Today the world received news that the Saudi Regime has executed 47 people including several political prisoners. Among those executed was the prominent Shia cleric Sheikh al-Nimr. Al-Nimr was involved in no crime, other than involvement in protests against the repression and human rights abuses of the Saudi Royal Family in the wake of the Arab Spring movements of 2011. We must question our long-standing and close relationship with the House of Saud. Not only is Saudi Arabia one of the most repressive regimes in the region, but it is the ideological and financial locus of a puritanical Wahhabi-jihadist movement, which has plagued the Muslim world for the last century. We cannot claim to fight terrorism while simultaneously supporting the source from which it emerges.



