[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 6]
[House]
[Page 8121]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      SAUDI ARABIAN JURISPRUDENCE

  (Mr. RASKIN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, President Trump is headed to Saudi Arabia 
today, which is an authoritarian, theocratic state which bans any 
criticism of the government and executes people or imprisons them for 
allegedly insulting Islam.
  Just a few weeks ago, a Saudi man, Ahmad Al Shamri, who is in his 
early twenties, was sentenced to death for atheism and apostasy. 
Another Saudi man, Raif Badawi, a few years ago was sentenced to serve 
10 years in prison, to suffer 1,000 lashes, and to pay 1,000,000 Saudi 
rials for insulting Islam simply for advocating secular thought and the 
separation of church and state.
  There are dozens of Saudis languishing in prison for blasphemy, 
apostasy, heresy, sorcery, witchcraft, and other imaginary offenses. 
Mr. Trump, please use at least 2 minutes of your time while you are in 
Saudi Arabia to plead with the rulers there to release all religious 
prisoners and stop executing and incarcerating people for these 
imaginary religious crimes in the 21st century.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to address their 
remarks to the Chair.

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