Woman beheaded in the streets of Mecca, Islam's holiest city...

[Surya Gayatri]

Saudi police surround a kneeling woman in black, about to be executed. Screenshot from the video.


The executioner raises his sword in the air. Screenshot from the video.

UPDATE 01/19/2015 (10:30 am) Sunday, January 18, Saudi media reported the arrest of the man who filmed these images. The authorities plan to file a complaint against him. A spokesman from the Interior Ministry explained that his act could be considered a cybercrime.

These images, shot secretly, show the public execution of a woman in the streets of Mecca on Monday. Removed from YouTube, the video continues to circulate on other sites. France 24 decided to publish only the screenshots.

Laila Bint Abdul Muttalib Basim, Burma, lived in Saudi Arabia. Justice in the country found her guilty of sexually abusing her stepdaughter for seven years and killing her.

In the video, we see several police holding her down the street. She maintains her innocence and screams injustice to the end. A man strikes her three times in the neck with a sword. The woman's screams stop on the first try.

Then a voice comes from a loudspeaker: "Announcement from the Ministry of the Interior ..." Then the voice recites verses from the Koran: "The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger, and who confront them with all their strength in order to sow discord on earth, will be beheading or amputation of hands and feet."
____________________

Remind me again why western leaders are busting their butts to attend the late King Abdullah's memorial service. And, why they are singing his praises to the sky as an enlightened
and forward-looking monarch?

[shenmue]

1. ...

[Nye Bevan]

2. To be fair, that was probably a quicker death than some recent US executions.

If we in this country ever stop strapping people who can't afford good lawyers to gurneys and forcibly injecting them with dubious chemicals we will have more room to lecture the rest of the world about this kind of thing.

[Surya Gayatri]

4. Agree, but it's the 'public' nature of the thing--intended to terrorize the Saudi

masses into submission to the will of the House of Saud--that makes me especially sick.

[polly7]

6. I have my doubts she received a fair trial.

Even the charges sound made up, to me.

[Nye Bevan]

7. Yep, and plenty of US death row victims did not, either.

I agree that this was horrible. I'm just pointing out that we do not exactly smell of roses ourselves.

[polly7]

9. I understand, but the level of inequality for women and the brutality they face many

times for completely false accusations proves just what a completely miserable country it is. Sponsoring and funding terrorism, human rights abuses such as 'guardianship' for women, persecution and torture, imprisonment of homosexuals, the same for criticizing the gov't, ....... yet they're friends, whose dead leaders are to be elevated to such sickening status as 'an innovative world leader, a 'reformer', 'humanitarian'. Nauseating.

[polly7]

3. Horrible.

But when you're an 'ally', you can literally get away with anything. Those attending his funeral, I'd say something about them but would probably be banned.

[KG]

5. I'm sure the prez will have some stern words for the new SA tyrants on this subject...

[Surya Gayatri]

8. Of course, a little 'talking-to' behind the scenes, and the late

king's geriatric brother, Salman, will surely be presuaded of the error of their medieval ways.

[aquart]

19. No. He won't and he shouldn't.

Just like Bibi has no business telling us what to do. We aren't allies because we love and adore each other.

This is why I don't want Elizabeth for president. Foreign relations requires endless hours of hypocrisy. She's amazingly effective as someone who speaks blunt truth to power (God, I ADORE her) but the presidency needs to schmooze power and sometimes lie to its face.

We don't like public executions (Really? Think Dick Cheney. Think Jamie Dimon.) and we don't like beheading (Cheney. Dimon. What could scalpers get for those tickets?) but our leisure sports give life-altering brain damage our our justice system is a sledge hammer devoted to wrecking minority lives. You wanna throw stones at the Saudis through our glass ceilling, go for it. It's gorilla glass and it's gonna come right back down on your head.

[bpj62]

10. 9-11

All I will ever say about the Saudis is this, 15 of the 19 September 11th highjacker's were Saudi Nationals. I cannot understand why we do business with these people. They openly run schools that teach anti western rhetoric and we just stand by and let it happen.

