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December 04, 2003

MASHAAN sure bin MAD

Our friends the Saudis: you just can't make this stuff up.

Saudi National Beheaded for Patricide

Dammam [SPA]...................................

"A Saudi, convicted of killing his father during sleep, was executed here on Wednesday, the interior ministry said in a statement.
"Mashaan bin Mad Allah bin Shaman bin Mashaan Al-Shammari was found guilty of shooting his father with a machine gun while he was asleep," the interior ministry statement said.

It added that the culprit then took the body and buried it in a desert area to conceal the crime.
The statement pointed out that a verdict was issued by the Sharia Court and approved by the Cassation Court and the Supreme Judicial Council. Accordingly a Royal order was issued for carrying out the death penalty. "

Posted at 08:55 PM by

Comments

"bin Mad Allah"? If I were named that I would probably want to murder my father also.

Posted by: rabidfox on December 4, 2003 09:53 PM

Patricide is of course wrong. But does it only happen in Saudi Arabia, is that why you posted this?

Posted by: Frank on December 5, 2003 08:54 AM

Frank, you mean making fun of Saudi names in their cartoonish exhaltation and grandiloquence isn't reason enough to post? You imply that that's a bad thing.

Posted by: Jim on December 5, 2003 02:09 PM

How did I imply that? (Although perhaps I should have...)

Posted by: Frank on December 5, 2003 03:08 PM

I'm being a bit facetious Frank. Why should you have? Saudi Arabia ia a distasteful theocracy that Western countries deal with out of necessity. I don't have any intrinsic respect for their way of life, their culture, or their beliefs (if I did, I would incorporate them into my own. Imitation is the sincerest for of flattery). That belief and that culture were instrumental in making the conditions possible for Islamic fundamentalism, and its associated terrorism. Why shouldn't they be mocked and ridiculed?
Or maybe you would rather that conservatives just call them wogs?
Be assured that the people in question mock you and I as well. Or worse: "Marg bar Amrika" has it's equivelants throughout the Arabic world.

Posted by: Jim on December 5, 2003 04:29 PM

Frank,
Surely you jest. Parricide has been known to occur in all cultures--remember what Max Beerbohm said of a fairly well known Greek family: "they were a tense and peculiar family, the Oedipuses". However, the workings of Saudi sharia law, whether the lopping off of the heads of father killers, or the stoning to death of women who are rape victims should be of interest. I've observed your multicultural sentiments before--perhaps you're making the point that we should not be too judgmental when it comes to varied cultural practices??

Posted by: Stephen on December 6, 2003 12:01 AM

I guess I was thrown off by the "you can't make this up" aspect: you've posted many times about the harshness of the justice system, so I didn't think it was that, and wasn't sure if it was because someone committed parricide or the method chosen or what... And then there was your putting the assailant's name in bold text (were we supposed to recognize the name?) I just wasn't sure what you found most noteworthy

Posted by: Frank on December 6, 2003 02:06 PM

"...shooting his father with a machine gun while he was asleep"

You mean a sleeping kid shoots his father?

See, that sleepshooting defense never works. The burying part is the tip off.

Posted by: Flexor Longus on December 7, 2003 01:11 PM