[D66] Who beheads more people: Isis or the government of Saudi Arabia?

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Who beheads more people: Isis or the government of Saudi Arabia?
Posted 7 days ago by Francesca Washtell in news

http://i100.independent.co.uk/article/who-beheads-more-people-isis-or-the-government-of-saudi-arabia--xy1pn8xX4x

This week Private Eye reported that in the 21 months between James
Foley’s capture in November 2012 and his subsequent beheading by Isis
militants on August 19 2014, Saudi Arabia beheaded 113 people.


It added that Saudi Arabia was “visited by President Obama this year to
‘underscore the importance of the bilateral relationship’ between their
countries.”
So did Saudi Arabia actually behead 113 people in that timeframe?

Yes. According to Amnesty International at least 79 people were executed
in Saudi Arabia in 2013 and between 1 January and 18 August this year 34
more people were executed, making a total of 113. This does not include
any estimates for executions at the end of 2012.

Most of these beheadings are carried out as public executions at the
notorious ‘Chop-Chop Square’ in Riyadh for crimes such as blasphemy,
drug smuggling, sedition and ‘sorcery’, although for certain crimes such
as adultery, the authorities may order death by stoning.

There were reports of a surge in beheadings in Saudi Arabia in August,
with 19 people executed in just the first half of the month.
Does Saudi Arabia actually behead more people than Isis?

We can’t accurately tell how many people Isis (also known as Islamic
State) have killed and, more specifically, how many of Isis’ victims
were killed by beheading.

As well as more traditional methods of combat, Isis has executed
civilians by mass execution, reportedly burying victims alive, and even
publicly crucifying some, all in addition to beheading.

The UN announced that over 190,000 people were killed in Syria between
March 2011 and April 2014 and that at least 5,500 people were killed in
Iraq in the first half of 2014, although these numbers have undoubtedly
risen in the past two months as the violence has escalated. It is
currently unknown how many of these deaths are directly attributable to
Isis.


While, correctly, condemning the murders of James Foley and Steven
Sotloff as ‘despicable and barbaric‘, these statistics do raise the
question why Britain and the US appear willing to turn a blind eye when
one of their supposed allies uses the same method on a regular basis.