Closed Doors

CLOSED DOORS
After reading the cover story “Postcards from Saudi Arabia,” I am so thrilled for Peter Schilling that he experienced such wonderful hospitality while visiting the desert kingdom. Luckily for him, he didn’t get caught in a homosexual act, which is punishable by death in Saudi Arabia (public beheading and stoning are two popular methods). He was also fortunate to have been able to drink bootleg liquor in the confines of a protected compound—had he imbibed anywhere else in the country, he might have ended up being publicly flogged. Ditto or worse if Mr. Schilling had criticized the Saudi government, which could lead to a long torture session in a prison for dissidents. Had he shoplifted, he would have had his hand amputated, sans anesthesia. Mr. Schilling is especially lucky that he’s not Jewish, as Jews are not allowed to enter Saudi Arabia, period. It’s also a good thing his wife didn’t try to drive, as women are forbidden to. I shudder to think what would have happened had Mr. Schilling tried to practice any religion but Islam. Schilling also failed to mention the alarming numbers of victims of human trafficking in Saudi Arabia, where male-chauvinistic laws allow men to repeatedly rape and abuse women, with no fear of reprisal. What a nice vacation spot: a thoroughly repressive, hateful, misogynistic, homophobic, bigoted country with one of the world’s worst human rights records, which also happens to export much of the world’s terrorism through its support of radical Wahhabist Islam. I’ll have to visit someday—oh, wait, that’s right, they don’t let Jews in.