Our Shia community has been celebrating Ashura since forever and never have they been attacked by anyone. Whether in the Eastern Province, Madinah or Najran etc.
The
Saudi government has often been viewed as an active oppressor of Shias because of the funding of the wahabbi ideology which denounces the Shia faith.
[28]
In 1988
fatwas passed by the country’s leading cleric,
Abdul-Aziz ibn Baz denounced the
Shias as
apostates. Another by
Abdul-Rahman al-Jibrin, a member of the Higher Council of Ulama is on record as saying
"Some people say that the rejectionists (
Rafidha, i.e. Shia) are Muslims because they believe in God and
his prophet, pray and fast. But I say they are heretics. They are the most vicious enemy of Muslims, who should be wary of their plots. They should be boycotted and expelled so that Muslims spared their evil."
[29]
According to Vali Nasr, al-Jibrin's sanctioning of the killing of Shia was reiterated in Wahhabi religious literature as late as 2002.
[3]
According to a 2009
Human Rights Watch report, Shia citizens in Saudi Arabia "face systematic discrimination in religion, education, justice, and employment".
[30]
Saudi Arabia has no
Shia cabinet ministers,
mayors or police chiefs, according to another source,
Vali Nasr, unlike other countries with sizable
Shia populations (such as
Iraq and
Lebanon) . Shia are kept out of "critical jobs" in the armed forces and the security services, and not one of the three hundred
Shia girls’ schools in the Eastern Province has a
Shia principal.
[3]
Pakistani columnist Mohammad Taqi has written that "the Saudi regime is also acutely aware that, in the final analysis, the Shiite grievances ... stem from socioeconomic deprivation, as a result of religious repression and political marginalization bordering on
apartheid."
[31]
Testifying before the US
Congressional Human Rights Caucus,
Ali al-Ahmed, Director of the
Institute for Gulf Affairs, stated
"Saudi Arabia is a glaring example of
religious apartheid. The religious institutions from government clerics to judges, to religious curriculums, and all religious instructions in media are restricted to the Wahhabi understanding of Islam, adhered to by less than 40% of the population. The Saudi government communized Islam, through its monopoly of both religious thoughts and practice. Wahhabi Islam is imposed and enforced on all Saudis regardless of their religious orientations. The Wahhabi sect does not tolerate other religious or ideological beliefs, Muslim or not. Religious symbols by Muslims, Christians, Jewish and other believers are all banned. The Saudi embassy in Washington is a living example of religious apartheid. In its 50 years, there has not been a single non-Sunni Muslim diplomat in the embassy. The branch of
Imam Mohamed Bin Saud University in
Fairfax, Virginia instructs its students that Shia Islam is a
Jewish conspiracy."
[32]
Suppression of religious practice[edit]
The Saudi government has refused to allow Shia teachers and students exemption from school to partake in activities for the
Day of Ashura, one of the most important religious days for Shia Muslims which commemorates the martyrdom of
Muhammad's grandson,
Husayn bin Ali).
[33] In 2009, during Ashura commencements, Shia religious and community leaders were arrested protesting against govt and chanting slogans against Wahhabis
Shiites are often banned from building mosques and other religious centers, and sometimes perform Friday prayers in various homes (Al-Hassan). In the Eastern city of
Al-Khobar, whose population is predominately Shia, mosques and prayer centers were closed for sometime due to the political activities, beginning in July 2008 but they are now opened. Presently there are 81 Shia mosques in Al Khobar.
[34] Saudi Arabia's religious police mandate prayers and all those in public buildings during prayer time are required to stop what they are doing to pray. Because there are minor differences between the way that Shiites and Sunnis pray and between prayer times, Shiites are forced to either pray the Sunni way or take a break from work.
In 2009 a group of Shiites on their way to perform
hajj pilgrimage (one of the five pillars of Islam that all able-bodied Muslims are required to perform once in their lives) in Mecca were arrested by Saudi religious police due to the involvement in a protest against Saudi govt.
[34] A fifteen-year-old pilgrim was shot in the chest and an unknown assailant stabbed a Shiite sheikh who played the major role in sparking up the clash between pilgrim and security forces in the back, shouting “Kill the rejectionist [Shia]”.
[34]
Religious police have arrested Shia Women in the Eastern Province for matters as trivial as organizing classes for Quranic studies and selling clothing for religious ceremonies as they were involved in political activities which are not allowed in KSA.
[34]
In the eastern city of Dammam where three quarters of the 400,000 residents are Shia, there are over 81 large mosques and few hundreds Mussallas, limited Shia call to prayer broadcast, couple of cemeteries for Shia.
In Medina[edit]
Shiite pilgrims go to
Jannat al Baqi mainly to visit the grave of
Fatima and
Ahl al-Bayt who are buried in the cemetery of
Jannat al-Baqi' but no visit of other great Sahabas in Islam. Many incidences of not following the rules of the place happened by Shiites in this region specifically resulting in the arrest which most of the times were released later.
Shias and
Sunni Hanafi Wahhabi Sha'afis Barelvis, and
Dawoodi Bohra Ismailis usually pray near graves of
Ahl al-Bayt but in
Wahhabism this act is considered as
Shirk. In Saudi Arabia, most of the people follow Quran and Sunnah which is called Wahhabism, So they do not allow anything which has not allowed by Quran and Sunnah like to pray near graves of
Ahl al-Bayt in
Jannat al Baqi.
Early 2009, several
Shiites attacked into the grave of
Fatima (who is daughter of
Muhammad and the wife of
Ali) and grabbed stones, sand and in order to make
turbahs out of them which is totally not permissible according to Quran and Sunnah.
