• Man given life sentence for writing poem.
    18 replies, posted
[quote=Doha News]Qatari poet Mohammad Ibn al-Dheeb al-Ajami has reportedly been sentenced to life in prison in a local court this morning.It remains unclear what Al-Ajami was convicted of, but he was arrested in Doha last November and eventually charged with “inciting to overthrow the regime” and “insulting the Emir.” Amnesty International, which confirmed this morning’s ruling to Doha News, said Al-Ajami has one week to submit his appeal. “This is sending shockwaves across the Gulf region,” Amnesty researcher Dina El-Mamoun said. “Not just Qatar but beyond Qatar, among activists who feel there is sort of less and less space for them.” On Twitter, hundreds have denounced the verdict under the hashtag #الحرية_لشاعر_محمد_بن_الذيب (freedom for poet Mohammed Ibn Al-Dheeb), questioning Qatar’s commitment to free speech after its support of so many Arab Spring revolutions. Human Rights Watch executive director Ken Roth attributed the life sentence to Al-Ajami’s widely distributed Jasmine Poem, which criticized governments across the Gulf, asserting that “we are all Tunisia in the face of the repressive elite.” [/quote] [URL="http://dohanews.co/post/36804970703/shockwaves-ripple-across-gcc-as-local-court-sentences"]Source is Doha News[/URL] Words fail me how ridiculously pretty and disproportionate even arresting him is, let alone sentencing him to life. Tip top human rights you've got going on there Qatar...
Expected the North Korea Received the Middle East.
I would like to read the poem in question.
[QUOTE=Persecution;38638843]Expected the North Korea Received the Middle East.[/QUOTE] if it was north korea he'd be killed
So he said some misunderstood thing about some big shot, he didn't like it, and condemned him to life in prison. Nice going. Amazed to see that theres an even worse version of "lawsuits over bullshit" out there. [editline]29th November 2012[/editline] [QUOTE=JgcxCub;38638858]if it was north korea he'd be killed[/QUOTE] Nope. He'd be shot out of a cannon, or blown to bits. No seriously, he would have been blown to bits. Some guy already was.
Qatar seemed to be a so amazing place where everyone is rich there. Well this is disappointing.
[QUOTE=dass;38638878]Nice going. Amazed to see that theres an even worse version of "lawsuits over bullshit" out there.[/QUOTE] It's the Middle East, what do you expect?
[QUOTE=Julz;38638853]I would like to read the poem in question.[/QUOTE] [quote]JASMINE FLOWERS Scent of Tunisian Jasmine flowers is invigorating as well as exhilarating. Scent of Tunisian Jasmine flowers pervaded across Egypt and invigorated each Egyptian and it all of a sudden injected invigorating Jasmine fragrance into the veins of the tired Egyptians and acted as an energy booster and each drew inspiration. ‘Rage of the day’ down almost three weeks, Tahrir Square turned a rallying point of the raging Egyptians who in chorus shouted slogans demanding the dictator to step down and flee. Their emotional outburst like the eruption of a volcano with red-hot lava of fury flowing far and wide started shaking the very foundation of the throne of unwilling callous, arrogant dictator their rage and shouts like an earthquake followed by deafening thunder explosions reverberating across Egypt. The might of citizens that much great. Thirty years of their suffocation burst like dams and the position of embattled dictator started shaking like a ship in a turbulent sea at last forcing him to step down…. Licking the wounds the dictator of yesterday has begun his days at Red sea resort of Sharm-el-Sheikh. Crowds rejoiced chanted victory slogans waved victory signs lit fire-works across the land breathing free. Crowds saluted Tunisia crowds wanted inhaling more and more Jasmine fragrance like the Tunisians themselves…[/quote]
Qatar needs to harden the fuck up and not be such cunts, if a single poem results in a life sentence. This kinda shit makes me wish we had some sort of international "Justice Squad" that stamped out global injustice like this. But no; apparently the UN is too busy doing something or other to set up an International Justice Squad.
Yeah, we wouldn't have even heard about him if it was North Korea. He would have probably just disappeared.
Al-Jazeera is technically owned by the state of Qatar, which is why I've never really trusted them for unbiased reporting, at least not on Qatar itself.
[QUOTE=Persecution;38638843]Expected the North Korea Received the Middle East.[/QUOTE] I dunno but i expected the US..
