Nation states, all of them, are morally corrupt authoritarian institutions, that will make bedfellows of any other state, no matter its record on human rights, as long as it is advantageous to the power mongers in charge. Here in the UK, our lords and masters always spout about our high moral values and our respect for human life, but have no problem cosying up to such regimes as Saudi Arabia. A state that is harshly governed by a bunch of intolerant religious fundamentalist psychotic nut-cases. A state that is so barbaric that it still carries out public beatings, as well as public beheading. In our dear friend, Saudi Arabia's land, a woman who is raped and reports it to the police, is usually charged with having sex out with marriage. In the developed world there are those who believe they have a friend in the sky, who they can talk to and who will personally look after them, and there are those who consider this as a rather stupid idea. Normally there is no real danger in holding the view that the man in sky is an illusion and should be dismissed. However in that land of our dear friend, Saudi Arabia, to speak of atheism, can imperial your life. The late King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia introduced laws defining atheists as terrorists, and recently the "justice system" in Saudi Arabia saw fit to sentence a young man to 2,000 lashes and ten years in prison for expressing his atheism on twitter. Of course the lashing was carried out in public, just to bring home to others, that in that country you are not allowed to express your personal view on the man in the sky, you must kneel before authority. I suppose, in that land of sadistic barbarity, you could say that he may have been lucky, there is the case of the poet who renounced Islam and was sentenced to death. Such cases abound in that "holy Land" of a loving god, our bosom buddy in the Middle East.
Members of the club for deranged young men, know locally as Members of the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice of Saudi Arabia, or religious police.
We can go through nation state after nation state, and they will all be found wanting in a greater or lesser degree, in the way they treat human rights. All states consider human rights expendable, when it come to the safeguarding of the power of the cabal at the top of the festering mess that is the established state.
Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk
