Adil Najam
Here is a rather gruesome ad from the Punjab Anti-Narcotics Force, warning prospective pilgrims going for Hajj to Saudi Arabia of the dangers of drug trafficking.
The painted bill board ad makes the point, rather graphically and quite clearly that anyone caught bringing drugs into Saudi Arabia will face death. One wonders, however, if that point is being made a little more graphically than necessary.
The wording on the billboard (seemingly quite large and on an outdoor public location) says:
Don’t unknowingly invite death.
By taking someone’s else luggage or unnecessary foreign or local medications do not put your own life at risk.
Taking narcotics or addictive elements to Saudi Arabia will result in a certain death penalty.
Anti-Narcotics Force (Punjab).
How, I wonder, does a parent explain to a child who sees this billboard why the Arab-looking man is beheading the Pakistani-looking man with such gusto.
One wonders who it is that really gives Muslims a ‘bad name’? The message for the prospective drug smuggler to Saudi Arabia is quite clear. But, what is the message for the rest of us? And the rest of the world?
I concur with DrPak in entirety. these harsh punishments are designed to provoke feelings of repungence not love.
Also detterence is the key. Better the detterence better will be the control. A society can not abolish crime in its totality but has to strive to lesseen it to the gretest degree possible.
In my point of view a punishment should be open and clear in sending its message as a source of detterence. It is not about preventing the same individual from committing the crime again it is about discouraging the crime in the society to any prospective criminals.
Also MQ my i ask your references to the statment that gruesome punishments do not minimize crime. Where did you gther this idea? was it some book or something? I am intrigued indeed.
Sajid made my point. In all the time I lived in Saudi Arabia, I never heard of any violent crime being committed. Of course I’m not saying it’s non-existant. I’m making the point that it is so uncommon that in all my time there, never once did news of an incident reach my ears. In Islamabad, where I live now, a man was mugged right outside my house 2 months ago. My house has been robbed 7 times in the last ten years. And we all know what the situation is like in places like Karachi.
This is not a point about Saudi Arabia and what Saudis are like in other aspects of their culture. The is about the deterrence value that an execution has on potential drug trafficers. If someone could smuggle drugs into a country, how likely is it that they will choose a country where the punishment is execution? In many third world countries, a smuggler is caught, bribes are paid, and eventually he goes free. In most western countries, a smuggler is caught, spends a few years in jail then goes free. But if he gets caught in Saudi Arabia, he dies. How many smugglers do you think would risk bringing drugs into Saudi Arabia.
@Mahvesh: I don’t know much about your “thesis” on drugs. I can only tell you what I know from having spent my childhood there (and anyone who has lived there for a number of years will concur). Drug use is rare in Saudi Arabia. I don’t know how your thesis “proved” that drug use in Saudi Arabia is as rampant as other parts of the world. It just doesn’t ring true from my own experience of living there.
Executions are repugnant, frightful, extreme, and horrifying. Those are the emotions they are meant to invoke, so that others are deterred from committing the same crime. Drug trafficking, murder and rape are social evils that perniciously damage the entire society. It is for the greater good that I support the death penalty. Ask yourself if you would want to raise your family in a place with a high violent crime rates and out of control drug problems.
Mr. MQ
Your point of view reagrding punishments
“Gruesome public punishments â€â€? beheading, hanging, lashing or stoning â€â€? do not deter criminals. They only brutalize the society”
is not in line with ISLAMIC laws which have beheading, stoning, lashing etc insluded in it. So you are trying to negate the law of ALLAH just to prove yourself modern and moderate…….
Ms. Mahvesh
You are condemning Beheading..fine, but on the same token you should condemn death by lethal injections, electric chairs and gas chambers which are equally painful and are common in USA.
It is very strange that people visit Saudi Arabia for a week or two to perform Umra or Haj and than they become EXPERT on Saudi society. I have seen lots of negative images about Saudi people on the internet. We should discuss our own problems instead of discussing Saudis or Iraqis or any other.
I have been living in Jeddah for the last nine years with my wife, my mother and my children. Generally we have found this place as a peaceful place. I have never seen a single ‘heroinchi’ lying on the streets of Jeddah like you see thousands on the streets of Karachi. We have never heard a case of car snatching or robbery or anything like this.
Sajid
I think it is a (sad) commentary on us that in discussing this we seem more concerned about Saudi Arabia’s image than then violence in the picture. People seem to be quite OK with the fact that such a violent image will be displayed in public.
By the way what is the punishment for the mullah’s who molest boys?
What about pornography? Do they take your eye out with a knife?
Is there a punishment for masturbation?
Hmmm… what about sex with an animal?
These rich Saudis who made these laws don’t know about the social problems of people in poor countries. They were nomands and suddenly OIL made them rich. They don’t know that if a persons father or mother or sister is sick in hospital, and nobody is willing to give him Rs. 1 lakh, He is going to risk everything to save their life. What about person who has to come with money for the marriage of his six sisters. I don’t think rich people or business men( drug traffickers ) take these risks them self, its always these poor people who get exploited.
This punishment of beheading is totally condemnable. Sometimes i wonder if there is hell, because those people who just got beheaded, what more will be Hell like for them. And hundreds of stupid people who come to watch these beadings for entertainment.
…interesting fact I just found out. Women are not beheaded in Saudi Arabia; they are shot through the head. I think INF should put up a second poster to account for the delicate sex.
i did a thesis on drugs about five years ago and an extensive reserach on drug money laundering. Believe me, Saudis are as much involved in the consumption of drugs as any other country. But, the beheadings have got nothing to do with Islam. To me Islam is a progressive religion and unfortunately the scholars responsible for safe guarding have interpreted it so wrongly that today we are known as a terrorist religion. That is not Islam. Beheading might have been fine 1300 years ago but then the understanding of people then was different.These are different times. However, putting that bill board is simply a rather gruesome and not so subtle way of telling our people “For God’s sake don’t do anything stupid because at the end of the day even though you are going to God’s house, just don’t forget you have to come back and you are going to an Arab country where women are still considered as a second grade citizen.” I mean seriously what advantages do the women living in Saudi Arabia have??? Have you seen the level of poverty there lately? Just because it happens to be the country where the Kaba is does not make it into Heaven on earth. Might be a great place for men but…
@ Baber
[quote comment="15075"]As for the banner I would say it is showing a true picture of the saudies brutality.[/quote]
I wonder if it tells us more about Saudi brutality… or about Pakistani mentality too… it is, after all, a bill board IN Pakistan and for Pakistanis and by Pakistanis.