Khaled al-Johani decided to speak out at the “day of rage” in Saudi Arabia, even though no one else spoke. He is the 40-year old religion teacher in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and the father of a 5-year old autistic boy. He was direct during his speech: Saudi Arabia needs free speech and it needs democracy.
For this outburst, Khaled was imprisoned. He had plainly predicted that he would be thrown in prison during his speech. In the linked article, it was indicated that he would be transferred to the notorious maximum-security Takehi Alhaer prison outside Riyadh. It was suggested that he would be tortured there, and released only after he disavowed what he said about free speech and democracy.
The following youtube video is an excerpt taken from a BBC program about the incident.
Here is a Facebook page dedicated to Khaled.
This video has been haunting me ever since I saw it.
It reminds me of the following quote:
"Courage is not a man with a gun in his hand. It's knowing you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do."
– spoken by Atticus Finch, by Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
I'm afraid to watch the video or just dont want to. Going through my own battles at the moment. Just wanted to thank you for reminding me of the quote from TKM.
More on crushing dissent in Saudi Arabia: http://www.democracynow.org/2011/5/6/oil_wealth_u…
“After visiting al-Johani in May, family members said that he had lost weight and was depressed.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khaled_al-Johani