title: Human rights in Saudi Arabia

text: In January 2019, Rahaf Mohammed attempted a similar flight from a forced marriage, traveling to Australia via Kuwait and Thailand. She also said that her family threatened to kill her for leaving Islam (which is also a capital offense in Saudi Arabia). After her passport was taken and authorities in Manilla acted at the request of the Saudi government to stop her travel, she barricaded herself in her hotel room and pleaded on social media for international assistance. The UNHCR and the government of Canada intervened, and Rahaf travelled successfully to Canada via South Korea. Other Saudi women have done similar things.


title: Human rights in Saudi Arabia

text: On 2 October 2018, Jamal Khashoggi entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in order to deal with paperwork related to his marriage. A veteran Saudi journalist who had become a vocal critic of Saudi regime, upon arrival Khashoggi was assassinated and dismembered. In the previous September, Khashoggi had fled Saudi Arabia after the arrests of other Saudi intellectuals, clerics and activists, fearing that he too would be arrested or banned from travelling. On 3 October, a Saudi official claimed that Khashoggi had been neither detained nor killed, saying: "He is not in the consulate nor in Saudi custody." Ibrahim Kalin, Turkish presidential spokesman, said: "According to the information we have, this person who is a Saudi citizen is still at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul." Three weeks after Khashoggi went missing, Saudi authorities acknowledged that he had been killed at the consulate and that his body was removed from the consulate. The killing was described as "murder" and "a tremendous mistake" by Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir. On 25 October 2018, one of the Saudi public prosecutors told the media that Khashoggi's murder was "premeditated".


title: Human rights in Saudi Arabia

text: On 23 December 2019, Saudi Arabia sentenced five people to death for the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi and charged three others with a prison term of 24 years. The list of those sentenced did not include Mohammed al-Otaibi and Former royal adviser Saud al-Qahtani, accused of playing a major role in the assassination. Qahtani, who was under investigation earlier, was released with no evidence found against him. After Khashoggi's son pardoned the accused, sparing five of the accused from execution, Saudi Arabia's criminal court sentenced eight convicts in the killing of Jamal Khashoggi. Five of the accused were sentenced to 20 years in prison, one was sentenced for 10 years and the remaining two were each sentenced to 7 years in prison. The verdict was issued in a closed court hearing. The UN special rapporteur Agnès Callamard said that the Mohammed bin Salman remained "well protected against any kind of meaningful scrutiny in his country" and called the verdict a "parody of justice".


title: Human rights in Saudi Arabia

text: On 28 April 2020, the Saudi government introduced criminal justice changes to limit the flogging and death penalty of children accused of terrorism, according to Human Rights Watch. It was unclear whether the children would be excused from 10-year prison terms. It was specified that the new law does not cover "qisas" or "hudud" cases, i.e. murder or serious criminal activities under Islamic law.


title: Human rights in Saudi Arabia

text: Journalists, human rights activists and anyone who speaks against the Saudi government is a common target of the regime, even after fleeing the Kingdom. In February 2022, the first female professional jockey of Saudi Arabia, Alya Alhwaiti condemned Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for wanting her dead. She has been receiving "terrifying" death threats and believed that the regime wanted to take her "head off". The 36-year-old has been an outspoken critic of the Saudi government, and has even led a campaign in support of the Al-Huwaitat tribe. Her public criticism made Riyadh furious, leading to the hack of her emails.


title: Human rights in Saudi Arabia

text: In October 2021, The Freedom Initiative released an extensive report based on the investigation and analysis around the impact of Saudi Arabian government policies of repression. The report gave details about the detention, harassment, and entrapment of the US persons and their family members. The close relationship between the US and Saudi Arabia was also estimated to potentially endanger the lives of those who fought for human rights. The impact of Saudi's repressive tactics are global in nature and also extend to the non-Saudi citizens worldwide. In 2021, at least 89 US persons or their family members were detained, disappeared, or under travel bans in Saudi Arabia.


title: Human rights in Saudi Arabia

text: In June 2022, a report by Grant Liberty, a human rights charity, indicated that prisoners held for opposing the government in Saudi Arabia and family members of the dissidents were murdered, sexually assaulted and brutally tortured. The study identified 311 prisoners of conscience, out of which 23 were women's rights activists. Around 22 of the prisoners were arrested for crimes that they carried out when they were still children, out of them five were put to death. The organization called Saudi Arabia – a pariah to democracy and human rights.


title: Human rights in Saudi Arabia

text: On 28 June 2022, a Saudi man living in the US, Ibrahim Alhussayen, was accused of lying to federal officials about using social media accounts to harass and threaten Saudi dissidents, most of whom were women. He used an anonymous Instagram account to intimidate Saudi citizens living in the US and Canada known to be critical of Saudi regime. Through his social media accounts, Alhussayen ruthlessly insulted and threatened young women on Instagram with the apparent aim of aiding the Saudi government. He maintained regular contact with an employee of the Saudi General Sports Authority, headed by Turki Al-Sheikh, a close adviser to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Alhussayen's case was part of a broader campaign to crackdown on human rights activists and dissidents, including transnational repression. Saudi Arabia also helps other governments, including those of Turkey, Sudan, Egypt and China, commit transnational repression.


title: Human rights in Saudi Arabia

text: In October 2022, an American citizen was sentenced to 16 years in prison in Saudi Arabia for tweeting critically about the kingdom. Saad Ibrahim Almadi, a dual US-Saudi national, was arrested in November 2021 upon landing in Riyadh for a personal trip. Almadi was neither a dissident nor an activist; he was simply a project manager from Florida who decided to practice his right to free speech in the US. He was detained regarding 14 tweets posted on his account over the period of seven years.


title: Human rights in Saudi Arabia

text: The 1990s marked a slow period of political liberalization in the kingdom as the government created a written constitution, and the advisory "Consultative Council", the latter being an appointed delegation of Saudi scholars and professionals that are allowed to advise the king. Some political dissidents were released from prison, after agreeing to disband their political parties. In 2005, adult male citizens were allowed to vote for some municipal seats, although plans for future elections, which may include adult women, have been put on hold indefinitely.


title: Human rights in Saudi Arabia

text: Political parties are banned, but some political dissidents were freed in the 1990s on the condition that they disband their political parties. Today, only the Green Party of Saudi Arabia remains, although it is an illegal organization. Trade unions are also banned, but the government has granted permission for Saudi citizens to form some private societies, which are allowed to do some humanitarian work within the kingdom.


title: Human rights in Saudi Arabia

text: Public demonstrations or any public act of dissent are forbidden. In April 2011, during the 2011–2012 Saudi Arabian protests, the kingdom made it a crime to publish any criticism harming the reputation of government or religious leaders, or which harms the interests of the state.


title: Human rights in Saudi Arabia

text: According to Human Rights Watch annual report 2016, Saudi Arabia continued to prosecute pro-reform activists and dissidents. Saudi Arabia's terrorism court sentenced Waleed Abu al-Khair, prominent activist, to 15 years. He was convicted on charges concerning his peaceful criticism of the human rights situation in his country. In July, authorities arrested Zuhair Kutbi, an activist, because of his discussion to a peaceful reform in media. In September 2015, all of banned –Saudi Civil Political Rights Association (ACPRA) founders were jailed.


title: Human rights in Saudi Arabia

text: On 21 June 2020, The Guardian reported that a Human Rights activist and Saudi dissident Omar Abdulaziz, who is currently living in Canada, was warned by the Canadian authorities that he could be targeted by the government of Saudi Arabia. He was asked to take precautions and protect himself. Omar is a vocal critic of Saudi Arabia and also a close associate of the assassinated The Washington Post, journalist, Jamal Khashoggi.


title: Human rights in Saudi Arabia

text: Dissidents have been detained as political prisoners in Saudi Arabia during the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s. Protests and sit-ins calling for political prisoners to be released took place during the 2011–2012 Saudi Arabian protests in many cities throughout Saudi Arabia, with security forces firing live bullets in the air on 19 August 2012 at a protest at al-Ha'ir Prison. , recent estimates of the number of political prisoners in Mabahith prisons range from an estimate of zero by the Ministry of Interior to 30,000 by the UK-based Islamic Human Rights Commission and the BBC.


title: Human rights in Saudi Arabia

text: Allegedly Khashoggi was not the only dissident on Saudi's list to be abducted. Another Saudi prince, Khaled bin Farhan al-Saud, living in exile in Germany, told The Independent that a similar kidnapping was planned against him by the Saudi authorities 10 days prior. "Over 30 times the Saudi authorities have told me to meet them in the Saudi embassy but I have refused every time. I know what can happen if I go into the embassy. Around 10 days before Jamal went missing they asked my family to bring me to Cairo to give me a cheque. I refused," said Saud. Five other royals, grandsons of King Abdul-Aziz were detained, when they raised their voice about Khashoggi's disappearance.


title: Human rights in Saudi Arabia

text: In August 2018, a prominent Saudi cleric, Ahmed al-Amari, was detained by the Saudi authorities over the allegations of being associated with scholar and Saudi royal family critic Safar al-Hawali. Amari was held in solitary confinement since then. In January 2019, Amari died suffering a brain hemorrhage.


title: Human rights in Saudi Arabia

text: In November 2019, the Washington Post reported that about eight citizens of Saudi Arabia were detained within two weeks for making critical comments against the kingdom. Rights groups have condemned the act by calling it an escalation of an ongoing crackdown on dissent.


title: Human rights in Saudi Arabia

text: In March 2020, Saudi authorities forcefully arrested the adult children of ex-Saudi intelligence officer, Saad al-Jabri, who has been living in exile since 2017 in Canada. Saad Al-Jabri was a close ally and advisor of the former crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Muhammad bin Nayef. On 25 May 2020, HRW urged Saudi authorities to immediately inform of Omar and Sarah's whereabouts to their relatives and release them. They also demanded to end their travel bans and stop using them as tokens against Jabri.


title: Human rights in Saudi Arabia

text: On 2 September 2020, the family of Saad al-Jabri revealed that Saudi Arabia had arrested Salem Almuzaini, the son-in-law of Saad al-Jabri, who accused Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of sending a hit squad to Canada to kill him.


title: Human rights in Saudi Arabia

text: On 8 June 2021 Saudi court sentenced a Sudanese media personality and journalist, Ahmad Ali Abdelkader, 31, to four years in prison. This ruling against him came forth since his tweets and media interviews openly discussed and expressed support for Sudan's 2018-19 revolution, and criticized Saudi actions in Sudan and Yemen.


