Mick Hartley

An interview with Saudi blogger The Religious Policeman:

Do you consider yourself as a voice of sanity in a mad, mad world? If not, who are you and what is your goal?
I sometimes look at Saudi Arabia and think that I am the one who is mad, because I just don’t “get it”! My objective is quite simply to keep pointing out its dangerous idiocies, in the belief that one day it will become embarrassed about them, and start to behave like any other normal 21st Century nation state. It’s not as if Saudi Arabia is just a problem for its own people, like Zimbabwe and Myanmar; instead it exports its problems, in the form of terrorists and religious extremists, so it becomes a problem for everyone else.

What is your reaction to those who claim that The Religious Policeman’s only purpose in life is to ridicule Islam and Saudi Arabia?
Saudi Arabia ridicules itself daily in the newspapers; all I do is to highlight that fact. The people who decapitate others in the name of Islam, or torch cars while shouting “God is Great”, or “honor-kill” women, are the ones who denigrate Islam, not me, and not the peaceful guy who goes to the mosque on Friday just to pray, and otherwise keeps himself to himself and takes care of his family.