Americans Offer to Take Saudi Blogger's Lashes
Members of a U.S. government panel are offering to take the punishment for a blogger sentenced to 1,000 lashes in Saudi Arabia.
Christianity Today reports seven members of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom signed a letter to the Saudi ambassador in Washington.
In the letter, they volunteered to take 100 lashes a piece on behalf of Raif Badawi, a Muslim, who was convicted for writing the blog, "Free Saudi Liberals," which called for open discussion of political and religious topics in the Kingdom.
The letter is signed by Christian, Muslim and Jewish members of the commission. It says compassion is a virtue shared by many faiths. The signatories are "united in a sense of obligation to condemn and resist injustice and to suffer with its victims."
On January 9, USCIRF posted a statement when Badawi received 50 lashes in a public flogging in Jeddah.
"Today, Raif Badawi was the victim of a cruel and barbaric act carried out by the Saudi justice system -- unfortunately business as usual in the Kingdom. And for nothing more than creating an online forum for diverse views to be expressed freely," the statement read in part.
