As the United States and its allies (and foes) continue to dither over the expansion of ISIS/ISIL in the Syrian-Iraq borderlands and its seeming imperviousness to outside pressure or force, the Middle East’s real Islamic state is more concerned with imprisoning, torturing and executing its own restless subjects for the slightest or most concocted of reasons. From a report by IB Times:
“Ali Mohammed al-Nimr’s name is well-known in eastern Saudi Arabia, the hotbed of the country’s Shia minority and the scene of a burgeoning protest movement.
Ali, 21, is the nephew of Shia cleric and activist Sheikh Nimr Baqr al-Nimr, who was jailed and sentenced to death for his fiery speeches against Saudi Arabia’s ruling House of Saud dynasty, which has controlled the Arabian Peninsula since the 1930s. Sheikh al-Nimr was detained and then sentenced to death on terrorism charges as well as “waging war on God” for his speech during anti-government protests in Qatif, a city that saw massive street protests followed by a bloody crackdown by the Saudi authorities in the wake of the Arab Spring.
Ali Mohammed al-Nimr faces death by beheading and crucifixion for alleged participation in anti-government protests
It was revealed this week that Ali’s appeal against the death penalty has been denied and he will be put to death by the Saudi authorities, first beheaded and then his body strapped to a cross and left to rot.
Ali was arrested in 2012 when he was 17 years old for taking part in a protest. According to anti-death penalty charity Reprieve, Ali was tortured and forced to sign a confession in 2012 and after two years he was sentenced to death in May 2014.
He was convicted under a range of charges, from the most seemingly innocuous to the gravely serious. As well as being accused of being part of a terrorist organisation, carrying weapons and targeting security patrols with Molotov cocktails, Ali was also charged with encouraging others to protest using his BlackBerry and explaining to others how to give first aid.”
Saudi Arabia, the great “friend of the West”, and the beheader and crucifier of teenage boys. It seems that power grows not just from the barrel of a gun but from a barrel of petroleum. Or several million barrels…
More here.
AN SIONNACH FIONN 
It’s always been about oil; I’ve personally met some minor princes from the Saudi royal family; they drank alcohol,hired prostitutes, and did just about everything else their religion prohibits. They cared only for money, and had plenty of it. Because of petroleum. And they’ve got their own people and the rest of the world in a vise grip.
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A friend worked a summer job in a major Dublin hotel, cleaning, etc. back in the early 2000s between college terms. The stories about visitors from the Gulf States were legendary. None of them good.
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