title: Human rights in Saudi Arabia

text: On 22 November 2021, Saudi authorities confirmed that they had detained Prince Salman (Ghazalan) Al Saud, and his father, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman bin Muhammed, in an unofficial detention site without charges. The two men were arrested in January 2018 by a special Saudi security force, al-Saif al-Ajrab Brigade, as part of a broad purge of prominent royal family members, government officials, and influential business people, set up by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The father and son were disappeared in November 2020, and were held incommunicado until late October 2021. Abuses against the two men were documented, along with the conditions of their detention.


title: Human rights in Saudi Arabia

text: The Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in the Arabian Peninsula is a Saudi Arabian human rights organization based in Beirut since 1992.


title: Human rights in Saudi Arabia

text: The Human Rights First Society applied unsuccessfully for a governmental license in 2002, but was allowed to function informally. The Association for the Protection and Defense of Women's Rights in Saudi Arabia was created in 2007 and is also unlicensed.


title: Human rights in Saudi Arabia

text: The Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association (ACPRA) was created in 2009. One of its co-founders, Mohammed Saleh al-Bejadi, was arbitrarily arrested by Mabahith, the internal security agency, on 21 March 2011, during the 2011 Saudi Arabian protests. Al-Bejadi was charged in the Specialized Criminal Court in August 2011 for "insurrection against the ruler, instigating demonstrations, and speaking with foreign [media] channels". Another co-founder, Mohammad Fahad al-Qahtani, was charged for his human rights activities in June 2012.


title: Human rights in Saudi Arabia

text: In March 2021, Amnesty International concerning the health of co-founder of the now disbanded Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association Mohammad Fahad al-Qahtani, raised a waiver over the activist not being allowed to communicate after testing positive for Covid-19. The organisation reiterated its calls on the Saudi Arabian authorities to release prisoners who have been imprisoned; solely for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.


title: Human rights in Saudi Arabia

text: Sixteen people who tried to create a human rights organization in 2007 were arrested in February 2007, charged in August 2010, and convicted on 22 November 2011 of "forming a secret [organization], attempting to seize power, incitement against the King, financing terrorism, and money laundering" and sentenced by the Specialized Criminal Court to 5–30 years' imprisonment, to be followed by travel bans. They appealed on 22 January 2012.


title: Human rights in Saudi Arabia

text: The Society for Development and Change was created to campaign for equal human rights for Shia Muslims in Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia. The organisation calls for a constitution and elected legislature for Eastern Province. The European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights, which started operating around 2013, campaigns for Saudi human rights in general, including reports on what its leader Ali Adubisi describes as the Saudi government's "war" against the Eastern Province. ALQST is a Saudi human rights organisation created in August 2014 by Yahya Assiri, with a Saudi-based team for collecting evidence and a London-based team for reports and human rights campaigning.


title: Human rights in Saudi Arabia

text: In 2004, the National Society for Human Rights, associated with the Saudi government, was created. Most of the commission's directors are members of the Saudi "religious and political establishment" according to John R. Bradley.


title: Human rights in Saudi Arabia

text: The Human Rights Commission is a government organization established in September 2005. It claims to be fully independent from the government in performing its responsibilities. In March 2019 it opposed international investigation of the 2 October 2018 assassination of Jamal Khashoggi.


title: Human rights in Saudi Arabia

text: LGBT rights in Saudi Arabia are unrecognized. Homosexuality is frequently a taboo subject in Saudi Arabian society and is punished with imprisonment, corporal punishment and capital punishment. Transgender people are generally associated with homosexuality and doctors are banned by the Saudi Ministry of Health from giving hormone replacement therapy to transgender people seeking to medically transition. In 2017, two transgender Pakistanis were allegedly tortured to death by Saudi police. Police later denied the reports.


title: Human rights in Saudi Arabia

text: By law, all Saudi citizens who are infected with HIV or AIDS are entitled to free medical care, protection of their privacy and employment opportunities. However, most hospitals will not treat patients who are infected, and many schools and hospitals are reluctant to distribute government information about the disease because of the strong taboos and stigma that are attached to how the virus can be spread.


title: Human rights in Saudi Arabia

text: Until the late 1990s, information on HIV/AIDS was not widely available to the public, but this has started to change. In the late 1990s, the government started to recognize World AIDS Day and allowed information about the disease to be published in newspapers. The number of people living in the kingdom who were infected was a closely guarded secret. However, in 2003 the government announced the number of known cases of HIV/AIDS in the country to be 6,700, and over 10,000 in June 2008.


title: Human rights in Saudi Arabia

text: The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia ratified the International Convention against Torture in October 1997 according to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. The Human rights of Saudi Arabia are specified in article 26 of the Basic Law of Saudi Arabia. Recently created human rights organizations include Human Rights First Society (2002), Association for the Protection and Defense of Women's Rights in Saudi Arabia (2007), Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association (2009) and the government-associated National Society for Human Rights (2004). In 2008, the Shura Council ratified the Arab Charter on Human Rights. In 2011, the Specialized Criminal Court was used to charge and sentence human rights activists. On 15 June 2020, UN Secretary-General António Guterres removed the Saudi-led coalition from his latest "list of shame" despite continued grave violations against children in Yemen.


title: Human rights in Saudi Arabia

text: Saudi Arabia lost its bid to win a seat at the UN Human Rights Council – a 47-seat body that claims to protect and promote human rights on the world scale. The country only received 90 votes in support of its bid. Analysts named the murder of Jamal Khashoggi and detention of women's rights activists and claimed that the country's global image as a violator of human rights resulted in its failure to secure votes for the bid.


title: Human rights in Saudi Arabia

text: On 15 June 2021, Saudi Arabia executed Mustafa al-Darwish, who was arrested in May 2015 on charges related to an anti-government protest when he was a teenager. Amnesty International called the trial "deeply flawed" as the kingdom had announced last year to end death penalty for people under 18 years of age. Yet Saudi executed Darwish for an alleged crime when he was 17.


title: Human rights in Saudi Arabia

text: The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Counter Terrorism, Ben Emmerson, criticized Saudi Arabia for violating human rights in the name of fighting terrorism during his visit to Saudi Arabia from 30 April to 4 May 2017. According to the report, Saudi Arabia uses its terrorism tribunal and counterterrorism law to unjustly prosecute human rights defenders, writers, and peaceful critics.


title: Human rights in Saudi Arabia

text: At the U.N. Third Millennium Summit in New York City, King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz defended Saudi Arabia's position on human rights, saying: "It is absurd to impose on an individual or a society rights that are alien to its beliefs or principles."


title: Human rights in Saudi Arabia

text: Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs issued a statement via Twitter on 2 August 2018 expressing Canada's concern over the recent arrest of Samar Badawi, a human rights activist and sister of imprisoned Saudi blogger Raif Badawi, and called for the release of Saudi human rights activists. In response to Canada's criticism, Saudi Arabia expelled Canada's ambassador and froze all new trade with Canada.


title: Human rights in Saudi Arabia

text: A joint statement released by 36 countries at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva in March 2019, condemned the murder of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, called for the release of Saudi women's rights activists detained in May 2018, and urged the kingdom to stop using counterterrorism regulations to target dissidents and human rights activists. The letter, which is the first collective rebuke of the kingdom, demanded the release of prominent women activists, including Loujain al-Hathloul, Hatoon al-Fassi and Samar Badawi.


title: Human rights in Saudi Arabia

text: In July 2019, following increased pressure from non-profit organization Human Rights Foundation, Nicki Minaj pulled out of the Jeddah World Fest, Saudi Arabia in support of the nation's suppressed women and LGBTQ community. Minaj said, "I could make one mistake & go to jail in a diff country where women have no rights," after learning about the constant abuse of human rights in the nation. The organization lauded Minaj's decision and urged other artists of the likes of Steve Aoki and Liam Payne from performing in the nation.


title: Human rights in Saudi Arabia

text: In November 2019, ahead of Saudi Spanish Super Cup due to be held in January 2020, Spanish broadcaster RTVE said that it will not bid for the hosting rights of the tournament because of human rights concern, especially women rights in the field of sports. "It's a country where until very recently women couldn't go to watch football," the broadcasting service said. RFEF President Luis Rubiales, defended the claims and said, he could assure women would be allowed to enter without any restrictions.


title: Human rights in Saudi Arabia

text: In January 2020, Human Rights Watch alongside 11 other international rights group organizations wrote a joint letter to the Amaury Sport Organization following its decision to move Dakar Rally to Saudi Arabia. The rights group in their letter accused Saudi Arabia of violating women's rights in the nation and asked the French organizer to denounce the persecution of women's rights, as well as adopt the human rights policy. "The Amaury Sport Organisation and race drivers at the Dakar Rally should speak out about the Saudi government's mistreatment of women's rights activists for advocating for the right to drive," the statement from the Human Rights Watch global initiatives director read.


title: Human rights in Saudi Arabia

text: In January 2020, Meghan MacLaren withdrew from Saudi leg of Ladies European Tour due to be held in March 2020. The golfer cited she cannot ignore what organizations like Amnesty International have highlighted. "I've decided not to play based on what I think sport is being used to do in Saudi Arabia", she said while emphasizing on the appalling human rights record of the nation. "We take for granted a lot of the choices and freedom we have available to us, but I try to make my decisions based on who I am as a person, not just a golfer," statement from her interview further read.


title: Human rights in Saudi Arabia

text: In April 2020, Amnesty International, amidst reports of Saudi PIF's taking over of 80 per cent of Premier League club Newcastle United, stated that Saudi's involvement in English football is "glamorizing" the kingdom's "abysmal human rights record." The organization added that monarchy is using the PIF as "a PR tool."


title: Human rights in Saudi Arabia

text: In May 2020, responding to the reports of Saudi PIF's taking over Newcastle United, fiancée of murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi said that Premier League should consider moral values over and above financial gains. "Money cannot buy everything in the world. So the message that will be given to people like Crown Prince is extremely important," Hatice Cengiz quoted to BBC.


title: Human rights in Saudi Arabia

text: In June 2020, on reports of Saudi Arabia's takeover of Premier League club Newcastle United, a group of 16 MPs and peers wrote to the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson. In their letter, signed by a cross-party group of politicians, they collectively urged him to stop the UK being used as a promoter for "sports-washing." Besides, citing that the Gulf state's alleged involvement in the brutal murder of Jamal Khashoggi, jailing of human rights activists, use of online espionage and involvement in the Yemen Civil War, all and much more sends a clear message of its gruesome reality.


title: Human rights in Saudi Arabia

text: On 26 June 2020, a group of British MPs urged the UK Foreign Office for intervention to secure the safety of prominent Gulf human rights defenders, including the Saudi women's rights campaigner Loujain al-Hathloul. These activists are thought to be at risk from the coronavirus outbreak, as they still remain behind the bars across the Middle East.


