Fifteen girls burned to death in a school in Saudi Arabia. They weren't allowed to leave the building, because they weren't properly attired.

[Thanks to Charles Johnson for the link.]

yeah, we really need to dump these Saudis and their oil, soon... This is sick.

I do not know about the rest of you, but doesn't it strike you as odd that this so called religion seems to encourage or promote people to inflict death or pain on others as part of being a good Moslem? I mean this is right out of the 12th century.

That is the most horrible thing I have ever read. I can't think of anything else to say. It is hard for me to believe that I could say that about anything after 9/11, and maybe, in some sense, it is just the shock of it, but forcing someone to stay in a burning building because they are dressed wrong is absolutely inhuman.

After committing such an atrocity you'd think that the religious police would be brought to trial for what they'd done. But that may not happen. Criticism of the feared religious police, who roam the Saudi streets wielding sticks to enforce dress codes and sex segregation and to ensure prayers are performed on time is very rare.

How frightening are the religious police? In Friday?s edition of Arab News, one article, "School fire raises many questions" says that the school fire raises many questions. Not questions about the religious police, they?re not even mentioned ? questions about whether the school was complying with the fire codes. Another report, "Were commission members at fire tragedy impostors?" says that the Civil Defense Department is claiming that the people beating the girls for leaving the building may not have been the religious police - they could have been imposters.

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