Late 2011, a Shiite citizen was charged for not following the law and involved with blasphemy and sentenced to 500 lashes and 2 years in jail; the latter sentence was later reduced.
[35] Also late 2011, a prominent Shiite Canadian cleric, Usama al-Attar, was arrested as he insulted the great Sahabi and Khalifa
Uthman ibn Affan ra and for criticizing the kingdom's handling of uprisings in Yemen and Bahrain.
[36] He was released on the same day, declaring the arrest entirely unprovoked.
[37]
Discrimination in education[edit]
Much of education in Saudi Arabia is based on Wahhabi religious material. From a very young age, students are taught that Shiites are not Muslims and that Shiism is a conspiracy hatched by the Jews, and so Shiites are worthy of death.
[38] Government Wahhabi scholars, such as Abdulqader Shaibat al-Hamd, have proclaimed on state radio that Sunni Muslims must not “eat their [Shia] food, marry from them, or bury their dead in Muslims' graveyards”.
[38]
The government has restricted the names that
Shias can use for their children in an attempt to discourage them from showing their identity.
Saudi textbooks are hostile to Shiism, often characterizing the faith as a form of heresy worse than
Christianity and
Judaism.
Because anti-Shia attitudes are engrained from an early age, they are passed down from generation to generation. This prejudice is found not only in textbooks (often characterizing the faith as a form of heresy worse than
Christianity and
Judaism[28][39]), but also within the teachers in the classroom, and even in the university setting.
[38](Wahhabi) teachers frequently tell classrooms full of young Shia schoolchildren that they are heretics.
[28][39] Teachers who proclaim that Shiites are atheists and deserve death have faced no repercussions for their actions, barely even receiving punishment.
[38] At a seminar about the internet, held in King Abdulaziz City of Science and Technology, professor Dr. Bader Hmood Albader explained how the internet was beneficial to society, but at the same time there were many Shia websites proclaiming to be Muslim websites, which needed to be stopped.
[38]
Discrimination in the Workforce[edit]
Much discrimination occurs in the Saudi workforce as well. Shiites are prohibited from becoming teachers of religious subjects, which constitute about half of the courses in secondary education.
[38] Shiites cannot become principals of schools.
[38] Some Shiites have become university professors but often face harassment from students and faculty alike.
[38] Shiites are disqualified as witnesses in court, as Saudi Sunni sources cite the Shi'a practise of 'taqiyyah'- wherein it is permissible to lie in any circumstance against non-Shi'as. Shia cannot serve as judges in ordinary court, and are banned from gaining admission to military academies,
[34] and from high-ranking government or security posts, including becoming pilots in Saudi Airlines.
[40]
Amir Taheri quotes a Shi'ite businessman from Dhahran as saying "It is not normal that there are no Shi'ite army officers, ministers, governors, mayors and ambassadors in this kingdom. This form of religious apartheid is as intolerable as was apartheid based on race."
[41]
Reactions[edit]
Human Rights Watch reports that Shiites want to be treated as equals and desire to be free from discrimination (Human Rights Watch). King Abdullah has attempted to bring Sunnis and Shiites together and advance towards religious tolerance. However, the country as whole has not moved forward and the Shia minority is still marginalized on a large scale.
[34]
Ismaili[edit]
The much smaller
Ismāʿīlī minority—also known as
Seveners -- differ from the
Twelver Shia in their acceptance of
Isma'il ibn Jafar as the appointed spiritual successor (
Imām), rather than
Moosa Al Kazim. There are an estimated 100,000 of them living in the southern region of
Najran next to Yemen.
[42] They also have been subject to what
Human Rights Watch calls "official discrimination," encompassing "government employment, religious practices, and the justice system".
[43]
Following the clashes in April 2000, Saudi authorities imprisoned, tortured, and summarily sentenced hundreds of Ismailis, and transferred hundreds of Ismaili government employees outside the region. Underlying discriminatory practices have continued unabated.
[43]
Unrest[edit]
In 1997 the director of the Ministry of Islamic Affairs opened an office in Najran for the purpose of propagating Wahhabi doctrine to the local Isma'ilis. Saudi official Sheik Ali Khursan declared Ismaelis to be infidels because they did not follow the Sunna and do not believe that the Qur'an is complete, stating `We don't eat their food, we don't intermarry with them, we should not pray for their dead or allow them to be buried in our cemeteries.`
[42] In 1997 the Governor Prince Mish'al ordered police to prevent Ismaelis from performing prayers during the post-Ramadan Islamic festival of
Eid al-Fitr. "Anti-Ismaeli campaigns resulted in many arrests and flogging."
[42] In April 2000, responding to an Amnesty International campaign publicizing lack of religious freedom in Saudi Arabia, Ismaelis in Najran openly celebrated
Ashura for the first time in many years. Shortly thereafter Saudi religious police "stormed a major Ismaeli mosque, seized many of its religious texts and arrested three clerics". Local Ismaelis, who are often armed, retaliated, firing on security forces and burning some of their vehicles. Approximately 40 people were killed and many more injured. Saudi Army reinforcements swept the area and made many arrests.
[42][43]
Hundreds of Ismaeli government employees were transferred away from Najran. Sometime after August 2000, four Ismaeli high school student were "sentenced to two to four years in prison and 500 to 800 lashes for fighting with a Wahhabi teacher, who openly insulted their religious beliefs in front of other students in the classroom.
Shia Islam in Saudi Arabia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wahabis attack Shias in Medina
Troll thread title made by a Kurdi troll
u are the most racist dummy i've ever seen anywhere on the planet ...
u reek of sectarianism and racism .
of course i create a thread like that u dumdum , u think i'll just pass on the news ? u killed my people and u should pay for it
wahhabi