title: Human rights in Saudi Arabia

text: In June 2020, amidst Newcastle United F.C. takeover, the WTO ruled that the pirate-pay television service distributed via beoutQ is Saudi, which is "operated by individuals or entities under the jurisdiction of Saudi Arabia." The organization in its 125-page report cited that Saudi Arabia's failure to act against beoutQ was a breach of WTO rules with its obligations under the TRIPS Agreement on intellectual property.


title: Human rights in Saudi Arabia

text: On 13 July 2020, Richard Masters, the CEO of Premier League was urged by the families of human rights campaigners, who are in Saudi prison, to stop the takeover of Newcastle United by Saudi Arabia, while their loved ones remain imprisoned.


title: Human rights in Saudi Arabia

text: On 15 September 2020, Germany spoke at the United Nations Human Rights Council on behalf of the European Union, demanding for the release of human rights activists jailed in Saudi Arabia and the arrest and prosecution of Jamal Khashoggi's killers to bring justice to The Washington Post journalist.


title: Human rights in Saudi Arabia

text: Global coalition of human rights groups sent a letter to the mayors of Berlin, London, New York, Paris, Rome, Los Angeles and Madrid urging to boycott a G20 urban summit to be hosted by Saudi Arabia on 2 October, on the grounds of human rights activists' imprisonment and torture, human rights abuse and the 2018 assassination of The Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The letter highlighted the demand for releasing prisoners of conscience, end of human rights abuses and proper accountability for the murder of Khashoggi.


title: Human rights in Saudi Arabia

text: On 2 October 2020, Human Rights Watch said, Saudi Arabia implemented a deflect strategy to change the country's image of a pervasive human rights violator. Under this strategy, the kingdom reportedly spent billions of dollars in hosting major entertainment, cultural, and sporting events, aiming to whitewash its repressive image. HRW launched a global counter campaign against the Saudi government's efforts towards whitewashing its dismal rights record.


title: Human rights in Saudi Arabia

text: On 27 October 2020, Amnesty International condemned Formula 1 owners for scheduling the following year's penultimate race of the season in Saudi Arabia, which was believed of being used to "sports wash" the Kingdom's human rights records. The rights group also urged the racers to speak out against the country's regime.


title: Human rights in Saudi Arabia

text: In March 2021, The Guardian published an article titled – "Saudi Arabia has spent at least $1.5bn on 'sportswashing', report reveals" listing details of a report by the human rights organisation Grant Liberty. The report stated that Saudi Arabia is investing hefty amounts in various sporting events like chess, golf and tennis championship to promote itself as a tourism destination and sportswash its human rights abuses.


title: Human rights in Saudi Arabia

text: On 15 January 2022, the three-time Grand Slam champion, Andy Murray, rejected seven-figure appearance fee to play in Saudi Arabia over human rights concerns. The event was also fiercely criticised by human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, for attempting to cleanse the nation's reputation on the international stage.


title: Human rights in Saudi Arabia

text: On 1 April 2022, two UN experts, Fernand de Varennes and Ahmed Shaheed criticized the Saudi government for extraditing two Chinese nationals belonging to the Uyghur minority. The two Uyghurs, Nuermaimaiti Ruze and Waili Aimidoula were at the risk of serious human rights violations, if they were returned to China. They first travelled to Turkey in 2016, due to the risks of arbitrary detention and ill-treatment in China. In November 2020, they were arrested in Saudi Arabia following an extradition request by China, and suffered prolonged incommunicado detention at a facility in Jeddah. On 16 March 2022, the two men were transferred to Riyadh for extradition, and were later brought back to Jeddah.


title: Shake Your Money Maker (album)

text: Shake Your Money Maker (also stylized as The Black Crowes Present: $hake Your Money Maker) is the debut studio album by American rock band the Black Crowes, released on February 13, 1990 on Def American Recordings. It is the only album by the band to feature guitarist Jeff Cease. The album is named after a classic blues song written by Elmore James. The Black Crowes have played the song live many times over the years, but it is not included on this album.


title: Shake Your Money Maker (album)

text: "Shake Your Money Maker" peaked at No. 4 on the "Billboard" 200, and two of its singles, "Hard to Handle" and "She Talks to Angels", reached No. 1 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. "Jealous Again", "Twice As Hard" and "Seeing Things" were also charting singles in the United States. "Shake Your Money Maker" is the Black Crowes' best selling album, having sold more than 5 million copies.


title: Shake Your Money Maker (album)

text: On January 8, 2021, the Black Crowes announced that a 30th anniversary edition of the album would be released on February 26, 2021. The new version contains the original tracks remastered in addition to three previously unreleased songs, outtakes, two demos from the Mr. Crowe's Garden era, and a live performance set recorded in 1990 at Center Stage in Atlanta. Previously unreleased track "Charming Mess" was released on the same day as the announcement.


title: Shake Your Money Maker (album)

text: Brothers Chris and Rich Robinson had formed Mr. Crowe's Garden in 1984. In 1988 George Drakoulias saw the band at a show they did in New York City and had them signed to Def American the same year; they changed their name to the Black Crowes shortly after.


title: Shake Your Money Maker (album)

text: The recording sessions began in the summer of 1989 in Atlanta and Los Angeles, with Drakoulias producing the album. Some tracks include retained songs from the Mr. Crowe's Garden era such as "Could I've Been So Blind" and "She Talks to Angels", whose riff had been written years ago by then-17 year old Rich Robinson with lyrics written by Chris, which were inspired by a heroin-addicted girl he "kinda knew" in Atlanta. The band also chose to record a cover version of Otis Redding's "Hard to Handle", which would prove to be their breakthrough single.


title: Shake Your Money Maker (album)

text: Four music videos for "Twice As Hard", "Jealous Again", "Hard to Handle" and "She Talks to Angels" were filmed to promote the band and the album, and subsequently aired on MTV.


title: Shake Your Money Maker (album)

text: When the album came out in February 1990, critical reception was mostly favorable. "Rolling Stone" gave the album three out of five stars, and its readers and critics voted the Black Crowes "Best New American Band" in 1990; the band appeared on the cover of the magazine's 605th issue (May 1991) following their firing from the ZZ Top tour in March that year. The issue's interview of Chris and Rich Robinson compared the band to 1970s acts, with journalist David Fricke explicitly citing Faces and The Rolling Stones and Rich Robinson mentioning Aerosmith. AllMusic gave the album four out of five stars, praising Rich Robinson's guitar playing and Chris Robinson's "appropriate vocal swagger". "Entertainment Weekly" gave it a B+ and stated, "The Black Crowes are to the early Rolling Stones what Christian Slater is to the young Jack Nicholson: a self-conscious imitation, but fine enough in its own right. Authentic bluesmen these Crowes will never be, but their sheer energy earns 'em the right to trash it up."


title: Shake Your Money Maker (album)

text: "Hard to Handle", "Jealous Again" and "Twice As Hard" broke into the Mainstream Rock Tracks charts, respectively reaching the first, fifth and eleventh position. By the end of the year, "Shake Your Money Maker" had sold one million copies and eventually sold two million more, thus receiving triple platinum certification. In 1991, "She Talks to Angels" and "Seeing Things" respectively reached the first and second position of the Mainstream Rock Tracks charts.


title: Natalie Nunn

text: Natalie Tynika Nunn (born December 26, 1984) is an American reality television personality, known for being a castmate on the fourth season of the "Bad Girls Club" in 2009–10. She subsequently appeared on "Bad Girls Club" season 13 as well as "Hair Battle Spectacular". She was also a contestant on the of "". Nunn also participated on the first season of "Bad Girls All-Star Battle". In 2018, she participated in the reality show "Celebrity Big Brother".


title: Natalie Nunn

text: Nunn was born on December 26, 1984, in Concord, California to parents Karen and Earl Nunn. Nunn has one sibling, her brother Ronald Nunn. Nunn is of White and African American descent. She grew up in Pleasanton where her mother had taken two jobs to raise them. She attended Aragon High School in San Mateo. She also ran on her school's track team and competed in the 2002 Junior Olympics. She attended University of Southern California where she played a defender on the Trojans women's soccer team, making five appearances in 2004.


title: Natalie Nunn

text: Nunn rose to fame when she was cast on the fourth season of the "Bad Girls Club". The season premiered on December 1, 2009 to the highest number of viewers in Oxygen's history, at the time. Nunn was removed from the show in Episode 11, after a physical altercation with castmates Amber McWha, Lexie Woltz, and Kendra James during a trip to Santa Barbara, California. Her success on season 4 caused Oxygen to bring her back for future appearances on seasons 5 and 6 of the show.


title: Natalie Nunn

text: Nunn was a competitor on of the "Bad Girls Club" spinoff, "". This was hosted by former bad girl Tanisha Thomas. The season ran from April 18, 2011 to June 13, 2011. While on the show, Nunn and two other former bad girls competed in a series of challenges in order to find a guy to date. Nunn placed second on the show, losing to Lea Beaulieu from the fifth season. Nunn then made a cameo appearance on the of the series. The episode aired on January 16, 2012.


title: Natalie Nunn

text: In 2012, Nunn was featured on the Oxygen series "Tanisha Gets Married". She served as a Bridesmaid at her friend and former fellow Bad Girl Tanisha Thomas's wedding, along with Florina Kaja and Amber Meade. The series premiered on May 7, 2012, and the finale aired on July 2, 2012.


title: Natalie Nunn

text: Nunn's own wedding was also broadcast on television. She met her current husband, Arizona Rattlers Arena Football League player Jacob Payne, while making an appearance in Detroit, Michigan in September 2011. The couple started officially dating in October 2011. Payne proposed to Nunn while vacationing in Negril, Jamaica in April 2012. They were married on May 5, 2012. Their wedding was broadcast on the WE tv show "Bridezillas". Nunn was featured on season 9 and her story is shown over the last three episodes of the season. Nunn and Payne discussed their experiences on "Bridezillas", as well as details about their married life on "The Bill Cunningham Show".


title: Natalie Nunn

text: Nunn hosts a Filmon TV show known as "The Tea Party with Natalie Nunn", on which she holds interviews, discusses current events that are both domestic and worldwide, and talks about some of her own projects and experiences. The first episode of the show aired on June 22, 2012. The show's co-hosts are socialite Milyn "Mimi" Jensen from "Bad Girls Club" Season 11 and transgender activist Gizelle. It is broadcast in LA on channels 32 and 64 every Monday and Wednesday at 4pm PST. In December 2012, Nunn filmed another "Bad Girls Club" special with Season 8 cast member Camilla Poindexter. The special is titled "Making it to the Mansion, ATL", and shows Nunn and Poindexter providing commentary about the casting for "Bad Girls Club: Atlanta".


