Saudi Arabia plans to sue Twitter user who called it #ISISlike

Watch what you say about Saudi Arabia:

According to a report in pro-government newspaper Al Riyadh, the Saudi justice ministry is planning to sue a Twitter user who suggested that a death sentence recently handed out to a Palestinian artist for apostasy was “ISIS-like.”

…The ministry would not hesitate to sue “any media that slandered the religious judiciary of the Kingdom,” the source added.

The Washington Post adds that “the comparison to the Islamic State appears to be a particular bone of contention for the Saudi kingdom.” A Saudi spokesman explained to NBC News recently that the country’s beheadings and hand-choppings for religiously-based and other offenses differed from Islamic State’s because “the country’s Shariah-based legal system ensures fairness. ‘ISIS has no legitimate way to decide to decide to kill people’.” The target of the contemplated Twitter suit was not named, and it was not immediately apparent whether that person is a Saudi subject. [Washington Post, Reuters] The hashtag #ISISlike was spreading rapidly on Twitter last night.

3 Comments

  • I pray that they try that here in the US.

  • Could be true. The Saudis consider themselves to be a source, not a derivative of Muslim theology. Tweeting that they’re just a copy-cat branch of extremism is insulting.

  • Challenge accepted!