Partying, dancing, alcohol. Oh my! In Islam, that just doesn't fly!
FoxNews.com - A Saudi Arabian judge sentenced 20 foreigners to receive lashes and spend several months in prison after convicting them of attending a party where alcohol was served and men and women danced, a newspaper reported Sunday.
The defendants were among 433 foreigners, including some 240 women, arrested by the kingdom's religious police for attending the party in Jiddah, the state-guided newspaper Okaz said. It did not identify the foreigners, give their nationalities or say when the party took place.
Judge Saud al-Boushi sentenced the 20 to prison terms of three to four months and ordered them to receive an unspecified number of lashes, the newspaper said. They have the right to appeal, it added.
The prosecutor general charged the 20 with "drinking, arranging for impudent party, mixed dancing and shooting a video for the party," Okaz said.
The paper said the rest of those arrested were awaiting trial.
Saudi Arabia follows a strict interpretation of Islam under which it bans alcohol and meetings between unrelated men and women.
The religious police, a force resented by many Saudis for interfering in personal lives, enjoys wide powers. Its officers roam malls, markets, universities and other public places looking for such infractions as unrelated men and women mingling, men skipping Islam's five daily prayers and women with strands of hair showing from under their veil.
In May, the Interior Ministry restricted the powers of the religious police to just arresting suspects, because the police sometimes had held people incommunicado and insisted on taking part in ensuing investigations.
'A Saudi Arabian judge sentenced 20 foreigners', oh geez why did they even go over there. Learn the laws I guess 1st. Scary situation.
Posted by: kdc (itsallgood8) | February 14, 2007 at 12:58 PM
On the other hand... if you're going to spend money to travel to a foreign land to kick up your heels and party (a subject about which I know little), isn't Saudi Arabia at or damn near close to the bottom of the list of target destinations?
Cheers,
Posted by: Moze | February 23, 2007 at 11:00 PM
Foreigners yes, but I read somewhere that some figure these had to probably be Philippine laborers, since no names of Americans or Europeans were named in any press accounts.
The Saudi Family are such hypocrits, an American friend of a friend of mine works over there. He works with some of the princes and he goes to their wild parties, where they have some of the best weed, scotch and Turkish 'call-girls' petro-dollars can buy.
absurd thought-
God of the Universe says
outlaw dancing...
.
Posted by: USpace | February 27, 2007 at 09:21 PM