title: Natalie Nunn

text: "Making it to the Mansion, ATL" aired on January 8, 2013, at 8 P.M. Eastern Time, with commercial promotions being released January 2, 2013. The special was watched by approximately 596,000 viewers. Nunn filmed a "Top Ten OMGs" special for "Bad Girls Club" seasons six through ten with Camilla Poindexter. Nunn was cast to be on the new reality competition series "Bad Girls All-Star Battle" on Oxygen, which had a record-breaking 1.73 million viewers and made history for being Oxygen's highest rated television premiere series. She placed fifth in the competition. Nunn co-hosted "Making it to the Mansion, Miami", the casting special for "Bad Girls Club: Miami II", along with Poindexter. The special aired on August 6, 2013.


title: Natalie Nunn

text: Nunn has released a book titled "Turn Down For What" which was released on May 28, 2013. It is an autobiographical book and guide for women. In October 2013, Nunn went to Brazil to film the music video to "Na Atividade" by Bonde da Stronda. Nunn release her second book, a tell-all titled "Straight Like That" in November 2013. Adriane Schwartz of "Star" reviewed the book, saying, "Natalie Nunn definitely knows how to dish the dirt. This book will blow your expectations. It is a reminder that Natalie truly does run L.A.".


title: Natalie Nunn

text: In 2014, Nunn was cast on "". She was removed in episode 4, for starting a physical altercation with Raquel "Rocky" Santiago.


title: Natalie Nunn

text: Nunn participated in several WeTV shows, such as "Marriage Boot Camp", "Where Are They Now?". She also starred in Lifetime's reality show "Mother/Daughter Experiment" with her mother Karen Nunn. Nunn is also executive producing the Zeus originals Baddies and Bad Boys.


title: Natalie Nunn

text: Nunn dated Olamide Faison from 2003 to 2009. She was also romantically involved with many celebrities, including rapper Wiz Khalifa, Chris Brown, and Rihanna's younger brother, Rorrey Fenty.


title: Natalie Nunn

text: Nunn and Arizona Rattlers football player Jacob Payne announced their engagement on April 23, 2012. They were officially married in May 2012, and the marriage was aired on two episodes of "Bridezillas", on October 28 and November 4, 2012. Nunn revealed on November 12, 2014 that the couple were expecting their first child, in February 2015, she revealed that she had had a miscarriage. In late 2016, she announced that she was pregnant again. On April 26, 2017, she gave birth to a daughter.


title: Triumph the Insult Comic Dog

text: Triumph the Insult Comic Dog is a puppet character created, puppeteered and voiced by Robert Smigel. As his name indicates, Triumph's comedic style is almost exclusively insult comedy. A Montenegrin Mountain Hound, Triumph often puffs a cigar, which usually falls out of his mouth when he starts talking. He first appeared in 1997 on NBC's "Late Night with Conan O'Brien", and also appeared on "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien" from time to time, as well as the short-lived "TV Funhouse", TBS's "Conan", Adult Swim's "The Jack and Triumph Show", and "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert". Smigel and Triumph have been ejected from several events for Triumph's antics, including the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, the Honolulu line for auditions for "American Idol", and the 2004 Democratic National Convention (while shooting an aborted movie project).


title: Triumph the Insult Comic Dog

text: Triumph was created by Robert Smigel in 1997 for a segment on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" parodying the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, where Triumph appeared in a dog talent contest where his talent was telling bad jokes. Triumph speaks with a nebulous Eastern European accent, which Smigel based on his grandparents who were immigrants from Russia.


title: Triumph the Insult Comic Dog

text: Beginning in 1999, Triumph regularly crashed the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in New York, interacting with the real dogs and being ejected after humping several contestants. In 2000, Triumph "disguised" himself as "60 Minutes" reporter Ed Bradley in hopes of not being thrown out, but was again ejected, this time being humped himself by a Yorkshire terrier.


title: Triumph the Insult Comic Dog

text: In May 2002, Triumph paid a visit to "Star Wars" fans lining up for the premiere of "" outside the Ziegfeld Theater in New York, mocking their actions and stereotypical nerd culture. Notable moments include a wedding that took place at the line, and the appearances of Blackwolf the Dragonmaster, a real-life fantasy gaming fan and the "Unofficial Wizard of New York", and Spock who gave everyone the finger. Smigel has said "It's still the Triumph sketch I hear the most about and I'd say it's still the best. The simplest explanation is that it features the funniest straight men Triumph's ever encountered. So you're laughing not only at the jokes but the faces, the costumes and committment [sic]. There's so much to enjoy."


title: Triumph the Insult Comic Dog

text: In 2004, Triumph appeared as the guest star on the hit Adult Swim series "Space Ghost Coast to Coast" in the episode "Dreams". Triumph offhandedly mentions having anal sex with Lassie, which causes friction between Space Ghost and Moltar over such topics being brought up on television.


title: Triumph the Insult Comic Dog

text: In 2001 and 2002, Triumph appeared in the audience at the MTV Video Music Awards. In 2001, Triumph interviewed Carson Daly before spotting Jennifer Lopez and asking if he could sniff her butt.


title: Triumph the Insult Comic Dog

text: In 2002, Triumph interviewed Moby before spotting Eminem, who covered Triumph with his hand, saying "I already got my TV time". Triumph was then shoved away by Eminem's bodyguards. The following day, Triumph appeared on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien," and gave a press conference about the incident while wearing a neck brace. Triumph later appeared in Eminem's music video for "Ass Like That", and at the 2004 MTV Video Music Awards, Eminem began his performance by voicing a lookalike puppet.


title: Triumph the Insult Comic Dog

text: Triumph filmed a number of segments during the 2004 US presidential election cycle. In November 2003, in the early days of the 2004 U.S. presidential primary campaign, Triumph was the "lead guest" on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" the same night that Democratic candidate John Kerry also appeared on the show. Kerry made a dramatic entry, riding his Harley-Davidson motorcycle onto the stage; but Triumph, in characteristic style, poked fun at him with a series of scathingly rude remarks, to Kerry's evident discomfort. (Among his jibes: "The poop I made in the dressing room had more heat than John Kerry!")


title: Triumph the Insult Comic Dog

text: In July and August 2004, Triumph followed up with visits to both major parties' national conventions. During the Democratic National Convention in Boston (from which he was ejected), Triumph and Michael Moore attempted to crash Bill O'Reilly's set. O'Reilly, having his makeup applied at the time, shouted, "If I have to come out there, Insult Dog, you're gonna be talking a lot higher than you are now." He also gained entry to the Republican convention in New York, and even debated actor Ron Silver during the wrap-up on MSNBC.


title: Triumph the Insult Comic Dog

text: In September 2008, Triumph traveled to St. Paul, Minnesota to attend that year's Republican National Convention, where he filed a series of reports as he joked around with delegates inside the hall and protesters in the streets outside the convention. He also conducted a -minute interview (at a hotel across the street) with independent candidate Ralph Nader.


title: Triumph the Insult Comic Dog

text: In October 2008, Triumph made an appearance at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York during the final presidential debate between John McCain and Barack Obama. He interviewed and made jokes with political party supporters and with other members of the press, including the host of Fox News Channel's "On the Record with Greta Van Susteren", making a surprise appearance on her show with Mr. Met, the mascot of the New York Mets.


title: Triumph the Insult Comic Dog

text: Triumph was a main character in the short-lived Adult Swim series "The Jack and Triumph Show" with Jack McBrayer and June Squibb. It premiered on February 20, 2015, and lasted until April 3, 2015.


title: Triumph the Insult Comic Dog

text: In February 2016, Triumph starred in "Triumph's Election Special 2016", sponsored by Hulu and Funny or Die, traveling on the election trail. The program was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special. In November 2016, after the election of Donald Trump as president, Triumph appeared on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" to discuss Trump's victory. In November 2018, Triumph covered the Texas Senate campaign between Ted Cruz and Beto O'Rourke for "The Late Show". In February 2020, Triumph appeared on "The Late Show" to attempt to interview congresspeople during the first Trump impeachment trial. After holding up a sign behind Senator Lindsey Graham during a CNN interview, he was escorted out of the building before finishing the segment outside.


title: Triumph the Insult Comic Dog

text: In June 2022, Smigel and six staffers from "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" were arrested by the Capitol police for an alleged unlawful entry in the Longworth House Office Building while filming a segment with Triumph during the January 6 Attack hearings.


title: Triumph the Insult Comic Dog

text: In 1999, after Triumph accused Pets.com's sock puppet mascot of being a "rip-off" of Triumph on television shows, in print media, online, and in a letter, the company sent lawsuit threats and cease and desist letters to Smigel claiming "unfair competition, dilution and potentially tortious interference with contract in violation of federal and state laws" and the following year filed a lawsuit against "Late Night" and Smigel. The bankruptcy and closing of the company during the dot-com bust of 2000 ended the lawsuit. Triumph humped the Pets.com dog in a bathroom during a segment of "Late Night" as an act of revenge.


title: Triumph the Insult Comic Dog

text: Triumph's 2003 album, "Come Poop with Me", was released by Warner Bros. Records, and featured adult comedy and songs, plus a bonus DVD of live performances by Triumph. The album was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album. Appearing with Triumph on the album and the DVD were singer-actor Jack Black, comic actor Adam Sandler, "Saturday Night Live" cast members Maya Rudolph and Horatio Sanz; Blackwolf the Dragonmaster from the "Star Wars" skit; and Conan O'Brien. Notable songs include "I Keed", "Underage Bichon", "Lick Myself" and "Cats are C---s".


title: Triumph the Insult Comic Dog

text: On August 10, 2004, NBC released a DVD, "Late Night with Conan O'Brien: The Best of Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog" featuring select Triumph appearances from "Late Night".


title: Ones' complement

text: The ones' complement of a binary number is the value obtained by inverting all the bits in the binary representation of the number (swapping 0s and 1s). The name "ones' complement" ("note this is possessive of the plural "ones", not of a singular "one"") refers to the fact that such an inverted value, if added to the original, would always produce an 'all ones' number (the term "complement" refers to such pairs of mutually additive inverse numbers, here in respect to a non-0 base number). This mathematical operation is primarily of interest in computer science, where it has varying effects depending on how a specific computer represents numbers.


