"Amid worthwhile talk of outreach to youth and fighting corruption, there was almost no mention of the Saudi monarchy’s decades-long role in aggressively spreading its strictly conservative religious ideology — a creed that itself has provided inspiration for leaders of the Islamic State, the militant group often referred to as ISIS, ISIL or by the Arabic acronym Daesh." "Human rights advocates have pointed to a spate of beheadings and other executions this year in Saudi Arabia, for crimes like drug smuggling and murder, as evidence of practices barely distinguishable from those of the militants."