I am not a fan of the socialist government in Canada, but I have to praise it for doing what no other nation—including conservative countries—has ever done before: speak up about violations of human rights in Saudi Arabia.
Last week, the Canadian foreign ministry objected to jailing of women’s rights activists and urged Riyadh to “immediately release” them.
Among those recently arrested is Samar Badawi, whose brother Raif Badawi, a blogger, was arrested in Saudi Arabia in 2012 and later sentenced to 1,000 lashes and 10 years in jail for “insulting Islam” in a case that sparked international outcry. His wife, Ensaf Haidar, has been granted asylum by Canada, where she is raising their three children.
In a tweet, the Canadian foreign ministry said, “Canada is gravely concerned about additional arrests of civil society and women’s rights activists in #SaudiArabia, including Samar Badawi. We urge the Saudi authorities to immediately release them and all other peaceful #humanrights activists.”
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In answer, the Saudi foreign ministry kicked out the Canadian ambassador.
“The Canadian position is an overt and blatant interference in the internal affairs of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” the Saudi Foreign Ministry said, adding, “Throughout its long history, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has never accepted any interference in its domestic affairs by, or orders from any country.”
The Saudi ministry described Canada’s position as “an attack” on the kingdom, saying it would now:
- Freeze all new trade and investment transactions between the two countries
- Consider the Canadian ambassador persona non grata and order the envoy to leave within 24 hours
- Recall the Saudi envoy in Canada
- Reserve the right to take further action
After expelling the Canadian ambassador, Saudi Arabia has also appeared to threaten Canada with a 9/11-style attack by posting an image to Twitter showing a passenger plane flying towards the CN Tower in Toronto.
The inflammatory photo was captioned: “As the Arabic saying goes: ‘He who interferes with what doesn’t concern him finds what doesn’t please him.’”
The Saudi government-linked Twitter account, which has 354,000 followers, placed another caption over the tower reading: “Sticking one’s nose where it doesn’t belong.”
Responding to the alleged 9/11 threat, Elizabeth Tsurkov, a research fellow at the Israeli Forum for Regional Thinking, said: “This tweet by an official Saudi propaganda account has now been deleted. Seems like they realized that reminding us that 15 of the 9/11 hijackers were Saudi is not a great idea.”
Desperately trying to wriggle out of the gaffe, the Saudi government-linked Twitter account apologized saying:
“Earlier we posted an image, which is why we deleted the post immediately. The aircraft was intended to symbolize the return of the Ambassador, we realize this was not clear and any other meaning was unintentional. We apologize to anyone who was offended.”
Most of the U.S. left-wing and right-wing media has been silent about the Saudi threats against Canada.
I much doubt that socialist Canada would dare to flex its muscles against the Islamic dictatorship of Saudi Arabia, but I wonder what the Saudi dictators would do against the United States if 15 American terrorists had flown planes into Saudi skyscrapers on September 11, 2001.
Saudi Arabia would:
- Freeze all new trade and investment transactions between the two countries
- Consider the U.S. ambassador persona non grata and order the envoy to leave within 24 hours
- Recall the Saudi envoy in the U.S.
- Reserve the right to take further action.
I wonder why the U.S. is not taking such necessary measures against Saudi Arabia, considering the fact that the 9/11 Islamic terrorists were Saudi. Is the U.S. government more cowardly than the socialist Canadian government?
Even if Saudis had never attacked the U.S., there would be abundant reasons for the U.S. to take actions, including sanctions, against the Saudi dictators. Saudi Arabia bans the Bible, bans free speech, bans religious freedom, bans conversion to Christianity and persecutes Christians.
Why is the U.S. government waiting to condemn and sanction Saudi Arabia?
With information from Breitbart and DailyMail.
Portuguese version of this article: Mais corajoso do que os EUA: Canadá confronta ditadura saudita acerca de direitos humanos e Arábia Saudita expulsa embaixador canadense
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Barb Wire.
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