title: Ones' complement

text: A ones' complement system or ones' complement arithmetic is a system in which negative numbers are represented by the inverse of the binary representations of their corresponding positive numbers. In such a system, a number is negated (converted from positive to negative or vice versa) by computing its ones' complement. An N-bit ones' complement numeral system can only represent integers in the range −(2−1) to 2−1 while two's complement can express −2 to 2−1. It is one of three common representations for negative integers in binary computers, along with two's complement and sign-magnitude.


title: Ones' complement

text: The ones' complement binary numeral system is characterized by the bit complement of any integer value being the arithmetic negative of the value. That is, inverting all of the bits of a number (the logical complement) produces the same result as subtracting the value from 0.


title: Ones' complement

text: Many early computers, including the UNIVAC 1101, CDC 160, CDC 6600, the LINC, the PDP-1, and the UNIVAC 1107, used ones' complement arithmetic. Successors of the CDC 6600 continued to use ones' complement arithmetic until the late 1980s, and the descendants of the UNIVAC 1107 (the UNIVAC 1100/2200 series) still do, but the majority of modern computers use two's complement.


title: Ones' complement

text: Positive numbers are the same simple, binary system used by two's complement and sign-magnitude. Negative values are the bit complement of the corresponding positive value. The largest positive value is characterized by the sign (high-order) bit being off (0) and all other bits being on (1). The lowest negative value is characterized by the sign bit being 1, and all other bits being 0. The table below shows all possible values in a four-bit system, from −7 to +7.


title: Ones' complement

text: Adding two values is straightforward. Simply align the values on the least significant bit and add, propagating any carry to the bit one position left. If the carry extends past the end of the word it is said to have "wrapped around", a condition called an "end-around carry". When this occurs, the bit must be added back in at the right-most bit. This phenomenon does not occur in two's complement arithmetic.


title: Ones' complement

text: Subtraction is similar, except that borrows, rather than carries, are propagated to the left. If the borrow extends past the end of the word it is said to have "wrapped around", a condition called an "end-around borrow". When this occurs, the bit must be subtracted from the right-most bit. This phenomenon does not occur in two's complement arithmetic.


title: Ones' complement

text: It is easy to demonstrate that the bit complement of a positive value is the negative magnitude of the positive value. The computation of 19 + 3 produces the same result as 19 − (−3).


title: Ones' complement

text: Negative zero is the condition where all bits in a signed word are 1. This follows the ones' complement rules that a value is negative when the left-most bit is 1, and that a negative number is the bit complement of the number's magnitude. The value also behaves as zero when computing. Adding or subtracting negative zero to/from another value produces the original value.


title: Ones' complement

text: Negative zero is easily produced in a 1's complement adder. Simply add the positive and negative of the same magnitude.


title: Ones' complement

text: Although the math always produces the correct results, a side effect of negative zero is that software must test for negative zero.


title: Ones' complement

text: The generation of negative zero becomes a non-issue if addition is achieved with a complementing subtractor. The first operand is passed to the subtract unmodified, the second operand is complemented, and the subtraction generates the correct result, avoiding negative zero. The previous example added 22 and −22 and produced −0.


title: Ones' complement

text: Subtracting +0 is trivial (as shown above). If the second operand is negative zero it is inverted and the original value of the first operand is the result. Subtracting −0 is also trivial. The result can be only 1 of two cases. In case 1, operand 1 is −0 so the result is produced simply by subtracting 1 from 1 at every bit position. In case 2, the subtraction will generate a value that is 1 larger than operand 1 and an end-around borrow. Completing the borrow generates the same value as operand 1.


title: Ones' complement

text: This example shows that of the four possible conditions when adding only ±0, an adder will produce −0 in three of them. A complementing subtractor will produce −0 only when both operands are −0.


title: Early Quranic manuscripts

text: In Muslim tradition the Quran is the final revelation from God, Islam's divine text, delivered to the Islamic prophet Muhammad through the angel Jibril (Gabriel). Muhammad's revelations were said to have been recorded orally and in writing, through Muhammad and his followers up until his death in 632 CE. These revelations were then compiled by first caliph Abu Bakr and codified during the reign of the third caliph Uthman ( CE) so that the standard codex edition of the Quran or was completed around 650 CE, according to Muslim scholars. This has been critiqued by some western scholarship, suggesting the Quran was canonized at a later date, based on the dating of classical Islamic narratives, i.e. hadiths, which were written 150–200 years after the death of Muhammad, and partly because of the textual variations present in the Sana'a manuscript. With the discovery of earlier manuscripts which conform to the Uthmanic standard however, the revisionist view has fallen out of favor and been described as "untenable", with western scholarship generally supporting the classical Muslim view.


title: Early Quranic manuscripts

text: More than 60 fragments including more than 2000 folios (4000 pages) are so far known as the textual witnesses (manuscripts) of the Qur'an before 800 CE (within 168 years after the death of Muhammad), according to Corpus Coranicum. However, in 2015, experts from the University of Birmingham discovered the Birmingham Quran manuscript, which is possibly the oldest manuscript of the Quran in the world. Radiocarbon analysis to determine the age of the manuscript revealed that this manuscript could be traced back to between 6th or 7th century. Selected manuscripts from the first four centuries after the death of Muhammad (632–1032 CE) are listed below.


title: Early Quranic manuscripts

text: Hijazi manuscripts are some of the earliest forms of Quranic texts, and can be characterized by Hijazi script. Hijazi script is distinguished by its "informal, sloping Arabic script." The most widely used Qurans were written in the Hijazi style script, a style that originates before Kufic style script. This is portrayed by the rightward inclining of the tall shafts of the letters, and the vertical extension of the letters.


title: Early Quranic manuscripts

text: The so-called Codex Parisino-petropolitanus formerly conserved portions of two of the oldest extant Quranic manuscripts. Most surviving leaves represent a Quran that is preserved in various fragments, the largest part of which are kept in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, as BNF Arabe 328(ab). Forty-six leaves are held at the National Library of Russia and one each in the Vatican Library ("Vat. Ar. 1605/1") and in the Khalili Collection of Islamic Art.


title: Early Quranic manuscripts

text: BnF Arabe 328(c), formerly bound with BnF Arabe 328(ab), has 16 leaves, with two additional leaves discovered in Birmingham in 2015 (Mingana 1572a, bound with an unrelated Quranic manuscript).


title: Early Quranic manuscripts

text: BnF Arabe 328(c) was part of the lot of pages from the store of Quranic manuscripts at the Mosque of Amr ibn al-As in Fustat bought by French Orientalist Jean-Louis Asselin de Cherville (1772–1822) when he served as vice-consul in Cairo during 1806–1816.


title: Early Quranic manuscripts

text: The Birmingham folia cover part of the lacuna (gap) in the Paris portion, with parts of the text of suras 18, 19 and 20.


title: Early Quranic manuscripts

text: The Birmingham Quran manuscript parchment of two leaves (cataloged as Mingana 1572a) has been radiocarbon dated to between 568 and 645 CE with a confidence of 97.2%, indicating the animal from which the parchment was made lived during that time.


title: Early Quranic manuscripts

text: are written in ink on parchment, using an Arabic Hijazi script and are still clearly legible. The leaves are folio size (343 mm by 258 mm at the widest point), and are written on both sides in a generously scaled and legible script. The text is laid out in the format that was to become standard for complete Quran texts, with chapter divisions indicated by linear decoration, and verse endings by intertextual clustered dots.


title: Early Quranic manuscripts

text: The two leaves are held by the University of Birmingham, in the Cadbury Research Library, but have been recognized as corresponding to a lacuna in the 16 leaves catalogued as BnF Arabe 328(c) in the in Paris, now bound with the Codex Parisino-petropolitanus.


title: Early Quranic manuscripts

text: Marijn van Putten, who has published work on idiosyncratic orthography common to all early manuscripts of the Uthmanic text type has stated and demonstrated with examples that due to a number of these same idiosyncratic spellings present in the Birmingham fragment (Mingana 1572a + Arabe 328c), it is "clearly a descendant of the Uthmanic text type" and that it is "impossible" that it is a pre-Uthmanic copy, despite its early radiocarbon dating.


title: Early Quranic manuscripts

text: In November 2014, the University of Tübingen in Germany announced that a partial Quran manuscript in their possession (Ms M a VI 165), had been carbon dated (with a confidence of 94.8%), to between 649 and 675. The manuscript is now recognised as being written in hijazi script, although in the 1930 catalogue of the collection it is classified as "Kufic", and consists of the Quranic verses 17:36, to 36:57 (and part of verse 17:35).


title: Early Quranic manuscripts

text: The Sana'a manuscript, is one of the oldest Quranic manuscripts in existence. It contains only three chapters. It was found, along with many other Quranic and non-Quranic fragments, in Yemen in 1972 during restoration of the Great Mosque of Sana'a. The manuscript is written on parchment, and comprises two layers of text (see palimpsest). The upper text conforms to the standard 'Uthmanic Quran, whereas the lower text contains many variants to the standard text. An edition of the lower text was published in 2012. A radiocarbon analysis has dated the parchment containing the lower text to before 671 AD with a 99% accuracy.


title: Early Quranic manuscripts

text: This manuscript was acquired by University of Cambridge from Edward H. Palmer (1840-1882) and EE Tyrwhitt Drake. It was created before 800CE according to Corpus Coranicum.


title: Early Quranic manuscripts

text: British Library MS. Or. 2165 Early Qur'anic manuscript written in Ma'il script, 7th or 8th century CE.


title: Early Quranic manuscripts

text: The term "Codex Mashhad" refers to an old codex of the Qurʾān, now mostly preserved in two manuscripts, MSS 18 and 4116, in the Āstān-i Quds Library, Mashhad, Iran. The first manuscript in 122 folios and the second in 129 folios together constitute more than 90% of the text of the Qurʾān, and it is also likely that other fragments will be found in Mashhad or elsewhere in the world. The current Codex is in two separate volumes, MSS 18 and 4116. The former contains the first half of the Qurʾān, from the beginning to the end of the 18th sūra, "al-Kahf", while the latter comprises the second half, from the middle of the 20th sūra, "Ṭāhā", to the end of the Qurʾān. In their present form, both parts of "Codex Mashhad" have been repaired, partially completed with pieces from later Kufic Qurʾāns and sometimes in a present-day "nashkī" hand.


title: Early Quranic manuscripts

text: "Codex Mashhad" has almost all the elements and features of the oldest known Qurʾānic codices. The dual volumes of the main body, written in "ḥijāzī" or "māʾil" script, are the only "ḥijāzī" manuscripts in vertical format in Iran. Like all ancient "ḥijāzī" codices, "Codex Mashhad" contains variant readings, regional differences of Qurʾānic codices, orthographic peculiarities, and copyists’ errors, partly corrected by later hands. The script and orthography of the Codex show instances of archaic and not-yet-completely-recognized rules, manifested in various spelling peculiarities. Illumination and ornamentation are not found even in sūra-headbands; rather, some crude sūra dividers have been added later and are found only on adjoining sections.


