This is one of the reasons I left Egypt many years ago. I am the son of an American father and an Egyptian woman.
In my teens I had to choose which culture I wanted to live in. America was my choice after I had seen and experienced so much cruelty and abuse in Egypt, and the other "Muslim" countries where we lived. Saudi Arabia is still in the Dark Ages. It is a barbaric, frightening place to live in if you are not part of the royal hierarchy .

Islam is a religion that often addresses its deity with the epithet, "The Merciful". Showing mercy is an essential aspect of Islam.

Also Islam enjoins the Umma or Islamic Community to practise being kind to strangers and offer hospitality to them.

Here the "hospitality" this poor Sri Lankan maid needs is adequate legal support, advice and representation in her hour of need.

Poor Nafeek. Let us hope someone cares enough to help her.

The US will stop dealing with the Middle East when we as citizens, consumers and voters decide to dramatically scale back our dependance on oil. That means we stop buying the Humvees, and big trucks and SUV's.

People, the arms deals involve not only Suadi Arabia, but United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman.

At any rate, the deal must be approved by congress (you know, your locally appointed representatives?) Contact your rep and let them know how you feel, if it matters that much to you...

And don't be so myopic; other countries have sold weapons to the Kingdom to bolster their national interests. In the 90's, Canada sold Saudi Arabia over a billion dollars worth of weapons.

The total value of American arms sales to Saudi Arabia over the past half-century approaches $100 billion, with over a quarter of the contracts signed IN THE 1990s (in dollar terms).

Next thing I'll be hearing is that China is using healthy people to sell their bady parts.....Come on, these are most favored nations for trade, they wouldn't do things like this!!!

Pathetic, those backassward countries need to catch up to modern times. What a joke that legal system is.

Agreed this is a very sad case because the convict is a young girl.

But the question here is: If she is guilty as charged (deliberate murder), should her life be taken for having taken another life, younger than her?

We strongly feel sympathy for the young girl because she is alive and do not feel such sympathy for the infant because he is dead. But not so the parents of the dead infant. They still are emotionally overcome by the grief of the death of their beloved infant son and by an equally strong hatred for the girl who caused his death.

If the law of the land states that the penalty for deliberate murder is death then the only hope is for the parents of the dead infant to get over their grief and pardon the girl. And please note that such pardons only happen in Arab Muslim countries, not in any other country. In other countries there is no law for next of kin of the victom to pardon a murderer. In this form of justice the Arab Muslim countries are better off than USA and the rest of the world.

As the sentence is not yet carried out, there is still chance the parents of the dead infant could forgive the girl. And please note that such forgiveness would not be a precedent. either.

We can only hope that with time the parents will calm down enough to pardon the girl. This is better than no hope at all if the girl had been in another country with a death sentence hanging over her head, after due process of law (represented by an attorney and all that)

Teenage Girl Faces Beheading in Saudi Arabia...

So what, she killed a child in her care and Saudi Law proscribes the death penalty which just happens to be beheading. FACT, beheading is an incredibly kind way of checking out - quicker, less painful, and more merciful than lethal injection.

Anthony Tomei, the US is not a police state (have you been outside?), these practices in Suadi Arabia have gone on for centuries, and The Simpsons is pure comic genius...

This week , saudi law found the 3 policemen in saudi not guilty .they are the special police of Virtue (who decide whether your veil is short enough or your ankles are showing too much flesh) they had arrest a youth who died in their custody and suddenly we are hearing they are not guilty as simple as that . I visited a few saudi Blogs and i was sickened to my stomach by : The truh has spoken , and Long live the King , and we offer our lives and souls to you oh King etc.. rubbish like that .
no talk of a second investigation , autopsy , or an Independent inquiry.
Unfortunately , even British Tribunal blocked 3 britons for suing saudia for torturing them in saudi Jails . the britons can not do much , since Britain is not allowing them. (saudi spend too much money on Arms you see and provide lots of oil and spend Millions in Casinos , horse races, and in night clubs and renting a few floors in the 5 star Hotels in Britain .

Yasser R

Not One single Muslim country is as backward as saudi , do not generalize . im sorry you did not like it in Egypt I did . I had a fantastic time . my kids loved eating at TGIFridays looking over the nile , or Visiting the Pharonic village where services were of the best quality . our stay in Mena House was amazing and we did not mingle with royality. i had no problem wearing shorts either . I also live in morocco where if there is a crime , you go to Court , you dont get beheaded . we dont do beheading in Algeria either nor morocco.
Even Syria and Iran are not as backward .
do you know that thousands of Jews still Live in iran , where Maurice Motamed is a member of parliament. where women are part of parliament , drive cars, own businesses, christians have their different churches in iran and the zorostrians also have their temples . sure there is a lot to be done in iran compared to Saudi , but in saudi , ONLY ISLAM is accepted (and that s not what Islam teaches us )
So to call Saudi a Moderate is a sick Joke . syria has women as Ministers , and they drive cars , Unlike saudi women and work and can wear tee shirts and jeans if they want no one will force Syrian women to cover their faces . but the world is upside down and Bush says so .

This is none of America's business. As was stated earlier, Saudi Arabia has done this for centuries. I don't believe we would appreciate other countries trying to advise us on our legal system, which has its own problems.

How did the child died?

If this girl was an American, I rather doubt that she would be given the death sentance for the death of the child, given the circumstances of her case. She was young, untrained, in an unfamiliar home, and most likely overworked and underpaid, if being paid at all. I believe that American compassion would save her.

It disturbs me that my country's government is friendly with governments like Saudi Arabia's. How can we claim to work in the interest of human rights while we hand out guns to a goverment with such low human rights standards?

The majority of the 9-11 hijackers came were Saudis. Why are we giving them even more firepower?

This is none of America's business.

Oh yes it is. I'm not for military exploits, embargoeing or anything of the sort. However, I and other American citizens have an interest in knowing things like this. I'm a former international school teacher who is seriously considering resuming that part of my career. However, after learning things like this (I'd already heard just as bad), I'd NEVER consider taking a job in this God-awful country, even though the salaries there are very high. I should hope that others contemplating similar business transactions with Saudis would also react to this kind of thing by staying away from them.

Again--nothing governmental--but informed people involved in PRIVATE international business need to know what an evil society this one is.

This IS America's business-especially when we continue to sell them weaponry.

Why are we selling to known human rights violators? Maybe cause Boosh is one himself...

this is the moderate part of middle east. imagine the rest of them.

Heh heh.... Boosh

Anyone that still believes 19 Arabs were behind 9-11 is either hopelessly stupid, delusional and/or complicit in the lies that have been disseminated since 9-11

The Saudis are savages who were lucky enough to sit on top of a lot of oil.

And Chris Womak, you are a deluded idiot.