A Homo's Thoughts

WARNING: This article contains graphic images. If you do not wish to see them, do not scroll down.

We condemn ISIS’ public beheadings, but in 2012-13, our allies in Saudi Arabia cut the heads off of 79 people.

Let’s play “Compare and Contrast” for a moment: Two oppressive, authoritarian Muslim regimes acting under the auspices of Sharia Law publicly behead scores of non-violent people, primarily to instill fear in those who might resist said regime’s self-asserted authority over the region.

People whose heads are cut off are disproportionately foreign nationals, or locals with religious or ideological differences. One of them is ISIS, the other is the government of Saudi Arabia. Which one are we bombing again?

In 2012 and 2013, Saudi Arabia cut the heads off of 79 people for various “crimes” throughout the nation, and it looks like they’re trying to hit the same target this year. Unfortunately, there was a bit of a slowdown earlier in the year, so Saudi Arabia is doing its best to catch up and maintain its previous record.

But Saudi Arabia’s beheadings aren’t just about keeping a title. As London researcher Sevag Kechichian told Al Jazeera:

“One of the reasons behind the surge in executions could be that the Saudi Arabian authorities want to send a strong message that the regime is stable, and does not tolerate breaches of the law in the aftermath of the 2011 uprising and calls for reform in Saudi Arabia including by the country’s Shia Muslim community.”

Saudi Arabian officials display the beheaded bodies of five Yemeni nationals. Photo: The Commentator.

While some would say that the killings aren’t politically motivated (at least in the sense that protesters aren’t being arrested en masse in the Eastern Provinces and beheaded), the King certainly looks to be sending a message since the Qatif protests began in 2011.

Prior to 2011, Saudi Arabia averaged about 27 executions a year; when the King announced a “crackdown” of law enforcement, that number multiplied by three times over almost immediately. And there the figure has stayed. A few examples:

• Once of those beheaded was a prominent Shia cleric named Nimir al Nimir, who was executed for “inciting violence” in his speeches, and “supporting unrest” in his native, heavily Shia area of Qatif.
• Four of those decapitated on August 18th were a family convicted for smuggling “large quantities of cannabis” into the country. They maintained that they were framed by police for the crime, and were tortured into giving false confessions. The appeal was summarily dismissed by a higher court, and the family was executed.
• A man was executed the next day for “sorcery.” And he is far from the first. A similar execution took place in 2012 for a man convicted of possessing “books and talismans,” Between 2011 and 2012, at least five women were decapitated for “witchcraft,” and the practice continues unabated today.

Yet another public beheading in Saudi Arabia. Photo: IBTimes.

Of course, a fair number of the beheadings were for murder convictions and rape, both punishable by death in Saudi Arabia. But just as many were for any one of the following:

• Apostacy (leaving Islam)
• Blasphemy
• Idolatry
• Homosexuality
• Sedition
• Sorcery
• Witchcraft
• Adultry
• Drug Use

In fact, the Saudis love chopping heads so much, that from 2007 to 2012 alone, fully 6.8 percent of all executions in the world (excluding China, which doesn’t publish figures) were committed by Saudi Arabia. This in a nation that only contains about 0.3 percent of the world’s population — that’s about 22 times the rate of the per-capita average worldwide. And it’s getting higher. Almost all of them were decapitations; in fact, statistically, almost all of annual decapitations worldwide are state-sanctioned killings in Saudi Arabia. Many of them are foreign nationals who have done nothing more egregious than cross the will of the ruling theocracy.

And…FOX News says…what, exactly?

Again, there are those who’d say “Well, Saudi Arabia is a strict country — the laws are the laws, and the punishments are the punishments.” And yes, that’s true…except, it isn’t. 

Saudi Arabia has no codified system of crime and punishment the way we do, insofar as specific offenses warrant specific punishments. The King of Saudi Arabia appoints state-sanctioned religious clerics to act as judges, and those judges are free to hand out any sentence they like for any crime they like, and are not bound by the presentation of evidence or burden of proof. In short, in Saudi Arabia, if a judge wants you dead, you’re dead. Guilty or innocent, you’re dead. Much as in our own Salem Witch Trials, the only “evidence” required is an accusation.

And even more to the point, a judge is free to not sentence you to death, or even imprisonment, even if you are rightfully convicted of something as egregious as murder. Saudi judges hold absolute power, and are accountable to no one but the King himself.

And that King wants to send a message.

So, let’s go back to Compare and Contrast between ISIS and Saudi Arabia:

Comparison

• Both ISIS and Saudi Arabia are lead by fundamentalist religious extremists.
• Both ISIS and Saudi Arabia routinely oppress the will of the native population, particularly religious minority groups.
• Both ISIS and Saudi Arabia embrace foreign nationals who support the will of the regime.
• Both ISIS and Saudi Arabia routinely and publicly behead people who oppose the authority or will of the current regime.
• Both ISIS and Saudi Arabia are free to chop the heads off of citizens and foreign nationals without any accountability to anyone but the rulers of the regime.
• Both ISIS and Saudi Arabia do so in order to send a message of fear to those who oppose them.
• Neither ISIS nor Saudi Arabia need any proof of wrongdoing in order to stage a public beheading.
• Both ISIS and Saudi Arabia perform these public beheadings in the name of God.

Contrast

• Saudi Arabia is an ally who sells us oil for cheap, whereas ISIS is sitting on oil fields we don’t control.
• Saudi Arabia is friends with Israel, whereas ISIS is not.
• Saudi Arabia has its own nationalized oil fields, whereas ISIS is threatening the Israeli-held shale oil fields in Syria, in the occupied Golan Heights.
• Saudi Arabia is friends with FOX and its British cousin SKY, whereas ISIS is directly threatening the Israeli-held shale oil fields owned by Rupert Murdoch (FOX) and Jacob Rothschild (SKY).
• Saudi Arabian oil money funded Osama Bin Laden, whereas ISIS oil money funds a bunch of guys who aren’t friends with the Bush family, American oil companies or conservative media billionaires.

BONUS

Saudi Arabian king tells Americans “ISIS jihadists will be beheading people in America in two months — you see how they carry out beheadings and make children show severed heads in the street. Respond to ISIS now with all necessary force and speed.”

Whereas ISIS tells Americans “Stop bombing us.”