The Cultural and Political Life of Saudi Arabia

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Crimes punishable by the death sentence in Saudi Arabia include murder, serious attacks on the Islam religion, adultery, dress codes, and since 1987, drug smuggling. Under Saudi Arabian law, serious crimes merit serious consequences. Repeated theft is punishable by amputation of the right hand, administered under anesthetic. Because most meals in Saudi Arabia are eaten by hand from a communal bowl and only the right hand may touch the food, this punishment effectively bans the convicted thief from society. The severity of this punishment has led to a slight softening of the law in recent years; now if the thief repents and makes restitution before the case is brought before a judge, the punishment can be reduced... furthermore, the victim of the crime may demand payment rather than amputation of the thief’s right hand, and in some cases the victim is even permitted to parden the criminal. In a typical year at least ten hands amputations are carried out for repeated thievery in Saudi Arabia. (Goodwin, 1943) Today in the United States, crimes such as theft are punishable by jail sentence if they have more than one thievery act.

Although the punishment for fornication is the same as for adultery: death. Both are acts of sexual dishonor that reflects on the honor of the female’s family. In the case of Adultery, the female family is much more damaged than her husband because it is her male relatives and not her husband who are responsible for her behavior and her dishonor. Therefore it becomes their duty to punish the adulterous woman. (Mackey, 2002) In The United States, adultery is considered a crime under our spiritual law but as for the law of government, the act of adultery is only grounds for divorce.

In 1987, base on a new ru...

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...gely by religious values: Conservative dress, conservative literature, and conservative behavior. Freedom of political and religious expression is not allowed, and diversions like dancing, or movies, activities are almost nonexistence in Saudi Arabia. As it has been for centuries, the cultural and political life of Saudi Arabia continues to be expressed in terms of Islamic principles.

Works Cited

Aburish, S. K. (1994). The House of Saud. new y.

Goodwin, W. (1943). Saudi Arabia. San Diego: Lucent Books.

Mackey, S. (2002). The Saudis. New York: W.W. Norton and Company.

Massari, M. (1996). Muddying The Rules on Asylum. Economist .

Morgan, M. (2004). Black Eye for Freedom. Christianity Today .

Rosenthal, A. M. (1997). The City and The Kingdom. New York Times .

Wurmbrand, R. (1998). Tortured for Christ. Bartlesville: Living Sacrifice Book Co.

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