title: Early Quranic manuscripts

text: It is also important to note the script in this manuscript is similar to "Codex M a VI 165" at Tübingen (Germany), "Codex Arabe 331" at the Bibliothèque Nationale (Paris), and "Kodex Wetzstein II 1913" at Staatsbibliothek (Berlin). The combined radiocarbon dating of these manuscripts points firmly to the 1st century of "hijra".


title: Early Quranic manuscripts

text: Kufic manuscripts can be characterized by the Kufic form of calligraphy. Kufic calligraphy, which was later named after art historians in the 19th or 20th century is described by means of precise upstanding letters. For a long time, the Blue Qur'an, the Topkapi manuscript, and the Samarkand Kufic Quran were considered the oldest Quran copies in existence. Both codices are more or less complete. They are written in the Kufic script. It "can generally be dated from the late eighth century depending on the extent of development in the character of the script in each case."


title: Early Quranic manuscripts

text: The Blue Qur'an (Arabic: المصحف الأزرق "al-Muṣḥaf al-′Azraq") is a late 9th to early 10th-century Tunisian Qur'an manuscript in Kufic calligraphy, probably created in North Africa for the Great Mosque of Kairouan. It is among the most famous works of Islamic calligraphy, and has been called "one of the most extraordinary luxury manuscripts ever created." Because the manuscript was done in Kufic style writing, it is quite hard to read. "The letters have been manipulated to make each line the same length, and the marks necessary to distinguish between letters have been omitted." The Blue Quran is constructed of indigo-dyed parchment with the inscriptions done in gold ink, which makes it one of the rarest Quran productions ever known. The use of dyed parchment and gold ink is said to have been inspired by the Christian Byzantine Empire, due to the fact that many manuscripts were produced in the same way there. Each verse is separated by circular silver marks, although they are now harder to see due to fading and oxidization.


title: Early Quranic manuscripts

text: The Topkapi manuscript is an early manuscript of the Quran dated to the early 8th century. It is kept in the Topkapi Palace Museum, Istanbul, Turkey. Originally attributed to Uthman Ibn Affan (d. 656), but because of its illumination, it is now thought the manuscript could not date from the period (mid 7th century) when the copies of the Caliph Uthman were written.


title: Early Quranic manuscripts

text: The Samarkand Kufic Quran, preserved at Tashkent, is a Kufic manuscript, in Uzbek tradition identified as one of Uthman's manuscripts, but dated to the 8th or 9th century by both paleographic studies and carbon-dating of the parchment. Radio-carbon dating showed a 95.4% probability of a date between 795 and 855.


title: Early Quranic manuscripts

text: Gilchrist's dating of any Kufic manuscript to the later 8th century has been criticized by other scholars, who have cited many earlier instances of early Kufic and pre-Kufic inscriptions. The most important of these are the Quranic inscriptions in Kufic script from the founding of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem (692).


title: Early Quranic manuscripts

text: Inscriptions on rock Hijazi and early Kufic script may date as early as 646. The debate between the scholars has moved from one over the date origin of the script to one over the state of development of the Kufic script in the early manuscripts and in datable 7th-century inscriptions.


title: Early Quranic manuscripts

text: This almost complete Quranic manuscript was photographed by Otto Pretzl in 1934 in Morocco. In recent years, a few folios from the manuscripts have been sold by private companies and were dated to the 9th century or earlier by Christie's.


title: Early Quranic manuscripts

text: The Ma'il Quran is an 8th-century Quran (between 700 and 799 CE) originating from the Arabian peninsula. It contains two-thirds of the Qur'ān text and is one of the oldest Qur'āns in the world. It was purchased by the British Museum in 1879 from the Reverend Greville John Chester and is now kept in the British Library.


title: Early Quranic manuscripts

text: The dating and text of early manuscripts of the Qur'an have been used as evidence in support of the traditional Islamic views and by sceptics to cast doubt on it. The high number of manuscripts and fragments present from the first 100 years after the reported canonization have made the text one ripe for academic discussion. Founder of the revisionist Islamic studies movement in the mid 20th century, John Wansbrough, used the content in the Qur'an as a reference point for ascertaining that it was likely influenced by the Umayyad court, and believed its cannon to have likely happened around the same time as that of the Islamic Hadith movement. Although never the dominant academic view, with the advent of radiocarbon dating, the view is currently held only by a few scholars. The more recently uncovered Birmingham Quran manuscript holds significance amongst scholarship because of its early dating and potential overlap with the lifetime of Muhammad to 632 CE, (the proposed radiocarbon dating gives a 95.4% confidence that the animal whose skin made the manuscript parchment was killed sometime between calendar years 568–645 CE). The text's identitcal reflection of the contemporary standard text of the Quran has generally lent credence to early Muslim narratives and provided a retort for historic criticisms levied at the text. Emilio Platti, Professor Emeritus at the Catholic University of Leuven, for example holds that "scholars largely refuse today the late dating of the earliest copies of the Qurʾān proposed for example by John Wansbrough". David Thomas, professor of Christianity and Islam at the University of Birmingham, states that "the parts of the Qur’an that are written on this parchment can, with a degree of confidence, be dated to less than two decades after Muhammad’s death."


title: Early Quranic manuscripts

text: Joseph Lumbard also claims that the dating renders "the vast majority of Western revisionist theories regarding the historical origins of the Quran untenable," and quotes a number of scholars (Harald Motzki, Nicolai Sinai) in support of "a growing body of evidence that the early Islamic sources, as Carl Ernst observes, 'still provide a more compelling framework for understanding the Qurʾan than any alternative yet proposed.'"


title: Early Quranic manuscripts

text: Behnam Sadeghi and Uwe Bergmann write that the Sana'a manuscript is unique among extant early Quranic manuscripts, "the only known manuscript" that "does not belong to the 'Uṯmānic textual tradition". Those Hijazi manuscript fragments belonging to the "'Uṯmānic textual tradition" and dated by radio-carbon to the first Islamic century are not identical. They fall "into a small number of regional families (identified by variants in their rasm, or consonantal text), and each moreover contains non-canonical variants in dotting and lettering that can often be traced back to those reported of the Companions"


title: Early Quranic manuscripts

text: Michael Cook and Marijn van Putten have provided evidence that the regional variants of the early Hijazi manuscript fragments share a "stem" and thus likely "descend from a single archetype", (that being Uthmanic codex in traditional Islamic history).


title: Early Quranic manuscripts

text: Prior to the dating of earlier text, a controversial anonymous writer described as "antiquranian" Ibn Warraq argued that "the sheer number" of variants in the orthography in early Quranic manuscripts "dated as early as 715 A.D. seem to cast doubt on the traditional account of the compilation of the Koran". The similarly aged Sana'a manuscript fragments (95% probability of parchment being produced between 578 CE and 669 CE) had 5000+ deviations in their "rasm", "seem to suggest that even in the 8th century A.D., there was no definitive text of the Koran" according to Ibn Warraq. Lumbard, on the other hand, states that "all" the Sana'a "variations had already been and recorded in the Islamic historiographical tradition". Ibn Warraq to conclude, "there are indeed some leaves, folios and Koranic inscriptions that have been dated to the Eighth Century C.E. or earlier but no complete Korans that can be dated with confidence to earlier than the Ninth Century".


title: Sons of Silence

text: Sons of Silence Motorcycle Club (SOSMC) is a one-percenter motorcycle club that was founded in Niwot, Colorado in the United States in 1966.


title: Sons of Silence

text: The Sons of Silence Motorcycle Club was founded in Niwot, Colorado in 1966 by Bruce Gale "The Dude" Richardson (August 22, 1939 – March 26, 2013) who was living in Longmont, Colorado after serving in the U.S. Navy from July 1958 to February 1960. The Sons of Silence's national headquarters were later moved to Colorado Springs. Another influential figure in the club's history is Leonard Lloyd "JR" Reed, Jr. Also a navy veteran who served from 1965 until 1969, Reed succeeded Richardson as the Sons of Silence's national president in 1977 and held the position for twenty-two years. In the 1990s, Reed and Richard Lester, an attorney and motorcyclist, formed the Colorado Confederation of Clubs, which improved communication between motorcycle clubs and provided a means to avoid conflict.


title: Sons of Silence

text: The first chapter outside Colorado was the Iowa chapter which was founded in 1968, and an alliance with the Hells Angels enabled the Sons of Silence to further expand. There are now American chapters in Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming. The first international chapter was founded in Munich, Germany in 1998. In 2001, more German chapters were founded in Freising, Gangkofen and Nurnberg. Branches in Viernheim, Erding and Pfarrkirchen were established in 2007, 2010 and 2016, respectively.


title: Sons of Silence

text: The Sons of Silence's logo – an American eagle superimposed over the letter "A" – is similar to, and taken from, the Anheuser-Busch logo. The club's motto is ""donec mors non separat "", Latin for "Death does not separate us". The logo is a patch that is sewn on the back of each full member's vests (known as colors), along with assorted other badges.


title: Sons of Silence

text: Motorcycle riders, including those in the Sons of Silence, wear clothing specifically for the practical purposes of riding a motorcycle. The raggedy and beat up look motorcycle riders typically sport is a product of riding a motorcycle at a high speed (such as on the interstate of highway) and the resulting dust and dirt that is bound to hit any rider exposed to the elements while flying down the highway. The long beards are not only a style choice. Facial hair helps protect riders from sunburn during long rides while exposed to the elements. The leather pants and jacket is a result of leather providing the best material protection from debris that may hit riders and protection from any falls from their motorcycle. The boots serve a similar purpose as the leather by providing more protection from debris and damage from pavement in the event of the crash, but are also of historical significance for all motorcycle riders (including riders not affiliated with outlaw motorcycle gangs). Older bikes require a forceful kick to startup which is made easier by the thick boot (rather than sandals or tennis shoes). Similar to how the military has utility uniforms (“cammies”) that are made for work, motorcycle riders dress for the dangers of riding. The rugged “uniforms” stem from the necessity of protecting motorcycle riders from the dangers of riding a motorcycle.


title: Sons of Silence

text: Sons of Silence members must be at least twenty-one years old and own a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. Members pledge oaths of loyalty and secrecy. Membership of the club has been estimated at between 250 and 500.


