Saudi Arabia’s Wahhabi morality police, the Mutaween, strike again.
(INN) — Insulting the friends of the founder of Islam earned an Australian national 500 lashes and a year in jail in Saudi Arabia last month.
Mansor Almaribe, a resident of southern Victoria state, was arrestedby religious police on November 14 in Medina while participating in the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca known as the hajj. His eldest son Jamal told The Melbourne Age newspaper that Almaribe was reading and praying in a group at the time.
Family members told Australian media that Saudi officials accused the 45-year-old of insulting companions of Islam’s Prophet Muhammed; blasphemy is considered a serious offense in Saudi Arabia, which is governed under Shari’a (Islamic) law.
No information is available about exactly how or when he insulted them, or even which companions of Muhammed he allegedly had insulted.
He was convicted Tuesday and sentenced to two years in prison and 500 lashes. The court later reduced the sentence to “only” one year in jail, in the presence of an Australian consular official who attended the proceedings.
A sentence of 500 lashes is considered equivalent to a death sentence.