Prophet Joke Results in Death Sentence

There are many people who believe that all cultures should be blindly tolerated. I suggest that those people try and keep down a tolerable bite of this story which is somewhat similar to the Danish cartoon episode.

From Guardian.co.uk:

Hadi Saeed al-Mutif grew up in the countryside in southern Saudi Arabia and at the age of 18 started training to become a policeman. Two months into his training, Hadi had gathered with other recruits for afternoon prayers, as required by the rules. "Let us pray upon the Prophet .." the Imam said - at which point Hadi allegedly quipped: "... and upon his penis."

A couple of his fellow recruits reported Hadi to the authorities at the training centre and he was ordered to stand under the Saudi flag for two hours as a punishment.

That might have been the end of the matter, except that a military inspector happened to be visiting at the time. Instead, this silly incident set in motion a train of events which is still continuing after almost 13 years, involving every level of Saudi Arabia's Byzantine justice system and even reaching the ears of the king.

The current status of Hadi's case is indeterminate. He has been sentenced to death but, after Hadi's father and a local sheikh from Najran met with King Abdullah, the sentenced may have been commuted to life in prison. Nobody is sure.

Meanwhile, 31-year-old Hadi sits in prison with no apparent hope and, on September 5, he reportedly started a fast to starve himself to death.

It seems to me that this would be an opportunity for all those moderate followers of the religion of peace, who we keep hearing about but never see, to protest the cruel and unusual punishment of Hadi. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International might want to help also. Living behind bars for 13 years is sufficient punishment for telling a bad joke.