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?
About the rights of women that was just mentioned before by our sister. How we adore these rights that the West offers I must say!
Islam is un-paralleled in guaranteeing the rights to women, but I will leave it out of the equation here because it seems that we do not want any part of it in our lives, otherwise we would have implemented it with our own actions. Allah would find the people who want it Himself!
But none the less, I find women in Saudi Arabia having much better lives than in the west, as they are hugely respected, and are not exposed to the hardships of the society. Their finances and up-keep is guaranteed, and all they have to do is represent the other half of their families. If I would be offered such a security in my life, I really would have loved being a woman. And please don’t come up with the argument about the cowards who abuse their women, as such people are distributed uniformly all over in the world!
Now that the western culture is being bombarded upon us, our women enjoy both the freedoms of the west, with the guaranteed respect of the east!
To all these women adoring the west, I would love to fully westernize our society (completing the transition) for a couple of days, and observe them REALLY being equal to the men in the offices, and see them not getting those guaranteed seats in those small and rare busses, and also see them not being helped (extra out of the way favors) by their office colleagues, and REALLY work like men also in the end also nursing children which only they exclusively can!
Why is the population growth rate in Europe almost 0%! Because one can satisfy his needs just by sleeping with a woman without any commitment. Because if one commits himself (by marrying her), one must say farewell to 50% of his ownership, and guess what! With the divorce rate being at about 70% (e.g. central Europe)! So why not just be (essentially sleep) with her without marriage, till one finds another one to satisfy his needs!! Women-rights HUH!
The other day, I heard of a newly-opened “erotic car-washâ€
I haven’t spent much time just a month or so durint two trips for Umrah. What I actually saw that most of guys who were punished by cutting their hands off were outsiders like Pakistanis, Bangladeshis,Sudaneese and Indians. Atleast I didn’t find any local with one hand. So it’s lame to blame govt while outsiders don’t learn lessons from such punishments even clear instructions are given on passport in both English and urdu.
Akif, have you guys recently got Internet in “Cholistan”?
Sajid, Khan saab ko ghussa na dilao. *grin*
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.