title: Sons of Silence

text: The Sons of Silence are designated an outlaw motorcycle gang by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), and at one point were considered one of the "big five" motorcycle gangs along with the Bandidos, Hells Angels, Outlaws and Pagans. Members have been implicated in numerous criminal activities, including murder, assault, drug trafficking, intimidation, extortion, prostitution operations, money laundering, weapons trafficking, and motorcycle and motorcycle parts theft. The Sons of Silence are allied with the Hells Angels and Iron Horsemen, and are rivals of the Outlaws.


title: Sons of Silence

text: Six members – Scott Bennigsdorf, John Barnard, Bobby Mann, Art Miller, Mark Wagar, and national president Bruce Richardson – were charged with assault with a deadly weapon and jailed for their involvement in a bar brawl in Colorado Springs on March 5, 1972. The brawl involved a total of twenty-two participants and was the result of a power struggle between the Sons of Silence and two other motorcycle clubs, the Dead Men and a group known as Philtown. Some of the Sons of Silence members arrested were involved in an alleged conspiracy to kill police and kidnap the children of police officers earlier that year.


title: Sons of Silence

text: Sons of Silence member Brian Karl Young was convicted of criminally negligent homicide in the death of a sixteen-year-old girl who was killed when Young accidentally discharged a .22 caliber Ruger rifle that he had been making alterations to at the Sons of Silence clubhouse in Commerce City on October 3, 1982.


title: Sons of Silence

text: Six members of the Sons of Silence – Jack E. Houser, Jr., James Dean "Jimmy" Jahnke, Jerald W. Richardson, Larry Lee Richardson, Dennis Raymond Swingler and Ralph W. Vicory – were convicted of conspiracy to manufacture and distribute methamphetamine after Houser, Jahnke, Swingler and Vicory were arrested on I-80 in Wyoming while transporting thirty-six pounds of the drug as well as a mobile drug lab obtained from Cecelia Martinez – wife of the imprisoned Barhoppers Motorcycle Club president Glen Gary – in Modesto, California on January 23, 1983 to Denver. The convictions followed an FBI investigation into the Colorado Sons of Silence which commenced in September 1981 and was aided by FBI informant Beth Fisher, the divorced wife of club member Robert Fisher.


title: Sons of Silence

text: A Sons of Silence member was charged with the murder of a member of the Diablos Lobos gang who was killed in an Aurora bar amidst a turf war involving the groups in 1983.


title: Sons of Silence

text: Sons of Silence member Paul Robert "P.K." Klein was shot and killed by Eugene Herbert Baylis at Jim and I's Star Bar in Colorado Springs, where Klein was the bar manager, on April 17, 1993. Bar patron Steven Fairfax was also killed and five others were wounded. Baylis, who was armed with an AK-47 assault rifle and four hand grenades, only stopped his shooting spree after he was shot and wounded by a police officer. Baylis claimed that Klein had shot him with a pellet gun earlier that day and that he had gone to the bar to detain him until police had arrived. He was acquitted of murder and other charges in 1995 after his attorneys argued that he fired in self-defense. Baylis would later be sentenced to three years in prison on federal weapons charges, and was killed in a shootout with Bureau of Land Management (BLM) officers in May 2018. The shootout at Jim and I's was the subject of "The Outlaw", episode 10 of season 6 of the Investigation Discovery documentary series "Homicide Hunter".


title: Sons of Silence

text: Sons of Silence president Leonard Ray Shipley was arrested by Colorado Springs police following an undercover operation in August 1993. Shipley was convicted in April 1995 of distribution and possession of methamphetamine, possession of a grenade simulator and being a special offender for having both a deadly weapon and illegal drugs, and he was later sentenced to twenty-four years in prison.


title: Sons of Silence

text: On October 9, 1999, thirty-seven Sons of Silence members were arrested on drug trafficking and illegal weapons charges after one of Colorado's largest federal undercover operations. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) raided a number of homes and properties in Colorado Springs, Commerce City and Fort Collins, and seized twenty pounds of methamphetamine, thirty-five guns, four hand grenades, two suppressors, cash and motorcycles. The investigation began in 1997 and involved two undercover agents infiltrating the club. Among those arrested were the club's national president Leonard Reed and vice-president Steven Kressin. The club was featured in a 2009 episode of "Gangland", which included interviews with one of the undercover agents who infiltrated the club.


title: Sons of Silence

text: Two men – Stanley B. Glade and Justin W. Jeske – were arrested after assaulting and robbing a Sons of Silence member at his home in Longmont on April 17, 2012. Glade and Jeske are allegedly former club members who were expelled.


title: Sons of Silence

text: The Sons of Silence's push into Indianapolis in the 1970s was spearheaded by Michael "Righteous Mike" Ramsey, a former Outlaws member who went on to serve as the Sons of Silence's national president. The club's presence in Indianapolis prompted friction with the Outlaws and, after a period of infrequent fighting in which members of the rival clubs would try to physically take the colors from opposing bikers, a war erupted following the July 1978 near-fatal stabbing of Outlaws member Dale "Dummy" Larque during a bar fight. The conflict lasted until the early 1980s and resulted in a number of murders, including those of two girlfriends of Sons of Silence members. Outlaws national vice-president Thomas Walter "Satan" Reeves was shot dead with an automatic rifle at the club's Indianapolis chapter headquarters on March 5, 1980. Authorities suspect Sons of Silence Indianapolis vice-president Steven Wayne "Crescent Wrench" Kressin of the murder. Lisa J. Reimer, the girlfriend of a Sons of Silence member, was shot in the back of the head and killed during a shootout on an entry ramp to the I-465 while riding as a passenger on a motorcycle on October 4, 1980. The murder remains unsolved, although police theorized that the shooting was caused by an Outlaws ambush and that the intended target was Daryl W. "Wino" Sturges, president of the Indianapolis Sons of Silence chapter from June 1978 to October 1980. Sturges' girlfriend, Lynda C. Massingale Rice, was stabbed to death on December 31, 1980. On November 15, 1981, Outlaws member John "Big Jack" Slater was left paralyzed after being shot with a .38 caliber pistol by Sons of Silence member Eric "Doc" Lewandowski outside the Sons' clubhouse. Slater was then bundled into a van and killed with a 12-gauge shotgun by another Sons of Silence member, Hendrick "Savage" Jansen. Lewandowski was convicted of voluntary manslaughter, while Jansen was acquitted as he testified that he believed Slater was already dead when he shot him. Bruce Birk Eastman was killed with a shotgun as he answered the door of the Sons of Silence Indianapolis clubhouse on 30 May 1984.


title: Sons of Silence

text: On February 24, 1991, a large group of Outlaws were attacked by several members of the Sons of Silence at a motorcycle swap meet at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis. Shots were fired, three people were wounded, and two Sons of Silence members were arrested. Twelve guns and numerous knives were seized by police.


title: Sons of Silence

text: Members and associates of the Indianapolis and Terre Haute chapters of the Sons of Silence were indicted in October 2011 following an FBI investigation into the club's activities known as "Operation Saw Mill". Twelve people were convicted for participating in a methamphetamine ring that operated from approximately May 2010 until the arrests of most of the members of the organization on August 6, 2011. Phillip Mannebach, a member of the Terre Haute chapter, was also convicted of orchestrating the abduction of his stepson which was carried out with the help of club hangarounds. The victim of the abduction had stolen approximately $5,000 in currency from Mannebach, who was sentenced to life in prison on April 8, 2013.


title: Sons of Silence

text: Sons of Silence members had a conflict with members of the Iron Order Motorcycle Club in a business parking lot in Crawfordsville on April 27, 2014. Firearms, knives and bats were used, and injuries were reported.


title: Sons of Silence

text: Sons of Silence enforcer Ronald Merrill "Bad Ron" Gruber was sentenced to thirty-five years in prison for rape and assault in Black Hawk County in October 1977. While in Iowa State Penitentiary, he and another inmate were sued by two guards whom they assaulted. After being released, Gruber was one of a number of club members convicted on a 1994 federal racketeering charge. As a prisoner at FCI Greenville in Illinois in August 1996, Gruber was charged with the shotgun murder of Penny Jean Sternquist Weitzel, who was killed in Boone on November 30, 1984. In May 1997, Gruber pled guilty to second degree murder in her death and was sentenced to fifty years in prison. He was paroled in 2012.


title: Sons of Silence

text: Sons of Silence member Clark Joseph Cook was convicted of possession of methamphetamine after he was found to be carrying a bag of the drug during a traffic stop by the Iowa State Patrol on September 5, 1993.


title: Sons of Silence

text: Fourteen members or former members were indicted in Cedar Rapids in November 1994, charged with racketeering, money laundering, conspiracy and committing violence in aid of racketeering. Twelve were immediately arrested and eventually pleaded guilty or were convicted. Two others, Jeffrey Paul "No Mind" Gruber and Robert "Bronc" McAlister, remained fugitives until being apprehended in Washington state in July 1996. David Fairchild, who was one of the twelve convicted in 1995 and who received a twenty-five year prison sentence, began to cooperate with the government after his conviction and testified against Cedar Falls/Waterloo chapter "de facto" leader and national vice-president Gruber, who was sentenced to life in prison.


title: Sons of Silence

text: Six members of the Boone Sons of Silence chapter – Russell John Schoenauer, Robert Lee "Skunk" Norman, Gary Lee Walker, Daniel Lee Burns, Barry Craig Scarcello and Steven Lowell Henry – were arrested by the ATF on April 4, 2001 on the charges of trafficking cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamine, as well as firearms, throughout the state of Iowa. Two others, Pelayo Jose "Tattoo Joe" Cuervo and William John Furlong, were also later apprehended. Cuervo, Norman and Schoenauer – the Sons of Silence's national treasurer – were convicted of numerous narcotics and firearms offenses related to a conspiracy to distribute controlled substances that lasted from 1978 through 2001. Norman was sentenced to twenty-nine years' imprisonment, Cuervo was sentenced to twenty-two years' and Schoenauer was sentenced to seventeen years'.


title: Sons of Silence

text: Justin Carlson, age 38, from Sheffield, Iowa, who was the enforcer for the Northern Iowa Chapter of the Sons of Silence Motorcycle Club was sentenced to 10 months in federal prison. He received the prison term after a March 19, 2021 guilty plea to one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm.


title: Sons of Silence

text: In the guilty plea and sentencing proceedings, Carlson admitted that on April 5, 2020, Carlson, a convicted felon, and other members of the Sons of Silence and another affiliated group confronted a motorcyclist, who was an off-duty police officer, claiming the officer needed permission from the Sons of Silence to wear one of the patches on the back of the motorcyclist’s jacket. In a subsequent search of Carlson’s home in Sheffield, Iowa, officers recovered Carlson’s Sons of Silence motorcycle vest, which had a brass knuckles in the pocket, numerous items of Sons of Silence paraphernalia, and two firearms.


