As a Saudi court sentenced one person to death and 21 others to various jail sentences after they were convicted of a range of militant crimes, including setting up training camps and identifying oil locations to hit, a recent report looked at where in the world those flying to Syria to help fight alongside ISIL have come from.
In February, King Abdullah decreed long prison terms for those who travel abroad to fight or who give material or moral support to groups deemed “extremist”, including Al Qaeda, Syria’s Nusra Front and IS.
This is not surprising when the data showed that the majority of militants joining the fight came from within the kingdom.
The conservative Islamic kingdom, a regional ally of the United States, has detained thousands of its own citizens and sentenced hundreds to jail after a campaign of bombings and attacks in the last decade by militants.
The Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, Sheikh Abdulaziz Al al-Sheikh, the highest religious authority in the kingdom, has described Al Qaeda and IS and the ideology they represent as the biggest enemy of Islam.
A report in the Washington Post revealed the figures below and were compiled by the International Center for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence (ISCR):
Afghanistan: 23
Albania: 148
Algeria: 250
Australia: 250
Austria: 60
Bahrain: 12
Belgium: 296
Bosnia: 60
Canada: 70
China: 100
Denmark: 84
Egypt: 358
Finland: 20
France: 412
Germany 240
Indonesia: 60
Iraq: 247
Ireland: 26
Israel: 20
Italy: 50
Jordan: 2,089
Kuwait: 71
Kyrgyzstan: 30
Lebanon: 890
Libya: 556
Morocco: 1,500
Norway: 40
Pakistan: 330
Qatar: 15
Russia: 800
Saudi Arabia: 2,500
Somalia: 68
Spain: 95
Sudan: 96
Sweden: 80
The Netherlands: 152
Tunisia: 3,000
Turkey: 400
UAE: 14
Ukraine
United Kingdom: 488
United States: 130
Yemen: 110
Small numbers also came from: Bangladesh, Chile, Ivory Coast, Japan, Malaysia, Maldives, New Zealand, Philippines, Senegal, Singapore and Trinidad and Tobago.
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