Is Louise Mensch bored of being a house frau, and what’s her game?

Recently Louise has championed the case of Ali Al Khawahir, the 24 years old Saudi man who as a boy of 14 stabbed and permanently paralysed another young boy. After 10 years in prison, a Saudi court ruled Al Khawahir is to pay a deyaa (a compensation usually paid to victims of crime or their families by the offenders or their families) of 1M Saudi Riyals (equivalent to £177,000). Failing that Al Khawahir is sentenced to be surgically paralysed (an eye for an eye) by cutting his spinal cord.

As a Muslim, I know of al deyaa concept but never before heard of anyone being surgically paralysed as equal punishment. Furthermore, Islamic courts are guided by compassion and shura (consultation). So I am rather surprised no one in the whole of Saudi Arabia has yet pleaded for this young man’s mercy or put up the full amount of al deyaa, another Islamic tradition.

For days now Louise has been tweeting and talking about this issue. This morning on BBC Radio 5 she condemned the sentence and scolded our government for not doing more than the basic, common standard diplomatic protocol in the matter, of condemning it. Which surprises me a bit, as not long ago Mensch herself was an MP and should know how these things work. Saudi Arabia is one of the UK’s biggest strategic allies and trading partners in the region. If our government (regardless of political hue) is unhappy with what they did/are doing, they are not going to blast them for it publicly. It will be done tactfully and quietly. And for all we know they might have already done it. So for a former Conservative MP to go on radio and Twitter calling for William Hague ‘and not some unknown FCO personal’ to have some kind of huge announcement is unrealistic and overconfident.

But what really surprised me in all of this, Louise has over 76000 followers on Twitter, yet she never considered using her Twitter clout to raise the £177,000 deyaa and confidently save the young Ali Al Khawahir from permanent paralyses! Because he will only have the surgery if he/his family fail to raise the funds (that is unless the king or the victim’s family pardons him).