Ya Mama, Motherhood Unabridged…

A Few Days In The News

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Bessma B

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From todays news (Source: USA today website, national news. NBC news website. CBS local news website,Fox News website, ABC7 news website):

‘Historic’ blizzard headed for New England.
I want to go home please wait!!
2 Children, 1 Woman killed in Denver home.
Another shooting in America. When will it end?
Mailman accused of choking 11 year old girl.
WTH! He choked her after she laughed at him for accidentally walking into the women’s public bathroom. Slight over reaction maybe!
Staten Island nanny arrested for abusing baby girl.
She was caught on a hidden nanny cam by the mother who raced home when she saw the footage. How she didn’t attack the nanny when she saw her is beyond me I don’t think I would have been able to control myself honestly I would have attacked.
Missouri teen allegedly handcuffed to pole in parents basement for months!
How horrific.
FDA identifies third case of fake cancer drug distribution in the USA
Mother convicted of prostituting her daughters in Nebraska gets more jail time.
Her daughters are 7 and 14. Unimaginable.
Man on trial for planning to blow up 48 churches
California preschool to close after students allegedly engaged in sex acts with each other.
This is horrendous. According to the parents this was happening often and everywhere in the school including classrooms, playgrounds and bathrooms.

And of course I’ve been following the story of the little boy who was kidnapped and held in a bunker for almost a week.

All of these stories were found easily by me in the last half hour of looking on local new sites. All of these stories happened in February. So what does this tell you about Americans?

Nothing.

It tells you there are sick and depraved people everywhere in the world and just because these heinous crimes happened by Americans or in America (the nanny caught on camera wasn’t American) It doesn’t mean they are all horrible people. This is much easier for people to believe in because these stories happened in the land of freedom. In the land of democracy and this first world nation that is a superpower.

The average sentence for a child molester in the USA is between 2-12 years of which they don’t necessarily have to serve all of. According to the U.S. department of justice bureau in one year alone 4300 child molesters were released from prison in the U.S.A. None of our systems are good.

There was the story a few years back of a child molester in the UK whom they kept releasing and he kept molesting. (Will look for source for that story when I am not typing on my Ipad!). None of it is working!

Child molesters should have the death penalty in my opinion. I don’t understand, ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD, why a convicted child molester would ever be allowed out of jail.

My point is, I cannot judge Americans by what the worst of them do. I cannot judge millions of people by what the minority does. What happened with the Lama AlGhamdi case is unforgivable and unimaginable. Bloggers are not the only ones who care about this. But they are notorious for not reading local newspapers and researching what the rest of Saudi Arabia, who are not active online, are trying to do about this.

This case has been on the news, in the media and is being debated and fought for long before twitter started a hash tag for it. I commend HIGHLY everything that has been done online and it’s effect is not at all negligible and I hope bloggers and activists will continue to publicise and fight for this cause and others. I am just pointing out that we Saudi’s are appalled by this as a people and this incident does not represent our views or us as a people as all the crimes I listed above do not represent Americans.

 

15 responses to “A Few Days In The News”

  1. Um Eliana Avatar
    Um Eliana

    I’m on the same page as you when it come to child molesters, what is 5-7 years? It’s nothing. My husband things they should be castrated at the very least… lol. Fair enough. I thin they should be put to death. I think about these poor kids and look at my own, it creeps me out and really makes me ‘over protective’. What a scary world.

    Reply
    1. Mama B Avatar
      Mama B

      It really is. I think people like that will not get better, get rehabilitated or cured. I don’t think they should mix with other people at all under any circumstances.

      Reply
      1. H G Avatar
        H G

        I agree with both of you. And they should be given the same treatment, so that death would be a welcome escape from the torture done to them… just like what they did to the poor children.

        Reply
  2. American Bedu Avatar
    American Bedu

    Excellent and well -written post. Thank you!

    Reply
    1. Mama B Avatar
      Mama B

      Thank you :)

      Reply
  3. amaan Avatar
    amaan

    no one is contesting that there are sick and depraved people everwhere, but only in saudi arabia can a man get away with the worst possible crimes against women and children,thanks to your ‘sharia’ system and ridiculous concepts like ‘blood money’.

    Reply
    1. Mama B Avatar
      Mama B

      Blood money is a western concept, Islamic shari3a is very very practical. The “Diyah” represents a compensation of earnings for the family of the victim in case of a wrongful death, life insurance if you will, which I think everyone clambers for in the west. The shari3ah is not part of western law yet similar things exist. Shari3ah understands human nature and you can see it in the west, how many wrongful death cases with punitive damages requested are in the courts? In any case with regards to the child (Lama Alghamdi) it seems the father is still in prison and has not been released from what I last read.
      What damages, according to shari3ah, are awarded for the wrongful death of a child I am unsure of and I will look into it. Maybe it wild be better to understand something or concepts from people that are not hostile to it to get a more balanced view of it. I would certainly not get my understanding of America from a public Iranian broadcasting channel, nor would I read about the history palestinians if the book was written by Dershowitz. Finding unbiased knowledge these days requires more effort than we have the patience or the time for so I somewhat understand how you reached your easy point of view.

