From Saudi Arabia comes the terrible tale of a cruel punishment upheld by its highest court, meted out to blogger Raif Badawi, who argued that to seek modernity the kingdom may try separate state and religion. As home to Islam’s two holiest shrines, Saudi Arabia is looked up to by many. A modern nation, however, should be compassionate, particularly under a new king, not go after a blogger with immense state power, imposing a sentence of 1,000 lashes and 10 years in jail, almost worse than a death sentence. The frail man barely came through the first floggings, a practice straight out of the middle ages that has no place in the 21st century.
The important thing is not the West’s extreme reaction to this cruelty; no nation in today’s world should forget the ideal of compassion. The West may even give Badawi a Nobel Prize to make its point, but in every nation blogging gives ordinary citizens an opportunity to express his/her views on any subject, though moderation is a good idea at all times. Any viewpoint can be expressed carefully after sufficient forethought, and no one actually has the right to castigate any religion or its symbols, or the interpretations given it by people who may be using it to exert their own authority. Every autocrat who (mis)uses religion to subjugate people turns to retribution if thwarted. If King Salman overrules everyone down the line and commutes the sentence, he will provide the world a lesson in compassion and humanity.
