The recent royal decree banning the support or participation in terror activities outside the Kingdom is in line with the Shariah, a government official said Friday.

“The royal order has been issued to fulfill the intent of the Islamic Shariah to maintain the security, unity and cohesion of the community,” said Salman Al-Omri, assistant undersecretary at the Ministry of Islamic Affairs, Endowments, Call and Guidance, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

On Monday, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah decreed jail terms of up to 20 years for citizens who fight in conflicts abroad or belong to “extremist religious and ideological groups, or those classified as terrorist organizations.” Promoting the views of such groups and organizations “through speech or writing” would also incur prison sentences.

On Tuesday, Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Asheikh warned that “false jihadists” were deceiving young Saudi men to fight in conflicts abroad.

He said many of these young men were “subject to torture, humiliation and slavery” and were “losing their lives.”

The Council of Senior Religious Scholars said this week that King Abdullah acted on the basis of Islamic principles related to governance and political leadership.

Sheikh Abdullateef Al-Asheikh, the chief of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Haia), reportedly vowed on Tuesday to remove extremists within the organization and called them “advocates of sedition.”