Saudi Arabia cuts Exports to Canada over Raif Badawi

While it is commendable that Canada has finally advocated for Raif Badawi's release, the timing is curious. While Badawi was serving a 10 year in prison sentence with 1000 lashes for "online criticism of Islam", the Prime Minister was silent. However, once a few women were arrested and there was a "feminist" angle, the Prime Minister rushed in publicly to demand the release of all prisoners of conscience. He did so in the laziest way possible - a tweet!

In this article, I argue that there is one major factor we are all overlooking here: Iran. The Prime Minister's love of Saudi Arabia's arch nemesis, the Islamic Republic, is the more likely cause of their ire, and the tweet merely the excuse for which they were waiting.

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