a way:
That report is from RFE/RL (our combination of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty). What is heartening, I think, is the bravery of those professors. Think what they risked. Think what they have sacrificed.
Maybe they will begin teaching again someday, in a freer Iran.
• Opinions will vary here:
I have quoted from an AP report — and I say: Do it for as long as you can. We have only a few more years left. Keep doing it, till the last day.
(Again, opinions will vary, and I certainly understand other ones.)
• Pornography is one of the most important issues in America. Vast amounts of it are being consumed, and a lot of it is being consumed by minors. There are important considerations here, some of them legal. I recommend a column by David French: “Ban Online Porn for Kids.” Very thoughtful, and persuasive (as usual from this writer).
Comments