Saudi prosecutors seek death penalty for academic over social media use

Re:Saudi prosecutors seek death penalty for academic over so... by rippercushions on Sunday January 15, 2023 @07:23PM (#34395213)

It's a bit more complicated than that. MBS throwing the book at dissenters have very little to do with Palestine or Israel, and very much to do with MBS's increasing personal paranoia and lack of tolerance for even the mildest form of dissent. There are people getting jailed for completely non-political dissent like daring to advocate for female drivers before the government itself made a policy U-turn on that.

https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a35090601/saudi-activist-p...

Saudi society itself is far from homogeneous. The largely Western-educated royalty is (was?) in a marriage of convenience with the Wahhabi Sunni extremists who lead the religious establishment, there's a growing middle class that's not particularly extreme in any way, oppressed native groups like the Shia, a huge population of completely powerless and frequently abused foreign workers keeping the kingdom running, etc etc.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Saudi prosecutors seek death penalty for academic over so... by nobodyandproud on Sunday January 15, 2023 @08:21PM (#34395644)

My discussions were decades before MBS.

The US tended to downplay the issues in SA-we need them—so unless someone digs into the history and region it was a bit of a don’t ask and don’t tell.

MBS behavior has made even someone as politically naive as me see what SA really is (and isn’t).

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Saudi prosecutors seek death penalty for academic over so... by blhblah12345 on Monday January 16, 2023 @12:58PM (#34403466)

His level of violence is the only distinction between MBS, Tayipp, and the rest of the islamic ethnostates. Otherwise everything else is true in every muslim nation from Indonesia to Albania.

[ Parent | on HN ]