By Debbie Schlussel
A quick couple of updates on my column, this morning, about the Saudis and how we groveled to them over their convicted rapist/slaveholder here:
The AP article on the Girl of Qatif–gang-raped by seven men and then sentenced to 90 lashes for it (more lashes for being raped than that to which one of her alleged rapists was sentenced)–is par for the course in Saudi Arabia and much of the Islamic world. It’s nothing new, but an example of why they can’t understand why we would actually support the victim and sentence the rapist.
That’s why I always say we can’t call this a “clash of civilizations.” That would fallaciously assume that they are a civilization.
Also, reader Robert writes:

Debbie,
Allow me to disagree, slightly.
Every opportunity to expose the West to the insanity of Muslim ‘thinking’ should be welcomed and exploited.
Several of the points you made today reinforce that.
How many Americans realized, until the trial, that the crimes he and his wife were convicted of constitute traditional behavior in (Arab) Muslim majority countries?
One of his own children, who lived the ‘good life’ in the Aurora home while the Indonesian girl was enslaved there, wailed at the trial, “What did he do wrong?”
You may note, too, that not one iota of concern, in any article I’ve read about this, has ever been expressed by ANY Saudi for the maid.
One of the most absurd features of this entire episode is the popular belief in Saudi Arabia that, though the maid is also a Muslim, that the trial must have been based upon some anit-Muslim bias. Incredible!
In this case, I’m hoping the lessons learned, and passed on, by the AG will outweigh the cost of the trip.
Robert

Unfortunately, Robert, the AG learned no lessons. He called this pandering world-tour “the adventure of a lifetime.”