Saudis shouldn't punish him for anything he said in Pakistan. If they objected to his views, they could have simply refused him a visa.If he said something within Saudi Arabia, he could have been deported - unless of course, he was inciting people to violence, which is a major crime and calls for punishment. Still, it does feel sad to think of the poor idiot getting 1,000 lashes.
Secondly, it is is ironical in the extreme that I and most other Indians on this forum find this treatment of Zaid Hamid by the Saudis shocking. Come to think of it, this man dreams of destroying our country, our constitution, our houses of worship and our way of life. Still, we don't hate him - we just think of him as an idiot, a mentally challenged person who doesn't know what he is talking about. Maybe this is what is wrong with our culture - we are not so much into blind hatred, even against those who openly talk of killing us. Maybe this is what makes us soft against religious zealots who have hit us time and again in our history. This is what separates us from these monsters, but sadly, this is also what makes us vulnerable to these monsters.