Death for 'immoral' network owners debate
Saudi official: Death for ‘immoral’ network owners – International Herald Tribune
A senior Saudi official said Sunday that owners of satellite TV networks that show “immoral” content should be brought to trial and sentenced to death if other penalties don’t deter them from airing such broadcasts.
The comments by Sheik Saleh al-Lihedan, the chief of the kingdom’s highest tribunal, the Supreme Judiciary Council, were an attempt to explain a fatwa, or decree, he issued last week, in which he said just that it was permissible to kill the network’s owners.
Appearing on government-run Saudi TV Sunday, al-Lihedan seemed to be trying to calm the controversy his original comments triggered, explaining that the owners of offending networks should be warned and punished before possibly being brought to trial and executed.
Saudi cleric’s fatwa widely denounced – BostonHerald.com
Arabs across the ideological spectrum, from secular-minded liberals to Muslim hard-liners, are denouncing a recent edict by a top Saudi cleric that it is permissible to kill the owners of satellite TV stations that show “immoral” content.
Many expressed worry the comments by Sheik Saleh al-Lihedan — chief of the kingdom’s highest tribunal, the Supreme Judiciary Council — would fuel terrorism, encouraging attacks on station employees and owners.
The edict, or fatwa, has also focused the spotlight on Saudi Arabia’s legal system because of al-Lihedan’s senior position in the judiciary. The system is run by Islamic cleric-judges, many of them hard-liners, and has increasingly been criticized by some Saudis because of the wide discretion judges have in punishing criminals and the perception that many judges are out of touch with the realities of the world.
Click to learn more…Even conservative clerics who agree that Arab satellite networks show too many “indecent” programs said al-Lihedan had gone too far.
“Our religion prevents Muslims from watching films that provide seduction, obscenity and vulgarity,” said Sheik Hazim Awad, an Iraqi cleric, who, like al-Lihedan, is Sunni Muslim.