Poet Jailed Over Protest Poem

national | miscellaneous | news report Wednesday March 20, 2002 17:11 by marco - activist times zine and indymedia

How many (sacred) verses and Sayings you have slaughtered. Your beards are smeared with blood. You indulge a thousand tyrants and Only the tyrant do you obey.

9:41 a.m. Wednesday 20mar02

POET JAILED OVER PROTEST POEM

A Saudi poet who penned verses which said Saudi Arabia's
corrupt judges serve "tyrants" has been jailed and the
editor who published the poem in a newspaper fired, a
Saudi official told Associated Press Wednesday.
Tarek Al-Issawi writes from Dubai that Prince Nayef, the
interior minister, ordered Mohammed Mokhtar al-Fal, editor-
in-chief of the Arabic-language Al-Madina, to be fired a few
days after the poem, titled "The Corrupt on Earth," appeared
March 10.
It's not clear what poet, Abdul Mohsen Musalam was charged
with or whether he would be formally tried.
The poem accuses the judges of taking bribes and ruling
unjustly to "please tyrants." It took its title from the Quran,
which rules that "the corrupt on earth" must be put to death.

Poem's introduction:

It is sad that in the Muslim world, justice is suffering
from a few judges who care for nothing but their bank
accounts and their status with the rulers.

Some of poem:

How many (sacred) verses and
Sayings you have slaughtered.
Your beards are smeared with blood.
You indulge a thousand tyrants and
Only the tyrant do you obey.

[caveat: I have not seen the whole poem, and this
story was smothered in anti-Saudi context which I've
tried to remove here. I'm hoping I've kept in the
right facts. I'll include the URL here to the story
I read, but because it's Washington Post/AP I don't
expect it to have a shelf-life any more than an hour
or two (I'll try to find other references to this on
the net)]

[ref]=[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55395-2002Mar20.html]

/street muscians are/
/a treasure. Stop for/
/a moment and listen;/
/ then leave a /
/ small donation. /
/ May 5, Tuesday /
/ from Life's little /
/Instruction Calandar/