      Just an interesting note,This is a definition that I found which to my understanding is correct. Please tell me if I am wrong:

      Punitive Damages

      When a party’s intentional, reckless or grossly negligent acts result in the death of another party, a jury or judge may impose punitive damages that are meant to punish the offending party and discourage similar acts in the future. Punitive damages are imposed in addition to compensatory damages, which are intended to repay the victim’s family for medical bills, burial costs and other out-of-pocket expenses.

      For the most part, juries are free to impose whatever amount of punitive damages they feel are appropriate and may base their decision on the net worth of the defendant, among other factors. However, judges have the power to review the jury award and may find it is excessive, reduce the amount of the award or set it aside altogether.

      Reply
      1. Umm Gamar Avatar
        Umm Gamar

        Thank you for the explaination dear. I am sick of people insulting Islam as if is the root of evil, even Muslims are maligning sharia.

        Reply
        1. Mama B Avatar
          Mama B

          It is because no one bothers to go to unbiased sources and actually read about it. People are happy to take what they hear on the news or read online and go with it without looking any further into the matter. Everyone is so easily led and spoon fed their own opinions rather than explore and read and discuss and reach it themselves. It’s hair pullingly frustrating especially when it’s Muslims who do it out of ignorance, insecurity, wanting to fit in, without even understanding their own religion first. If they read the Quran they would see that God asks us to question and to THINK all the time and not to be led, blindly, through life.

          Reply
          1. Umm Gamar Avatar
            Umm Gamar

            Allah bless you my dear! Yes that is exactly right,some Muslims are trying to “fit in” by any way and if maligning Islam and Saudis is what it takes so be it. Too bad. That is why it is so refreshing to read your blog.

            Reply
  4. amaan Avatar
    amaan

    In western societies, punitive damages are imposed in addition to a jail sentence for criminal cases. You can’t murder or rape and pay a financial sum of money and get to live a free life. Unfortunately under sharia, you can avoid a jail sentence by paying the ‘blood money’. So basically the perpetrator gets to live in society, freely. Therefore you can’t compare the punitive damages handed out in western countries with blood money under sharia.

    Reply
    1. Mama B Avatar
      Mama B

      I do not have a law degree or any law background but from what I studied at school I can tell you this;
      There are two right for the victim in Sharia law: the private right and the public right. The private right is applicable in a murder and that is the family asking for the death penalty or a sum of money instead of the death penalty and this is at the discretion of the family.
      The public right is the governments and the societies laws so even if the family didn’t ask for the death penalty or damages the criminal may still have jail time according to the countries laws.
      As for wrongful deaths or accidental deaths the private right no longer applies and it is left with the public right. I’m going to get a lawyer to give a clearer explanation but this is mine as I have always known it all my life from living in an Islamic country and again from what I studied at school.
      Again it’s easy to say your opinions without forming them on a solid foundation of facts sometimes I get it. But it would be helpful if you read up a bit. Not for me, this is fun answering these comments but for yourself especially since you have such strong feelings on the issue.

      Reply
  5. Amaan Avatar
    Amaan

    I do not have much understanding of sharia for sure, but if your understanding is correct regarding ‘public matter’ and ‘private matter’, then this animal of a sheikh should definitely not be able to get off with paying blood money.

    Reply
    1. Mama B Avatar
      Mama B

      Well here’s the thing, he hasn’t! And God willing he won’t!!! The father is still in jail (he’s not a sheikh by the way he was just on some Tv channel once talking about adoption of all things. Our clerics have said he has no qualifications and is not part of any official clerical organisation). We are all awaiting the verdict. There’s no smoke without fire though so maybe there was talk of it but he hasn’t been released and no money has been paid. So now we wait and see. Anyway in my opinion, and everyone else’s I have talked to for that matter, he should have a death sentence. There is a weak Hadith that they base the idea that a father shouldn’t get punished for killing his child and it says “you and your money are for your father”. It is, as far as I have read, a weak one and with no strong foundation. Ad lets say we were to take that for a rule how do we get from being “for our father” to it being ok for him to kill us? I mean in a religion were its a sin to cut down trees in times of war how is it ok to kill your own children?
      Please if there is anyone reading with a proper Islamic law degree do chime in lol. I have double checked my details with my family and they all know the same but none are lawyers lol. They are very very smart though lol.

      Reply
      1. Umm Gamar Avatar
        Umm Gamar

        I ll take your word and your family’s word over Islamophobes anyday lol

        Reply

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I’m Bessma

Welcome! This is where I try to make sense of the confusion of being a human being. You might find something helpful here — and you’re guaranteed to find something entertaining. I’m a mother of five from Saudi Arabia, with a lot of experience under my belt and, God willing, a lot left to learn. Make yourself comfortable and stay a while. (Sketch by Brandie Janow).

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