Please sign this to prevent a man being executed for voicing his opinion...
 

I got this email today and it ****ing shocked me, though why I don't know; we should sadly expect this sort of thing from Saudi Arabia now. But does a man deserve to die for "insulting Islam" by writing a blog?
https://ci6.googleusercontent.com/pr..._3_200x100.jpg
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/free_rai...YKfhfb&v=54782

I'm not clicking a link you got in an email about saving someone.. Virus spreader.

He might have got it from someone he knows maybe.

But yeah... will wait for a news story now lol.

But it says "Secure" in the link. That means it's good for you.

Edit: It's actually a legitimate link for petitioning. Not sure of the validity of the claim though.

http://www.avaaz.org/en/

From Wiki.

i don't doubt the source but honestly i can't imagine me giving out my email to some random webstie is going to save this guys life

best of luck to him though

:laughing:

This isn't some random email guys. I have an account with Avaaz and they send me these stories. They're all about highlighting injustices in the world. Most of the time I don't bother reading them but this one struck a chord. It's genuine. If you're afraid they'll harvest your email, I really don't think they will but if they did well so what? You get spam from other sources (cough) porn websites (cough) and you're reluctant to click this one, which is a lot more important than enlarging your penis! (Waits for the Batty joke)...

Seriously: I'm not saying you have to click it but ffs: not to help maybe save someone's life? Are yaz that shallow? Really? I'd like to think that if I were in a similar situation I could rely on (waits for Batty again)...

It's about signing their petition, which will then be handed to the German ambassador or someone (don't ask me why Germany, who knows?); the point is you register and then that signs the petition, which strengthens the guy's case. You should at least read it.

i feel sorta bad now that i vocalized the fact that i'm not gonna sign it. perhaps i should've kept that to myself. i understand it's a petition but basically my rationale is that there's always a chance that i'll get inadvertently put on some spam list by giving my email over and even though that's a pretty petty and insignificant risk, it's enough to deter me from taking on the minor hassle of going through the motions of signing it knowing that in all likelihood my signature is not going to make or break this petition and thus it really makes no practical difference if i sign it or not. it would be more of a symbolic gesture that would only affect me insomuch as i bought into the symbolic significance... which unfortunately doesn't do much for me

you might respond that if everyone thought this way then that would make an actual difference, which is true, but in any case it doesn't matter since my decision to sign or not sign won't be likely to have any or much affect on the likelihood of others to sign. so statistically i really have no incentive to do so.

I remember when his lashing sentence was delayed (before it was elevated to a beheading) and in his place, some chick got beheaded without drugs. It took three hacks, if I recall correctly.

Saudi Arabia publicly beheads woman in holy Mecca as blogger lashings are postponed - Middle East - World - The Independent

For those interested, here's the post that did it: https://raifbadawi.wordpress.com/201...adawi/#more-28.

I love your heart TH, but I highly doubt Saudi Arabia is going to be all like...

"DUDES! You see all these American electronic signatures? Halt the firing squad and ball scrapers!"

Sorry buddy.

Beheading by firing squad, now wouldn't that be something?

I didn't read about this. I guess firing squad. They still do that right?

So instead of having to shoot the star out of the paper you shoot the head off the human.

I haven't the slightest idea. When cases of apostasy are taken to the Supreme Court of Saudi Arabia, the punishment is death by beheading. Criminal courts can't be involved with cases warranting [sic] a death sentence, which is why Badawi was initially sentenced to 1,000 lashes and 10 years in prison. Now he's being tried under the higher courts...with the same judge.

He's probably ****ed, guys.

So what you're saying is you don't think the email petition is going to work?

I'm starting a petition to get Barack Obama to grow an Afro. Sign it guys, together we can succeed!

I hate to be so misanthropic but a petition isn't going to help.

Yeah. Nice. if you read the article, she's asking for a petition which she will hand to the German official whom she's meeting. He in turn is meeting with the king, shah or whatever the **** and if there are enough sigs he will perhaps be able to show him, look, so many people are against this idea, don't you think you should maybe change the sentence? Or something. But it's not just something you'd expect the ruler to read: he'll be handed it, or it will be referred to, by the German guy.