[KansDem]

18. 28 pages

9/11 Link To Saudi Arabia Is Topic Of 28 Redacted Pages In Government Report; Congressmen Push For Release

Since terrorists attacked the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, victims’ loved ones, injured survivors, and members of the media have all tried without much success to discover the true nature of the relationship between the 19 hijackers – 15 of them Saudi nationals – and the Saudi Arabian government. Many news organizations reported that some of the terrorists were linked to the Saudi royals and that they even may have received financial support from them as well as from several mysterious, moneyed Saudi men living in San Diego.

Saudi Arabia has repeatedly denied any connection, and neither President George W. Bush nor President Obama has been forthcoming on this issue.

But earlier this year, Reps. Walter B. Jones, R-N.C., and Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., were given access to the 28 redacted pages of the Joint Intelligence Committee Inquiry (JICI) of 9/11 issued in late 2002, which have been thought to hold some answers about the Saudi connection to the attack.

"I was absolutely shocked by what I read," Jones told International Business Times. "What was so surprising was that those whom we thought we could trust really disappointed me. I cannot go into it any more than that. I had to sign an oath that what I read had to remain confidential. But the information I read disappointed me greatly."

--more--
http://www.ibtimes.com/911-link-saudi-arabia-topic-28-redacted-pages-government-report-congressmen-push-release-1501202

[aquart]

20. The week of 9/11, I would have been fine with bombing Mecca.

But we invaded Afghanistan and Iraq instead. ANY BAD THING that happens in the Middle East now is our own damn fault.

We thought we could do better than vicious dictators. Well, HOW ARE WE DOING? The ME is a pile of rubble and traumatized orphans. Except for Iran, Dubai, a few other places BUT WE'RE GUNNING FOR IRAN NOW. Wanna make it just like Syria. BTW, ante up for the 6 million refugees we have to feed while our allies strain to house them.

And you're bitching about one official albeit disgusting execution? We have our nerve, don't we?

[AZ Progressive]

11. America took out Saddam when the Saudi's were worse

Saddam at least had a secular government that treated women more fairly. These Saudis are heavily backwards in comparison. And there's evidence to say that they sponsor terrorism against America.

[EX500rider]

17. "America took out Saddam when the Saudi's were worse"

As far as I know the Saudi's have never tried to wipe an entire city of their own people with poison gas.

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

[JonLP24]

12. Did they really say "enlightened" & "forward-looking"

I understand there is a lot of pretending when it comes US and what they say about Saudi Arabia or all the US President since Roosevelt with exceptions of public examples from Truman and his response to advisers his concerns lay with "justice not oil" & Carter in his Crisis in Confidence speech (though he still did a fair amount of pretending of his own), are remarkably far more ignorant than I am but saying "enlightened" & "forward-looking" would be stunningly full of shit.

There are so forward looking the destroy evidence of the past, also going on in Mecca

Over the last few years, mosques and key sites dating from the time of Muhammad have been knocked down or destroyed, as have Ottoman-era mansions, ancient wells and stone bridges. Over 98% of the Kingdom’s historical and religious sites have been destroyed since 1985, estimates the Islamic Heritage Research Foundation in London. “It’s as if they wanted to wipe out history,” says Ali Al-Ahmed, of the Institute for Gulf Affairs in Washington, D.C.

Though the Saudi rulers have a long history of destroying historical sites, activists say the pace and range of destruction has recently increased. A few months ago, the house of Hamza, the Prophet Muhammad’s uncle, was flattened to make way for a Meccan hotel, according to Irfan Al Alawi, executive director of the Islamic Heritage Research Foundation. There have even been rumored threats to Muhammad’s tomb in Medina and his birthplace in Mecca.

