Striking teachers must be lashed: Saudi scholar

A senior Saudi Muslim scholar has called for jailing and lashing school teachers who stage strikes and stop their work, a local newspaper reported Thursday.

Sheikh Saleh Al Lahidan, a member of the Gulf Kingdom’s Supreme Muslim Scholars Panel, said teachers who go on strike must be immediately referred to the legal authorities for punitive measures prescribed under Islamic law, in a reference to imprisonment and lashing.

“They must be punished because a worker who signs a job contract with an employer must respect that contract and comply with its terms,” he said, according to the Arabic language daily Anbakum.

“These terms include adherence to work hours, good performance and commitment to discipline ethically and professionally.”

The paper said Lahidan was reacting to a recent strike by school teachers in the western town of Taif to protest the cancellation of a two-day holiday for them. The paper quoted an education department official as saying severe measures would be taken against those teachers. He did not elaborate on those measures.