[Jeb Stuart Thurmond]

Forget the oil - it's the staunch moral values that make Saudi Arabia our closest ally.

The sentencing of a 75-year-old widow to 40 lashes and four months in prison for mingling with two young men who were reportedly bringing her bread has sparked new criticism of Saudi Arabia's ultraconservative religious police and judiciary.

Khamisa Sawadi, who is Syrian but was married to a Saudi, was convicted and sentenced last week for meeting with men who were not her immediate relatives. The two men, including one who was Sawadi's late husband's nephew, were also found guilty and sentenced to prison terms and lashes...


Saudi Arabia's strict interpretation of Islam prohibits men and women who are not immediate relatives from mingling and women from driving. The playing of music, dancing and many movies also are a concern for hard-liners who believe they violate religious and moral values.

A special police unit called the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice enforces these laws, patrolling public places to make sure women are covered and not wearing make up, sexes don't mix, shops close five times a day for Muslim prayers and men go to the mosque to worship.

...

In Sawadi's case, the elderly woman met the two 24-year-old men last April after she asked them to bring her five loaves of bread, the Saudi newspaper Al-Watan reported...

The court said it based its March 3 ruling on "citizen information" and testimony from al-Anzi's father, who accused Sawadi of corruption.

"Because she said she doesn't have a husband and because she is not a Saudi, conviction of the defendants of illegal mingling has been confirmed," the court verdict read.

Sawadi had told the court that she considered al-Anzi is her son, because she breast-fed him when he was a baby. But the court denied her claim, saying she didn't provide evidence. In Islamic tradition, breast-feeding establishes a degree of maternal relation, even if a woman nurses a child who is not biologically hers.

Sawadi commonly asked her neighbors for help after her husband died, said Saudi journalist Bandar al-Ammar, who reported the story for Al-Watan. In a recent article, he wrote that he felt the need to report the case "so everybody knows to what degree we have reached."

Here is what the Bible has to say about what widows are worthy of charity:

1 Timothy 5:9-15 gives strict guidelines on which widows are worthy of charity.

You should help a widow only if she 1) is over 60 years old, 2) had only one husband, 3) has raised children, 4) has lodged strangers, 5) has "washed the saints feet," 6) has relieved the afflicted, and 7) has "diligently followed very good work." Otherwise, Jesus wants us to let them starve.

This woman, at least was older than 60. The Bible tells us that young widows are always idle tattlers -- "busybodies, spreading things which they ought not" and "some are already turned aside after Satan." However, I doubt she was washed the saints feet, so this woman should quit begging for bread, and start growing her own wheat. Hopefully her punishment will teach her to stop her welfare-queenish leeching on society, and start being productive.

1 Timothy 5:9 in full:

9No widow may be put on the list of widows unless she is over sixty, has been faithful to her husband,[a] 10and is well known for her good deeds, such as bringing up children, showing hospitality, washing the feet of the saints, helping those in trouble and devoting herself to all kinds of good deeds.
11As for younger widows, do not put them on such a list.

[Jeb Stuart Thurmond]

Caption Contest:



My entry: "World Conference on Women in Saudi Arabia".

Oh wait - that's what is actually is.

[Pastor Ezekiel]

Originally Posted by Jeb Stuart Thurmond

Caption Contest:

The queer Taliban brigade.

[Moms4God]

Originally Posted by Jeb Stuart Thurmond

Caption Contest:

Allah's Ass Pirates

[Jim in Texas]

There is obviously many signs of Divine Providence having favored Muslims the most undeniable of which is their higher growth rate which Marxist Atheist population control policies like birth control pills and abortion for the benefit of AIDS spreading adulterers and prostitutes has corrupted the Christian world by in contrast to Saudi Arabia. However America's history of freedom of speech and freedom of religion respected by most Christians here has endowed us with many blessings not common in Muslim nations which a Turkish Sultan's decision to ban the printing press caused Islam to lose it's technological superiority it enjoyed over Dark Age Europe and left most Muslims today illiterate to read even their own scriptures or defend their property from thieves such as the Soviet Marxists without American assistance. I used the same military chapel for Catholic mass in the Army as Muslim soldiers used for a Mosque on Friday. I have a great respect for the Muslims I served with in the military and knew personally as I did for most Baptists I served with. Religions are like computer software security programs to protect those who practice them from the malicious viruses of Satan and it's possibly God's will there are many so we can't all be corrupted and destroyed by the same virus at the same time, "The Lord made the fools of the world to shame the wise, and the weak of the world to shame the strong, and the lowly of the world, those who are nothing, to bring to nothing those who are something that no one might boast before the Lord."

[Jim in Texas]

I would have to take issue with the view that Jesus wants us to let any person starve. although obviously the Church doesn't have limitless worldly resources to squander on foolish people who waste their own when there are more deserving people among the poor in need of help who would be able to benefit more by it. The Muslim view that what some elderly women need most is a good spanking may even have a bit of truth in it. There's certainly been a few old women I've known the thought crossed my mind they could use one, such as a certain elderly female Senator from New York for example.

[Chester Longshire]

Originally Posted by Jim in Texas

although obviously the Church doesn't have limitless worldly resources to squander on foolish people

Are we talking about the same church, Jimbo?

[Chester Longshire]

Originally Posted by Jim in Texas

Muslim nations which a Turkish Sultan's decision to ban the printing press caused Islam to lose it's technological superiority it enjoyed over Dark Age Europe

Oh, so now you guys are fans of Gutenberg...I guess I didn't get that papal fatwa...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonfire_of_the_Vanities