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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSaudi Arabia 37 beheadings was trial balloon, little reaction from world so more beheadings planned
Saudi Arabia will execute three prominent scholars who are being held on multiple charges of "terrorism" shortly after the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
One of the men was arrested in September last year shortly after he tweeted a prayer for reconciliation between Saudi Arabia and Qatar amid the neighbours' diplomatic crisis.
All three scholars - cleric Sheikh Salman al-Odah, author Awad al-Qarni and broadcaster Ali al-Omari - have a massive presence online, with al-Odah's Twitter account having more than 13million followers.
Saudi Arabia, Britain's ally in the Middle East, is one of the world's most prolific executioners behind only China and Iran, according to Amnesty International.
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The timing has been dictated by escalating tensions between Saudi Arabia's ally US and its rival Iran.
The first source said: "They (Saudi Arabia) are encouraged to do it, especially with the tension in the Gulf at the moment.
"Washington wants to please the Saudis at the moment.
"The (Saudi) government calculates that this enables them to get away with this."
Saudi critic Ali al-Ahmad, head of the US-based Institute for Gulf Affairs, said the executions would be a "crime to terrorise the Saudi citizens into submission".
He told Al-Jazeera: "The Saudi court system is more or less a kangaroo court system."
DBoon
(22,433 posts)not a word against our Saudi buds
Ferrets are Cool
(21,122 posts)keithbvadu2
(37,066 posts)lpbk2713
(42,777 posts)They wouldn't try it if Obama was still president.
Jake Stern
(3,145 posts)He kissed just as much Saudi ass as presidents before him and after.
While Obama might have expressed slightly more disappointment with the Kashoggi killing than Twitler, at the end of the day the only thing that matters when it comes to KSA is that the sweet, sweet crude keeps a-flowin'.
sop
(10,306 posts)Saudi Aramco, owned by the Saudi government, or the Saudi Royal Family, is the most profitable company in the world. By comparison, Apple, the world's most profitable public company, made $59.4 billion in 2018, just over half as much as Aramco, and ExxonMobil, the largest US oil company, made $20.8 billion
Anyone who threatens the Saudi Royal Family's total control, and their oil profits, must lose their head. It's what happens when dictatorships and big business become one and the same: the ultimate fascist state. As Upton Sinclair noted, "Fascism is capitalism plus murder."