More Courageous than the U.S.: Canada Confronts Saudi Dictatorship over Human Rights and Saudi Arabia Expels Canadian Ambassador
By Julio
Severo
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: speaking 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.
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.”
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.”
*
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.”
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 US,
there would be abundant reasons for the US 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.
What is the U.S. government waiting to
condemn and sanction Saudi Arabia?
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
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