[QUOTE=Adarrek;38639003]I dunno but i expected the US..[/QUOTE] Why?
[QUOTE=IKTM;38639146]Why?[/QUOTE] Well, to be honest, this isn't really news in the middle east. The U.S. still pretends to have free speech and have probably never arrested someone over a poem like that. In Qatar this shit probably happens all the time. [QUOTE=ironman17;38638912]Qatar needs to harden the fuck up and not be such cunts, if a single poem results in a life sentence. This kinda shit makes me wish we had some sort of international "Justice Squad" that stamped out global injustice like this. But no; apparently the UN is too busy doing something or other to set up an International Justice Squad.[/QUOTE] The UN isn't just the Western world. And actually trying to impose human rights on dictatorships would inevitably lead to another world war.
The UN is just a "super duper freedom PR team"
[QUOTE=Julz;38638853]I would like to read the poem in question.[/QUOTE] كان هناك مرة واحدة رجل من بيرو يحلم من تناول حذائه استيقظ انه مع الخوف في منتصف الليل لتجد أن حلمه قد تحقق
[QUOTE=DrTaxi;38640108]The UN isn't just the Western world. And actually trying to impose human rights on dictatorships would inevitably lead to another world war.[/QUOTE] And herein lies the big problem with fighting injustice; intelligence is so sacred (NOT life, don't you dare say LIFE is sacred) that a world war, even if executed with the best of intentions, would have it's worth thrown into question when the ilives of soldiers are at risk of annihilation in the face of death. Even if World War Three didn't nuke us all to hell, and shattered countless dictatorships, people would still be asking "was it worth it?" as they try in vain to weigh the lives of men against the overall freedom of humanity. Thing is, try as we might, nobody can put a price on a life without looking like a heartless dickhead. I've said this countless times before, but if we had a "backup system" for soldiers, like if their brains were transplanted into near-indestructible battle robot bodies, or if the soldiers could remotely control battle robots via computers, then there would be a lowered casualty rate at least on "our" side. However it probably still wouldn't be worth it since the "enemy", whoever that would be, would also lose lives to the fighting machines, and since apparently every life is sacred, people on both sides would still ask the question "was it worth it?" And that's the main problem with war; there is oodles of death involved. If wars were more "gladiatorial", like wars were fought in controlled "arenas" with non-lethal weaponry, rather than on uncontrolled battlefields with things that easily killed you, then war would probably be less horrible and more controlled, probably becoming a sort of "blood sport" but with a lower fatality rate. That's right; the wars of the future should be fought by international gladiators, with international disagreements being settled by highly-trained gladiators in UN-governed battle arenas. It sounds like the plot of a sort of "PG13 Unreal Tournament", I know, but if we can cut the death out of war, and make fighting more about the sport than the intention to kill, that'd certainly help make progress. And if some nations don't play ball and try to keep on with conventional death-wars, the UN should probably have the near-indestructible high-tech battle robots to curb-stomp insurgents. If the Robot Marines are only used to ensure that nations don't dabble in conventional warfare, and instead force them to play ball in the Arenas with a Tournament-approved team and Tournament-approved hardware, then the thought of enforcing international combat protocol with an army of death robots wouldn't be AS horrifying as it would be if the robots were simply used to destroy everyone. This will never happen, though, since the UN are [U]probably[/U] too fuckshit lazy to consider the Battle Arena format of war.
and Qatar was supposed to be a nice place out of all the shit holes in the middle east.
[QUOTE=ironman17;38640490]This will never happen, though, since the UN are [U]probably[/U] too fuckshit lazy to consider the Battle Arena format of war.[/QUOTE] One of the UN's goals (and reasons of existence) is world peace. They wouldn't endorse war, even in that form. There's also the problem that there may always be someone who decides not to play by the rules and start a good old military assault against a country while everyone else is busy playing gladiators. Also, I don't see how this would bring justice to solving international conflicts - the UN does it by vote, using sanctions to enforce their decisions. Which is another point. The reason why sanctions work is the ability to say, "if you don't submit, we'll cut off your supplies". The reason why war works is the ability to say, "if you don't submit, we'll continue bombing your cities and raping your women." And of course, I mean, just read your reply. It sounds like pretentious unrealistic science fiction. Not to say that makes it a bad idea. But who would take it seriously?
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.