Anyway, don't you know that for evil to triumph it is enough for good men to do nothing?

yea, i didn't mean for other people to not sign it. everybody else should sign it but me. that's how this is supposed to work.

I've always wondered how those signature campaigns really work. Are the Saudi-Arabian authorities supposed to see all the signatures and think "Oh, two thousand people disapprove of this, maybe we should rethink the whole thing?" Or is the organization behind the campaign going to take some sort of action when they have a certain amount of signatures? If so, why would they have to wait?

Aight, I signed it. These guys better not distribute my e-mail adress and postal code.

I remember something like this happening a number of years ago in Afghanistan -- where apostasy also carries the death penalty -- and the person was only saved when world leaders publicly condemned the sentence. Without that kind of high profile international pressure I don't see anything happening, and since nobody wants to say **** to the Saudis with all their oil, I imagine this is probably going to be shuffled off to the side until the problem "goes away".

There ya go.

Signed and shared.

Thanks man! :)

Thank you, Trollheart, for caring about this Saudi man who was imprisoned and possibly will be condemned to death by the Saudi Arabian government simply because of what he wrote in his Blog.

I've signed the petition to save him and now 1,370,256 people have done so. :)

Thank you all for putting yourselves on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's terrorist watch list. We appreciate the convenience you've afforded our clandestine operations intelligence gathering officers.

This type of stuff is stuff I don't really get involved in for the same reason other people posted. There's a good chance it won't make a difference. If it works, that's great. But I'm always skeptical of this stuff especially if they've already made their decision before the petition was even brought up.

When it comes to stopping the punishment, I don't think it will either. Then again, there's a new king in SA and he might have a chance to set an example. He's aware of the cultural clash between east and west and even appears to desire democracy, but doesn't think it's practical to convert a whole country to democracy (it will come with cultural clashes that will destabilize SA).

Either way though, I think spreading the meme (not the internet meme definition, actual memes as in cultural ideas) of freedom of speech can have a positive effect as it trickles into the young, malleable minds of each generation.

I agree that one benefit of signing the petition asking Saudi Arabia to free Raif Badawi is that doing so helps promote the idea of freedom of speech and freedom of religion as human rights.

Yet I also think signing petitions and pressuring governments to back down from their draconian, cruel rulings and punishments *can* help, especially the more people who sign. I think that governments of countries around the world are susceptible to peer pressure.

For example, early in March, Saudi Arabia responded to international pressure by releasing an official statement. While the Saudi government claims that it won't change its stance on Raif, the fact that it made a formal response shows that Saudi Arabia *is* listening:

Raif Badawi: Saudi Arabia accuses western media of attacking its sovereignty - Middle East - World - The Independent

And when government after government challenges their judicial practices (beheadings, lashings, etc.), it may be harder and harder for them to continue to do them.

Unfortunately, I think the Saudi people are not in a position to criticize their government and ask for change because they are subject to its abuses, so we on the outside are the only ones who can. Signing a petition is a quick and easy way to help. At the very least, it lets his wife and kids know that millions of people are thinking of them and wanting their husband/father to be released. If my dad were incarcerated and being lashed and possibly facing the death penalty due to something he wrote, I would want to know that millions of people recognize the abuse and and are outraged by it.

Sometimes we can't stop suffering, but knowing you are not alone in your suffering can help reduce it.

The world always condemns those who are brave enough to rebel and don't conform. This happens everyday. It happens in real life as well as on this forum. Most individuals in those countries die as a result of it.

Just a heads up. I'm pretty sure the mods have dispatched ninjas to kill you.

**** it, I have to sign it. Probably, nothing will change, but I'm signing it.

Is there a petition for people who want to see him get his head chopped off? I'd sign that.

You really need to start your own country...

Because signing a petition will have any effect at all. Be realistic, nothing is going to change what will/has happened.