President Obama says workers’ rights are being “assaulted” in Wisconsin, because the governor there wants to eliminate collective bargaining protections for public employees. What then would he say about Saudi Arabia? Senior Saudi cleric Sheikh Saleh Al-Lahaidan last week declared that striking teachers should be lashed:
“They must be punished because a worker who signs a job contract with an employer must respect that contract and comply with its terms. These terms include adherence to work hours, good performance and commitment to discipline ethically and professionally.”
The story in Emirate24/7 notes that the striking teachers were protesting the cancellation of a two-day holiday. But Al-Luhaidan apparently did not suggest that the education administrators get a whipping for their violation of the agreement with the teachers. Perhaps in his version of sharia, employees must respect contracts, but employers don’t. Or perhaps it was just an oversight, and he would have beaten both sides impartially, if he had thought of it.
Al-Luhaidan has a history of provocative public statements. Formerly he was the president of the Supreme Judicial Council. But in February 2009 King Abdullah dismissed him from the judicial body in an apparent attempt to moderate the conservative religious establishment. However, Al-Luhaidan remains a member of the Council of Senior Clerics.
In 2005 Al-Luhaidan was overheard advocating that Saudis cross into Iraq to kill Americans. This cannot have pleased American officials, some of whom regard Saudi Arabia as an ally.
A couple of years ago he said that the king’s nephew, TV producer Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, needed to be dragged in front of an Islamic court for “debasing” women “by deliberately humiliating them and showing them unveiled and with make-up, especially women from Saudi Arabia.” No word from any actual Saudi women on whether they regard make up on an unveiled face as humiliation.
He also decreed that producers of TV shows featured “depravity and debauchery” should be killed. He later clarified that he meant only after judicial process. Oh, okay, then.
Interestingly, last month Al-Lahaidan called for the resignation of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Conservative Muslim clerics rarely favor liberal democracy, so the most likely answer is that he hopes the Muslim Brotherhood will take power in Egypt.
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