A 61-page report, published recently in Saudi Arabia’s Journal of the Royal Presidency, suggested separating the Prophet’s tomb from Medina’s mosque, a task “that would amount to its destruction,” Alawi says. “You can’t move it without destroying it.” Moreover, he alleges, plans for a new palace for King Abdullah threaten the library atop the site traditionally identified as the birthplace of Muhammad. Even now, signs in four languages warn visitors that there is no proof that the Prophet Muhammad was born there, “so it is forbidden to make this place specific for praying, supplicating or get [sic] blessing.”

Wahhabism, the prevailing Saudi strain of Islam, frowns on visits to shrines, tombs or religio-historical sites, on grounds that they might lead to Islam’s gravest sin: worshipping anyone other than God. In recent years, the twin forks of Wahhabi doctrine and urban development have speared most physical reminders of Islamic history in the heart of Mecca. The house of the Prophet’s first wife, Khadijah has made way for public toilets. A Hilton hotel stands on the site of the house of Islam’s first caliph, Abu Bakr. Famously, the Kaaba now stands in the shade of one of the world’s tallest buildings, the Mecca Royal Clock Tower, part of a complex built by the Bin Laden Group, boasting a 5-story shopping mall, luxury hotels and a parking garage.

http://time.com/3584585/saudi-arabia-bulldozes-over-its-heritage/

I can't begin to describe the message the Islam's first caliph has a large tower built over him in the shadow of the Bin Laden name. Almost like pissing on his grave in a way, though with a more sinister message.

[Surya Gayatri]

14. Bit of poetic, sarcastic exaggeration there...But, not far off...

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry:

"This is a sad day. The United States has lost a friend, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Middle East and the world has lost a revered leader. King Abdullah was a man of wisdom and vision.
I loved my visits with him as a Senator and as Secretary. Even as he battled age and illness, he held on to his sense of determination. His stories of his father and of his family were remarkable. He was so proud of the Kingdom’s journey, a brave partner in fighting violent extremism who proved just as important as a proponent of peace....Teresa and I send our condolences to the family of King Abdullah and to the people of Saudi Arabia and the region."

Sen. John McCain:

“King Abdullah was an important voice for reform in Saudi Arabia. He pushed for the modernization of the education system, curbed the authority of the religious police, and extended women the right to vote and run in municipal elections. ... King Abdullah's enduring legacy will continue to shape the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the region for years to come.”

http://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2015/01/24/after-king-abdullahs-death-western-leaders-sing-false-praises/

After King Abdullah's Death, Western Leaders Sing False Praises
...
Not to be outdone by Kerry or Cameron, IMF chief Christine Lagarde, without any hint of irony, labelled Abdullah “a strong advocate of women.” King Abdullah the suffragette, would be the same Abdullah who presided over a country that prohibits women from driving and from leaving their house without a male guardian, where two women’s rights activists were sentenced to 10 month’s imprisonment for “undermining marriage” when they helped a woman who had been abused by her husband. A country where women such as Amina Nassar are beheaded for committing “sorcery” and “magic.”

[JonLP24]

15. I agree and knew it was exaggerated

just the Bin Laden name, the Wahabbis, the first Islamic caliph all said something I just don't know how to articulate but knew it was uninentional since it revolves around the idolatry thing. They take away the possibility of worship like the fencing around the mountain and telling visitors "its just a mountain" basically is part of that. But the actions to prevent worship, are also actions that would be considered disrespectful all in the attempt to prevent the possibility of worship.

I do want to point sarcasm wasn't what I was going for, the example & more sinister was an attempt to better clarify the overall campaign to prevent worship by what can be considered disrespect, the Big Laden shadow thing. Kinda like those signs from god people mention it but I believe it to be collective reactions from collective actions (stretching back to the people that choose or however that plot was chosen to bury him there) led to a big coincidence.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

13. I don't imagine that being hacked in the neck several times can feel too good

It's probably not a clean cut like a guillotine and may just have the victim drown on their own blood as the arteries are cut. I'm against all forms of execution but this one seems to be particularly cruel and unusual, at least according to my western notions.

[1bigdude]

16. To quote the late great Christopher Hitchens: "Religion poisons everything." NT