Raif Badawi: coming to Canada
After a long haul, Saudi social critic and prisoner Raif Badawi has been freed and may well come to live in Sherbrooke with his wife and family.
I risk floating an unpopular view here, but I am putting this out there with a view to the future. Badawi will stir up some kind of trouble here. I base this partly on the actions of his wife, Ensaf Haidar: “Haidar supported the right-wing populist People’s Party of Canada upon its foundation in 2018. […] In the 2021 federal elections, [she was] officially nominated as a Bloc Québécois candidate on August 10, 2021.”
So Haidar comes here, becomes a citizen of Canada in 2018, and represents a party championing (at least in theory) the fragmentation of Canada in 2021.
OK, maybe it’s nothing. But I have a presentiment that a man who thought so little of provoking the Saudi regime might think even less of provoking Canada.
Update: Radio-Canada says that while Badawi is freed from prison, Saudi Arabia says he can’t leave the country for another 10 years, unless he gets a royal pardon.
(Would Badawi have become such a culture hero if he hadn’t been so good‑looking? Discuss.)
Chris 00:55 on 2022-03-12 Permalink
Unfortunately, criticism of Islam is frowned upon by most of the Left, so anti-Islam activists risk being pushed to ally with the rightwingers.
Meezly 12:01 on 2022-03-13 Permalink
Kate, is your feeling that your view is unpopular because it’s unseemly that a refugee and human rights activist would become a right-wing populist politician? I must admit that it’s puzzling, but at least she’s been exercising the freedom of choice she’s been fighting so hard for!
Kate 13:05 on 2022-03-13 Permalink
It’s quite natural to want to see a person freed when they’ve been locked up for expressing opinions. I simply feel misgivings that I can’t entirely pin down but which I wanted to record here for future reference.