Catherine Shakdam is heading Ali Mohammed al-Nimr campaign with Marwa Osman and inviting everyone to support their open letter by joining them in this campaign at legallygraphic.com Ali Mohammed al-Nimr, the nephew of prominent Shia cleric and rights activist Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr has languished in a Saudi Arabian prison since his arrest in 2012, on false charges he had been tortured into confessing, and now awaiting a death sentence by beheading and crucifixion.
Here’s the full text of her moving open letter, calling for a “grand mobilization against the vile rule of Al Saud and the authorities to demand that Ali Mohammad al-Nimr, a boy sentenced to death by beheading and crucifixion be pardoned and freed at once!”
#FreeAliMohammedAlNimr
“If you neither believe in religion nor fear the hereafter, then at least be free from Tyranny and Arrogance” - Imam Husayn ibn Ali ibn Abu Talib
Saudi Arabia has one of the worst human rights records in the world, for the past decades and in complete violation of international law, the country has routinely imprisoned and executed dozens if not hundreds of its citizens, arguing national security and religion to instill terror among the public.
Since King Salman took to the throne in January 2014, his reign has been colored red with the blood of innocence. Saudi Arabia has executed an estimated 175 people in the past year, at a rate of one every two days, reported Amnesty International. The kingdom killed 102 convicted criminals in the first six months of 2015 alone - Those killed include children, and disabled people.
How many Raif Badawi will the world need before silence can be broken? Raif Badawi is a Saudi Arabian writer and activist and the creator of the website Free Saudi Liberals. He was arrested in 2012 on a charge of insulting Islam through electronic channels and brought to court on several charges, including apostasy. In 2013, he was convicted of several charges and sentenced to seven years in prison and 600 lashes. In 2014, he was re-sentenced to 1,000 lashes, ten years in prison, and a fine. The lashes were to be carried out over 20 weeks. The first 50 were administered on January 9, 2015. The second set has been postponed due to Badawi's poor health. Badawi is known to have hypertension and his health has worsened since the flogging began. His wife, Ensaf Haidar, fears he will perish should the authorities decide to carry out the remnant of his sentence.
Despite calls from the international community, Saudi Arabia's Supreme Court upheld the sentence of 1,000 lashes and ten years in prison in June 2015.
How many of our boys, how many Ali Mohammad al-Nimr will have to be tortured and unjustly sentenced to death before we dare hold this oil super-power accountable?
Gerald Staberock, secretary general of the World Organisation Against Torture said, “the problem in Saudi Arabia is that the judicial system is used as a tool against those who want more freedom. In Saudi Arabia there is the so-called 'religious police', whose role is to find human rights advocates and freedom fighters and punish them. And then there are high courts, which do not function like in Western countries: They are not in charge of guaranteeing protection of rights, but making sure that punishments are carried out. There are also reports stating that many people who are imprisoned, often without being charged, are also tortured as the scope is to humiliate them and make them suffer. Inmates are also tortured because the Saudi Arabian legal system is based on confessions. This is a gross violation of international standards, considering the fact that Saudi Arabia voluntarily subscribed to the UN convention against torture."
Saudi Arabia is a terror state. Saudi Arabia is the enemy of its own people.
Its royals have maimed, tortured, humiliated and oppressed entire communities on account they COULD. In Saudi Arabia no man, woman or child is safe from the rapacious hands of a system build around the most violent, abusive and reactionary regime in the world.
Last April, the kingdom introduced a new law expanding the concept of terrorism.
The new legislation - which uses a broad definition of ‘terrorism’ to include any act intended to insult the reputation of the state, harm public order or destabilise the security of society - is a threat to freedom of speech and thought in the kingdom.
"The law allows people in power to crackdown on anyone," Sara Hashash, Middle East and North Africa press officer at Amnesty International, wrote Amnesty International. "The recent crackdown in the kingdom is targeting civil and political associations and human rights organisations. Lots of people are prisoners of conscience and they are detained forcefully for simply stating their opinions."
In truth this new law allows for the authorities to also persecute those people the state has labelled as non-believers, those Riyadh calls its enemies of the state.
The legislation considers a terrorist anyone who calls for atheist thoughts in any form, or calls into question the fundamentals of the religion devolution on which this country is based - Wahhabism.
Saudi Arabia is a violent, murderous regime and yet world leaders continue to indulge its leadership, their lips sealed and their eyes shut to the billions of dollars the kingdom has thrown at them.
We want to break the silence! We want human dignity and justice to mean something again.
We call for a grand mobilization against the vile rule of Al Saud. I call on the authorities to demand that Ali Mohammad al-Nimr, a boy sentenced to death by beheading and crucifixion be pardoned and freed at once!
We call for justice! We call on you the public to stand with Ali Mohammad al-Nimr, now that his country has forsaken him!
We are asking for all governments to halt any weapons sales to Saudi Arabia until they remotely comply with any human rights standards.
We call on you all to do the right thing!
Ali Mohammed al-Nimr is a teenage boy caught in the eye of a furious sectarian storm. Ali Mohammad was arrested and brutalized for he is a Shia Muslim in Saudi Arabia. Ali Mohammad was tortured and robbed of his childhood innocence for he dared dream that he could live free in a country ruled by murderous theocrats.
Ali Mohammad’s death sentence really is a sentence against all Saudis. Through him Riyadh hopes to silence and subdue an entire people.
Ali Mohammad is not just another Shia Muslim in Saudi Arabia, HE IS SAUDI ARABIA, he is innocence and hope, he is the future of a nation which can still hope and pray for freedom and justice.
Ali Mohammad represents everything Saudi Arabia wants to destroy - through him the kingdom wants to silence a nation and a faith.
Ali is our son and he is your son. Ali is our hope and he is your hope. Ali is our compounded innocence. And if we do nothing we are no better than his jailors, we are no better than those monsters who continue to imagine themselves grander than justice and holier than God.
The rulers of Saudi Arabia are the monsters of this story - our story. They are the evil you warned your children against. They are intolerance and hatred … they are all which is dark and vile.
How long will Islam and its people remain enslaved to the aberration which is Wahhabism?
Wahhabism is not of Islam and Islam will never be of Wahhabism!
Wahhabism is the terror you have failed to recognize. Can you not see? Can you not see that with Ali Mohammad’s death is it us who are condemned?
Will you finally wake up to the evil which now reflects in the deeds of the kingdom now that it condemned this innocent boy to a fate so cruel, and so completely barbaric that words fail to describe its darkness?
Because Ali is a Shia, they didn't care he was just a boy! Because Ali Mohammad is the future they sought to extinguish his light.
We say STOP Saudi Arabia! We say give us our boy back! We say give us our humanity back!
If Liberty and Freedom are indeed values you honor and share, then stand up and cry freedom. Break the silence.
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