OK, I have had a night to think about this. There is no way this woman is still in Qatar, as much as Happy Happy and others wish she was so that she could pay for her crimes. If she really was languishing in a jail, this would have been picked up by the international press by now. Moreover, the story gives no indication she is here--she was not at the trial, she was arrested in the airport, etc. Yes it says that she should leave the country after serving the sentence, but virtually EVERY serious conviction in this country includes this statement, even when people are tried in absentia (i.e. they are not here). If she was here and facing a trial, she would show up for it and make her case.
For those of you trying to equate this incident with expressions of intolerance in the West, get a life. Wearing a burka while driving in France comes with a small fine, not seven years in prison. Could you imagine the hypocritical uproars if she was imprisoned for seven years? France is a secular nation by law. England is, by constitution, a Christian nation. The monarch is the head of the Church of England, bishops are voting members of the House of Lords, and Christian religious holidays are national holidays. Sure, the majority of the English do not regularly attend church, but the majority do identify themselves as Christian, and the laws and actions of society as a whole are widely recognized as being influence by "secular" Christian ethics (i.e the morals and principles being just, rather than following them because they were handed down by God). One my rightly argue that the English (or Americans and plenty of other for that matter) are not good Christians because they are not as publicly devout as peoples in a number of Muslim countries. But then, I would argue that someone cannot call themselves a good Muslim when they treat their maids and foreign workers worse than dogs--abusing their human rights, paying them pathetic wages, holding their passports, etc. As Mohandis Gandi rightly said "I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ"; this can be just as easily applied to people of all the major faiths. Religion is about what is in your heart, not what you publicly do for public show.
On a lighter note . . . So much for the Word Cup bid. All it would take is for a competing nation to cut out this story and distribute it to the judges. Clearly, this country is incapable of exercising the kind of tolerance necessary to be a host nation to enormous range of peoples that attend a world cup. The biggest new building would have to be a prison to hold all the people who violated all of the intricate, antiquated, and, quite frankly, bizarre laws here.
OK, I have had a night to think about this. There is no way this woman is still in Qatar, as much as Happy Happy and others wish she was so that she could pay for her crimes. If she really was languishing in a jail, this would have been picked up by the international press by now. Moreover, the story gives no indication she is here--she was not at the trial, she was arrested in the airport, etc. Yes it says that she should leave the country after serving the sentence, but virtually EVERY serious conviction in this country includes this statement, even when people are tried in absentia (i.e. they are not here). If she was here and facing a trial, she would show up for it and make her case.
For those of you trying to equate this incident with expressions of intolerance in the West, get a life. Wearing a burka while driving in France comes with a small fine, not seven years in prison. Could you imagine the hypocritical uproars if she was imprisoned for seven years? France is a secular nation by law. England is, by constitution, a Christian nation. The monarch is the head of the Church of England, bishops are voting members of the House of Lords, and Christian religious holidays are national holidays. Sure, the majority of the English do not regularly attend church, but the majority do identify themselves as Christian, and the laws and actions of society as a whole are widely recognized as being influence by "secular" Christian ethics (i.e the morals and principles being just, rather than following them because they were handed down by God). One my rightly argue that the English (or Americans and plenty of other for that matter) are not good Christians because they are not as publicly devout as peoples in a number of Muslim countries. But then, I would argue that someone cannot call themselves a good Muslim when they treat their maids and foreign workers worse than dogs--abusing their human rights, paying them pathetic wages, holding their passports, etc. As Mohandis Gandi rightly said "I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ"; this can be just as easily applied to people of all the major faiths. Religion is about what is in your heart, not what you publicly do for public show.
On a lighter note . . . So much for the Word Cup bid. All it would take is for a competing nation to cut out this story and distribute it to the judges. Clearly, this country is incapable of exercising the kind of tolerance necessary to be a host nation to enormous range of peoples that attend a world cup. The biggest new building would have to be a prison to hold all the people who violated all of the intricate, antiquated, and, quite frankly, bizarre laws here.