Death Penalty in Saudi Arabia

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If you start an anti-death penalty protest in Saudi Arabia, will they execute you?

This is one for me to answer I guess, being a Middle East obsessive AND a member of an abolitionist group.


In Saudi Arabia, criticising Islam and the political system is punishable. Capital punishment is seen as part of Sharia law, and thus if you criticise it it is in fact criticising Islam. However, censorship is very common practise in Saudi, so your critical opinion will very likely just be not published which also means your protest never reaches the outside world and no punishment is happening. If you start a demonstration in the streets however you are likely to be arrested. I personally doubt they would execute you for this, in theory they can but this would be extremely rare as capital punishment is mostly used for rape, murder, etc. I think you would get imprisoned and maybe get lashes or caned if you have bad luck. But very likely that is it.

One of the many problems with Saudi Arabia is that there is no civil law, the Quran is the only law and Sharia thus applies. There are no well described punishments per crime, but the judge has freedom to impose the punishment he considers suitable. So one judge may just lock you up for a week if you steal something, while another judge may order amputation of your hands. The judges opinion often depends which subdivision of Islam they follow. In general though Saudi is wahhabist, the most conservative form of Islam, although generally the Sharia laws are more applied in cities like Riyadh and Mecca than in more liberal cities like Jeddah. Still, Sharia laws apply everywhere in the country so if you have bad luck that your judge is a really conservative Muslim you can face harsh punishments.

Death penalty in Saudi means beheading by a sword. This usually happens in a mosque and witnessed by public. To avoid gore, usually your blood is tapped beforehand, this makes you weak and defenseless and avoids bloodsoaking during the actual beheading.




I love the Middle East and its culture, have lived in Turkey and would desperately want to return to either Turkey or move to countries such as Lebanon, Jordan, Israel or Syria. I also have a lot of respect for Islam.

However, Saudi is an exception in my love for the area. I think it is a theocracy in the worst level, a religious dictatorship. I cannot imagine functioning in such a suffocating and hypocrite regime. Luckily, Saudi is the only country in the Middle East which has Sharia law as only law. Most others have SHaria courts and civil courts, while Turkey, Azerbaijan and Israel have only civil law and no religious laws.

I am worried that if John McCain wins the election in November, he will impose Christian fundamentalist law on everybody, and the lifestyle I want (hippie/hipster) will get me thrown in jail.

This is why I asked that.

No, nothing to worry about, for a couple reasons.

1)McCain's not going to win.
2)McCain does not seem to be extremely into his faith (I'm not entirely certain what his faith even is), and hasn't shown all that much interest in spreading it in any way.
3)The President does not have the power to impose any laws, much less religious ones.

Although it is well known here that I am not positive towards the US politics (again, I only dislike the US in terms of politics, I have nothing against the citizens... same goes for Saudi Arabia) I doubt McCain could go as far as Saudi does.

In Saudi, from independence on, the constitution stated that the Quran equals the law. Thus, Islamic laws are imposed and have been for as long as Saudi has existed. In their legal frame, corporal punishment and capital punishment for crimes only considered a crime by religious fanatics, are perfectly legal. In the US, the constitution obliges freedom of speech, freedom of religion, ... so while I know in practise this is not always applied I doubt McCain could ever start arresting people for not obeying Christian law in its purest form. He could if he gets the constitution changed, but I doubt he will ever find the majority of votes needed for that, and if he did he would risk that the US is sanctioned or boycotted by the rest of the world.

So I would not have fears if I were you. Nonetheless, I do have a pessimist view about christian norms being more and more dominant in the US, and the US becoming a sort of light version of theocratic states such as Iran. To avoid this, Obama would be a much better choice and Nader probably even the best choice.
Still, unless constitution changes, McCain has no legal frame to go as far as imprisoning people who are not christian or who are very liberal christians. He would violate the constitution if he did that, or needs to change the constitution first.

PS: I personally respect all religions, but I dislike governments forcing religions on people as I believe everyone should choose his believes and how he wishes to practise them. This is also why countries such as Saudi are not in good books with me, despite my love for the Middle East in general. Those who share my Middle Eastern obsession are much better off in places like Jordan, Israel, Lebanon or Turkey where you find much more liberal laws and practises. Saudi can be a really suffocating and closed society, because there the government is trying to force the most conservative interpretation of the Quran on the population.

I hope you are right he is not going to win, but latest Gallup polls certainly dont rule it out so this is worrying me a bit (Gallup tends to be one of the more reliable poll systems as well)

Also, McCain is somewhat liberal for republican norms, but Sarah Palin is an ultraconservative theocratic person. McCain turns 73 soon, it is a question mark if he would not get in health problems the coming 4 years. If Palin would then take over as president, then the US and maybe the world has very very serious worries.

Yes, but not so much for religious reasons.

I'm not anti-Christian. On the other hand, I don't want U.S. society to suddenly be regressed 100 years.

there's only one way to know for sure

Not really. As I said, criminal acts have no prescribed punishment in Saudi, the severeness of the punishment is up to the judge. So if you commit a crime and the judge sentences you to caning, it could be the next criminal gets a harder punishment or lighter punishment for the exactly same crime. One of the big problems with Saudi is that the Quran is the only legal force and the punishments for criminals much depends on how the judges interpretate islamic laws. Hence why different judges may have different sentences for the same criminal act.

It's hard to say how much closer to theocracy the US would go with McCain/Palin - depends on many factors.

We can expect a few Supreme Court appointments in the next term. There is currently a right-tilting court, with some moderates that may switch sides. It wouldn't take too many new Justices to tilt things to where individual states can outlaw abortion (states rights/no right to privacy) or even an outright ban on abortion (the fetus is a human life entitled to all rights).

On other issues, it is hard to say. McCain is not a religious crazy - he is a milk-toast maverick who rebuked religious extremists and then jumped back in bed with them when it was clear he needed to get their votes. Palin's church is currently planning a 'pray out the gay' event - she really does have a connection to the religious crazies, although it is not clear how crazy she is personally.