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As it's the beheading season at Apolyton
or maybe not... this guy could be stoned instead as well
While we talked, there was a constant click from his wooden prayer beads. Muslim men across the Arab world, and beyond, carry beads.
Ostensibly they are a device for prayer. Each bead, as it passes through the fingers, stands for one of the 99 sacred names of God in Islam.
But more often people toy with them absent-mindedly, even swinging them around carelessly on one finger while chatting on the phone. Nobody gives them a second glance.
The man smiled conspiratorially, leant over and showed me his prayer beads. "If they saw this," he said, "I'd be in big trouble."
I looked down. In his palm, nestled in the coil of beads, was a small silver crucifix. He closed his fist, leant back and carried on playing with what I had now realised was a Catholic rosary.
Apostasy - that is, the rejection of Islam by a Muslim - carries the death penalty in Saudi.
I looked around. People were browsing the duty-free. Normal life carried on. Nobody noticed.
"I'm a Muslim, of course," said the man. "The beads are from my Christian lover in Beirut."
I looked at him, amazed. Saudi law allows adulterers to be punished with death by stoning.
This man was carrying his personal protest with him in plain view. And he had chosen to reveal his act of rebellion to an audience of one in an airport.
We spent perhaps another five minutes together. He told me about his family, then he got up, said goodbye, and went off to catch his flight, briefcase in one hand, rosary in the other. He never asked me my name. I never asked him his.
in the name of severe punishment being used as a good deterrent.
or maybe not... this guy could be stoned instead as well
While we talked, there was a constant click from his wooden prayer beads. Muslim men across the Arab world, and beyond, carry beads.
Ostensibly they are a device for prayer. Each bead, as it passes through the fingers, stands for one of the 99 sacred names of God in Islam.
But more often people toy with them absent-mindedly, even swinging them around carelessly on one finger while chatting on the phone. Nobody gives them a second glance.
The man smiled conspiratorially, leant over and showed me his prayer beads. "If they saw this," he said, "I'd be in big trouble."
I looked down. In his palm, nestled in the coil of beads, was a small silver crucifix. He closed his fist, leant back and carried on playing with what I had now realised was a Catholic rosary.
Apostasy - that is, the rejection of Islam by a Muslim - carries the death penalty in Saudi.
I looked around. People were browsing the duty-free. Normal life carried on. Nobody noticed.
"I'm a Muslim, of course," said the man. "The beads are from my Christian lover in Beirut."
I looked at him, amazed. Saudi law allows adulterers to be punished with death by stoning.
This man was carrying his personal protest with him in plain view. And he had chosen to reveal his act of rebellion to an audience of one in an airport.
We spent perhaps another five minutes together. He told me about his family, then he got up, said goodbye, and went off to catch his flight, briefcase in one hand, rosary in the other. He never asked me my name. I never asked him his.
in the name of severe punishment being used as a good deterrent.
~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~04~RS~)
How about deterrence for murder, theft, drug use or copyright violations...
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