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Saudi law targets Brotherhood sympathizers

The new Saudi laws targeting Islamist groups in the kingdom are part of a push to ensure local sympathizers with the Muslim Brotherhood don't challenge the royal family's regional policies.
Supporters of the Shi'ite al-Houthi rebel group shout slogans during a demonstration in Sanaa, against the deportation of Yemeni labourers from Saudi Arabia, April 5, 2013. Saudi Arabia has begun deporting thousands of Yemeni labourers following new regulations requiring foreigners to work only for their sponsors, a Yemeni official said on Monday, a move that could "significantly damage" the poor country's economy. Some two million of Yemen's 25 million citizens work abroad, more than half of them in larger

The Saudi royal decree against terrorism in February 2014, and later the Interior Ministry declaration in March banning several Islamist groups, can be considered as the general framework of the new security doctrine that will govern the behavior of the Saudi government in the coming period. This takes into account that potential court cases against those targeted by the two declarations will remain closer to the interests of political decision-makers, which may vary from case to case and time to time.

According to the new security doctrine, there are two main types of threats: solid threats, represented by al-Qaeda, the Houthis and Saudi Hezbollah (Hezbollah in the Hijaz),; and soft threats, represented by writings related to religion, or the so-called phenomenon of atheism, rights activism, and Islamist groups represented mainly by the Muslim Brotherhood.

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