Legal Commentary

Broadcasters in Saudia Arabia Warned of Death Penalty For Showing Soap Operas

By TChris

As the Supreme Court decides whether to reconsider its decision barring death as the penalty for sexually assaulting a child, the head of Saudi Arabia's Supreme Judicial Council, Sheikh Saleh al-Lohaidan, announced that television station owners could be put to death under Islamic Sharia law if they broadcast Turkish soap operas during the holy month of Ramadan.

[The soap operas became] popular in Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries this year, provoking a storm of anger among conservatives in Saudi Arabia who fear the spread of secular culture. They gained huge popularity partly because they were dubbed into colloquial Arabic and focused on a Muslim country whose culture many Arabs can relate to. The characters would fast in Ramadan but also drink wine.

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The government's official advisor on religious affairs, Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdelaziz Al al-Sheikh, said in July it was not Islamically permissible to watch the Turkish serials.

Lohaidan advised the station owners that "those who promote corruption in belief and actions ... can be put to death through the judicial process." Like death penalty advocates in the United States, Lohaidan subscribes to a deterrent theory: if lesser penalties don't get the attention of offenders, death surely will. In the case of television broadcasters and Turkish soap operas, he's probably correct, but if a station manager in a moment of weakness couldn't help himself from broadcasting the latest episode of "Nour," should he really have to die?

Full post as published by TalkLeft on September 13, 2008 (boomark / email).