title: Sons of Silence

text: Milton Charles "Barbwire" Wilson, the president of the Sons of Silence's Kansas City chapter, was charged in May 2014 with transporting a minor across state lines for prostitution, along with Kayla "Foxy" Pinkerton. Wilson transported Pinkerton and the victim to various locations in Missouri and Kansas in December 2013. Both plead guilty to the crime on April 1, 2015. In September 2015, Wilson was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment and Pinkerton was sentenced to sixteen months'.


title: Sons of Silence

text: In August 1984, Sons of Silence founder Bruce "The Dude" Richardson was sentenced to six years in prison after pleading guilty to hiring Robert Leslie Konitski to organize the May 1984 abduction of Dr. Michael Roark from a Buffalo hotel. It was claimed that Roark owed Richardson's wife, Patricia Stranahan, approximately $260,000 after a failed business venture and that the abduction was an attempt to retrieve some of this money after court proceedings to recover the funds had failed. As well as Stranahan, three others are sentenced in connection with the abduction, Michael Rattley, Robert Jordan and Ariel Falcon.


title: Sons of Silence

text: The Sons of Silence are alleged to have ordered the murder of Williston rancher Jack Sjol who went missing in April 2013 and whose body was found in rural Williams County the following month. Ryan Lee Stensaker was convicted of Sjol's murder on December 17, 2014 and was sentenced to life in prison.


title: Sons of Silence

text: Billy Joe Herman, an enforcer for the Sons of Silence but not a member of the club, pleaded guilty in April 2019 to the October 12, 2015 murder of Amanda Stach Engst, who was killed on the Spirit Lake reservation. Herman strangled Engst and put her in the trunk of her car with the help of Crystal Johnson, his then wife. After beating Engst with a shovel, he dumped her tarp-wrapped body, which was tied to cinder blocks, into the Sheyenne River. Her body was found on February 4, 2016. Herman was sentenced to life in prison for Engst's murder, and Johnson was sentenced to twenty years in prison for her part as an accomplice.


title: Sons of Silence

text: A fire at a home in Fargo on October 31, 2019 was connected to a feud between the Sons of Silence and Hells Angels, according to law enforcement.


title: Sons of Silence

text: A Sons of Silence member shot an Outlaws member in a bar fight in which two other Sons of Silence bikers were stabbed in Sturgis in August 1990.


title: Sons of Silence

text: While travelling to an annual motorcycle rally in Sturgis, South Dakota on August 5, 1997, seven Sons of Silence and Iron Horsemen members were stopped by South Dakota Highway Patrol troopers as they travelled north on I-29 after police received reports of a group of motorcyclists running a car off the road. A subsequent search of the bikers and their motorcycles uncovered cocaine, marijuana, methamphetamine and loaded pistols. Ralph W. Durke and Heather Cook, a passenger on Durke's motorcycle, were charged with possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine and cocaine, and concealment of a weapon with intent to commit a felony, while Steven Taylor was charged with possession of methamphetamine.


title: Sons of Silence

text: Sons of Silence members Cory Rutherford, Matthew James Wedgewood and Nicholas B. Hanson pleaded guilty to charges stemming from an incident at a bar in Rock Springs in which they beat and robbed Bradley Chrisman, a member of the rival Bad 7 motorcycle club, of his colors on April 10, 2017. The trio received suspended prison sentences in October 2017.


title: Hermann von Helmholtz

text: Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz (31 August 1821 – 8 September 1894) was a German physicist and physician who made significant contributions in several scientific fields, particularly hydrodynamic stability. The Helmholtz Association, the largest German association of research institutions, is named in his honor.


title: Hermann von Helmholtz

text: In the fields of physiology and psychology, Helmholtz is known for his mathematics concerning the eye, theories of vision, ideas on the visual perception of space, color vision research, the sensation of tone, perceptions of sound, and empiricism in the physiology of perception. In physics, he is known for his theories on the conservation of energy, work in electrodynamics, chemical thermodynamics, and on a mechanical foundation of thermodynamics. As a philosopher, he is known for his philosophy of science, ideas on the relation between the laws of perception and the laws of nature, the science of aesthetics, and ideas on the civilizing power of science.


title: Hermann von Helmholtz

text: Helmholtz was born in Potsdam the son of the local gymnasium headmaster, Ferdinand Helmholtz, who had studied classical philology and philosophy, and who was a close friend of the publisher and philosopher Immanuel Hermann Fichte. Helmholtz's work was influenced by the philosophy of Johann Gottlieb Fichte and Immanuel Kant. He tried to trace their theories in empirical matters like physiology.


title: Hermann von Helmholtz

text: As a young man, Helmholtz was interested in natural science, but his father wanted him to study medicine. Helmholtz earned a medical doctorate at in 1842 and served a one-year internship at the Charité hospital (because there was financial support for medical students).


title: Hermann von Helmholtz

text: Trained primarily in physiology, Helmholtz wrote on many other topics, ranging from theoretical physics, to the age of the Earth, to the origin of the Solar System.


title: Hermann von Helmholtz

text: Helmholtz's first academic position was as a teacher of Anatomy at the Academy of Arts in Berlin in 1848. He then moved to take a post of associate professor of physiology at the Prussian University of Königsberg, where he was appointed in 1849. In 1855 he accepted a full professorship of anatomy and physiology at the University of Bonn. He was not particularly happy in Bonn, however, and three years later he transferred to the University of Heidelberg, in Baden, where he served as professor of physiology. In 1871 he accepted his final university position, as professor of physics at the Humboldt University in Berlin.


title: Hermann von Helmholtz

text: His first important scientific achievement, an 1847 treatise on the conservation of energy, was written in the context of his medical studies and philosophical background. His work on energy conservation came about while studying muscle metabolism. He tried to demonstrate that no energy is lost in muscle movement, motivated by the implication that there were no "vital forces" necessary to move a muscle. This was a rejection of the speculative tradition of "Naturphilosophie" which was at that time a dominant philosophical paradigm in German physiology.


title: Hermann von Helmholtz

text: Drawing on the earlier work of Sadi Carnot, Benoît Paul Émile Clapeyron and James Prescott Joule, he postulated a relationship between mechanics, heat, light, electricity and magnetism by treating them all as manifestations of a single "force", or energy in today's terminology. He published his theories in his book "Über die Erhaltung der Kraft" ("On the Conservation of Force", 1847).


title: Hermann von Helmholtz

text: In the 1850s and 60s, building on the publications of William Thomson, Helmholtz and William Rankine popularized the idea of the heat death of the universe.


title: Hermann von Helmholtz

text: In fluid dynamics, Helmholtz made several contributions, including Helmholtz's theorems for vortex dynamics in inviscid fluids.


title: Hermann von Helmholtz

text: Helmholtz was a pioneer in the scientific study of human vision and audition. Inspired by psychophysics, he was interested in the relationships between measurable physical stimuli and their correspondent human perceptions. For example, the amplitude of a sound wave can be varied, causing the sound to appear louder or softer, but a linear step in sound pressure amplitude does not result in a linear step in perceived loudness. The physical sound needs to be increased exponentially in order for equal steps to seem linear, a fact that is used in current electronic devices to control volume. Helmholtz paved the way in experimental studies on the relationship between the physical energy (physics) and its appreciation (psychology), with the goal in mind to develop "psychophysical laws."


title: Hermann von Helmholtz

text: The sensory physiology of Helmholtz was the basis of the work of Wilhelm Wundt, a student of Helmholtz, who is considered one of the founders of experimental psychology. More explicitly than Helmholtz, Wundt described his research as a form of empirical philosophy and as a study of the mind as something separate. Helmholtz had, in his early repudiation of Naturphilosophie, stressed the importance of materialism, and was focusing more on the unity of "mind" and body.


title: Hermann von Helmholtz

text: In 1851, Helmholtz revolutionized the field of ophthalmology with the invention of the ophthalmoscope; an instrument used to examine the inside of the human eye. This made him world-famous overnight. Helmholtz's interests at that time were increasingly focused on the physiology of the senses. His main publication, titled "Handbuch der Physiologischen Optik" ("Handbook of Physiological Optics" or "Treatise on Physiological Optics"; English translation of the 3rd volume here), provided empirical theories on depth perception, color vision, and motion perception, and became the fundamental reference work in his field during the second half of the nineteenth century. In the third and final volume, published in 1867, Helmholtz described the importance of unconscious inferences for perception. The "Handbuch" was first translated into English under the editorship of James P. C. Southall on behalf of the Optical Society of America in 1924–5. His theory of accommodation went unchallenged until the final decade of the 20th century.


title: Hermann von Helmholtz

text: Helmholtz continued to work for several decades on several editions of the handbook, frequently updating his work because of his dispute with Ewald Hering who held opposite views on spatial and color vision. This dispute divided the discipline of physiology during the second half of the 1800s.


title: Hermann von Helmholtz

text: In 1849, while at Königsberg, Helmholtz measured the speed at which the signal is carried along a nerve fibre. At that time most people believed that nerve signals passed along nerves immeasurably fast. He used a recently dissected sciatic nerve of a frog and the calf muscle to which it attached. He used a galvanometer as a sensitive timing device, attaching a mirror to the needle to reflect a light beam across the room to a scale which gave much greater sensitivity. Helmholtz reported transmission speeds in the range of 24.6 – 38.4 meters per second.


title: Hermann von Helmholtz

text: In 1863, Helmholtz published "Sensations of Tone", once again demonstrating his interest in the physics of perception. This book influenced musicologists into the twentieth century. Helmholtz invented the Helmholtz resonator to identify the various frequencies or pitches of the pure sine wave components of complex sounds containing multiple tones.


title: Hermann von Helmholtz

text: Helmholtz showed that different combinations of resonator could mimic vowel sounds: Alexander Graham Bell in particular was interested in this but, not being able to read German, misconstrued Helmholtz' diagrams as meaning that Helmholtz had transmitted multiple frequencies by wire—which would allow multiplexing of telegraph signals—whereas, in reality, electrical power was used only to keep the resonators in motion. Bell failed to reproduce what he thought Helmholtz had done but later said that, had he been able to read German, he would not have gone on to invent the telephone on the harmonic telegraph principle.


title: Hermann von Helmholtz

text: The translation by Alexander J. Ellis was first published in 1875 (the first English edition was from the 1870 third German edition; Ellis's second English edition from the 1877 fourth German edition was published in 1885; the 1895 and 1912 third and fourth English editions were reprints of the second).