RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Saudi Arabia’s highest body of religious scholars has issued a religious ruling calling terrorism a “heinous crime” and saying perpetrators including Islamic State militants deserve punishment according to Islamic law.

The Council of Senior Religious Scholars said that it backs the kingdom’s efforts to track down people who follow not just the Islamic State group, but also al-Qaida.

The council’s scholars are government appointed and seen as guardians of the kingdom’s ultraconservative Wahhabi school of Islam.

The Saudi king earlier this year called on scholars to speak out more aggressively against terrorism.

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