Islamist Fundamentalism

The international community is horror-struck at the carnage following in the wake of Islamic State's incursions into Syria and Iraq, sweeping through a combined area they now claim as their budding caliphate, destined to grow by leaps and bounds. Sowing terror as they advance relentlessly, they have indulged in every gruesome kind of slaughter that the perverse human mind can envision, from crucifixion to beheading, rape and bondage, mass humiliation and slaughter.

What kind of brutish, backward humans would take pleasure in forcing a victim to witness his last moments on Earth, his reactions to his impending death filmed on video as his executioner stands before him, forcing him to his knees, a crude short-bladed knife in hand, preparing for the excruciating pain of having his head not merely cut off, but carefully sawed through, to extract maximum suffering. Well, perhaps a nation of wealthy oil entrepreneurs, not only the Islamic State.

"The execution of people accused of petty crimes and on the basis of 'confessions' extracted through torture has become shamefully common in Saudi Arabia. It is absolutely shocking to witness the Kingdom's authorities' callous disregard for fundamental human rights", said Said Boumedouha of Amnesty International, last week.

Even while U.S. President Barack Obama and his Secretary of State John Kerry have appealed to Saudi Arabia to aid them in restraining and defeating the mass predations of the Islamic State, and the Saudis have graciously assented to being of aid to the United States, when it is their own geography that is being horrendously threatened, the Salafist Wahhabist ideology of the Saudis gear it toward capital punishment of which beheading is a common form of 'punishment'.

Last month, in a two week period, according to Amnesty International, Saudi Arabia executed 22 people; eight of whom were beheaded, confirmed the United Nations. The majority of those who were executed in August were found guilty of crimes such as drug trafficking, adultery, apostasy and "sorcery". For the crime of "receiving drugs", four members of one family were beheaded, according to Amnesty International.

"Beheading as a form of execution is cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and prohibited under international law under all circumstances", stated Juan Mendez, a UN special rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment, at a Tuesday news conference in Geneva. At least fifty percent of all executions in Saudi Arabia since 1985 have targeted foreign nationals, domestic workers among them.

Members of Magic Movement, a group of young Bangladeshis, stage a mock execution scene in protest of Saudi Arabia beheading of eight Bangladeshi workers. (Reuters / Andrew Biraj)

"Despite several calls by human rights bodies, Saudi Arabia continues to execute individuals with appalling regularity and in flagrant disregard of international law standards", Christof Heyns, another UN rapporteur stated. Saudi Arabia's "continuing trend of harassment" of human rights advocates in the country was also condemned by ... good gracious ... the United Nations.

The question might be ... how substantively different is Saudi Arabia than ISIS/ISIL? Both consider heretics to be ripe for punishment and that punishment turns out on both accounts to be death, and beheading just happens to be a convenient and traditional form of punishment. One has institutionalized beheading with the imprimatur of the state, and the other has followed suit.

Why are we so appalled at the mindless brutality of ISIS and not at Saudi Arabia?

This file photo shows the beheading of a man in Saudi Arabia.