Yesterday we posted about how an ideological affinity makes it difficult for Saudi Arabia to distance itself from the Islamic State, just as it did with Al Qaeda before that. Perhaps, though, where they’re most symmetrical is in the forms and degrees of punishment, as Mary Atkinson and Rori Donaghy demonstrate at the Middle East Eye. “The Islamic State (IS) and Saudi Arabia prescribe near-identical punishments for a host of crimes, according to documents circulated by the militant group,” they begin.
For example, comparing them side by side in an infographic, they show that both IS and SA intend to punish blasphemy and homosexuality as severely as treason and murder: by death. The punishments for adultery, separately for married and unmarried partners, are also parallel: Death by stoning and 100 lashes, respectively. (I’ve never actually understood how someone can survive that many lashes.)
At least SA seldom actually carries out executions for blasphemy or adultery. Though an SA court allegedly ordered (later denied) a man to be paralyzed as punishment for a knife attack that paralyzed another. Meanwhile “IS has actively sought exposure for their brutal punishments, Saudi Arabia has worked to keep evidence of their actions within the conservative kingdom.” They quote Middle-East expert Alastair Crooke:
“On the one hand [IS] is deeply Wahhabist. … On the other hand it is ultra-radical in a different way. It could be seen essentially as a corrective movement to contemporary Wahhabism,” he wrote, explaining that modern-day Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia has been used to entrench absolute power for the al-Saud monarchy, which is hated by IS and accused of corruption.
“[IS] looks to the actions of the first two Caliphs, rather than the Prophet Muhammad himself, as a source of emulation, and it forcefully denies the Saudis’ claim of authority to rule.”
One can’t help but express gratitude to Mr. Crooke for using the term “corrective,” and not appending any legitimacy to IS by calling it a “reform” movement.