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| Academics who have volunteered to take the lashes for Raif Badawi, clockwise from top left: Richard P George, Hannah Rosenthal, Mary Ann Glendon and Zuhdi Jasser |
A group of top American intellectuals have volunteered to "take" the 1,000 lash sentence imposed by the Saudi government on a prominent liberal blogger.
In a remarkable intervention on behalf of Raif Badawi, who received the sentence for insulting his country's hardline Islamic clerics, seven US academics have agreed to take the flogging for him.
The move, which follows widespread international outrage at the sentence, is being led by Robert P George, a leading professor at Princeton University and vice-chairman of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom.
In an email to The Christian Post newspaper, Professor George said: "Together with six colleagues on the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, I sent a letter to the Saudi Ambassador to the US calling on the Saudi government to stop the horrific torture of Raif Badawi — an advocate of religious freedom and freedom of expression in the Saudi Kingdom."
"If the Saudi government refuses, we each asked to take 100 of Mr. Badawi's lashes so that we could suffer with him. The seven of us include Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives, Christians, Jews, and a Muslim." » | Colin Freeman, Chief foreign correspondent | Thursday, January 22, 2015
