The action taken by Saudi Arabia’s dictatorship, in executing 47 dissidents and opponents on January 2, has caused an outcry across the world. The focus of the media reporting has been on protestations from Shia leaders, particularly in the Middle East. And in doing so they fan the flames of Shia-Sunni sectarianism.
For the capitalist media, it is all about relegious sectarianism.
Yet Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, the most prominent person to be executed, was a member of a Shia minority in Saudi Arabia who also spoke out against Shia dictators like Bashr al-Assad in Syria. Shia decries Shia? Not the message the capitalist press want to promulgate. Whatever his views were, and I am no expert on the man, his was obviously not just an outright pro-Shia, anti-Sunni position. But the media have an agenda of their own, and it includes reporting middle eastern politics in terms of Shia-Sunni conflict, and not along nationalist, class or other divisions.
And while the condemnation of Saudi Arabia continues, the vocal silence of the US and UK governments on this act of barbarity by their treasured ally speaks volumes. The US and UK governments have no right to speak of human rights and defending liberties, when they continue to provide political and military support to the regime of King Salman, the Saudi dictator. Just a few weeks ago the media were telling us about democratic progress, when women were permitted to participate and vote in elections for some ineffectual local government bodies. Coming so soon after David Cameron’s fawning sycophancy during Salman’s state visit to the UK, the UK prime minister must have thought it was a great PR coup for Salman to look so ‘democratic’ in the media.
The reality of the Saudi dictatorship is that under Salman executions have increased dramatically. In fact, on 2 January, in a single day, Salman executed 47 people. That is more than half the number executed by his predecessor, King Abdullah, in the whole of 2014. And the total number of executions in 2015 was a 20-year high for the dictatorship.
Meanwhile western politicians and press continue to regale us with stories of the barbarity of ISIS; the ‘barbaric cult’ behead people. The dictator Salman’s regime executes people in precidely the same mannner – beheading with a sword. But the word ‘barbaric’ has not been used by our so-called representatives in relation to this act.
LIke ISIS, the Saudi dictatorship resorts to barbaric methods to defend its regime. Take the example of Sheikh al-Nimr’s nephew, Ali, who took part in an anti-government political rally at the age of 17. He has been found guilty and sentenced to death by crucifixion.
So much less barbaric than those devils in ISIS.