A number of countries use state law as a weapon to inflict terror on its citizens, particularly targeting the minorities. Infamous among them are Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Pakistan where Islamic fundamentalism is officially enforced at the expense of basic human rights. More recently making news are laws pertaining to freedom of expression in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.
Saudi Arabia has now made it a law to treat atheists as terrorists. The country’s radical Islamist monarchy has long been involved n sponsoring fundamentalism across its borders as well as terrorizing its citizens with draconian laws. The new law which herds atheists and critics of the monarchy makes human rights situation in the country hits rock bottom as it takes law into and beyond the bounds of terror.
At the same time, with the new pro-Saudi government now ruling Pakistan, the state’s infamous blasphemy law has started targeting Christians and the courts in the country are recklessly awarding death sentences to Christians accused of blasphemy, as reported in Ken Hanly’s story on Digital Journal. A couple has been sentenced to death shortly after a man was victimized with death penalty by courts in Punjab province of Pakistan.
So what is the international community doing about this reign of terror in the name of law in countries like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia? Literally, nothing. Though crying foul over Crimea’s democratic decision to join Russia, the self-interested west has remained silent over all human rights abuses and terror that is on rise in what US and its allies see as friendly states or military assistants. Naturally, the question is: why does the UN exist in the first place? What are these nations united in, after all?