Shiite bias claims laid bare after showdown

Caryle Murphy, Foreign Correspondent

• Last Updated: April 26. 2009 11:37PM UAE / April 26. 2009 7:37PM GMT

Shiite Muslim youths flay themselves with chains during a religious procession in the oil-rich, eastern Saudi city of Qatif. AFP

DAMMAM // When Sayyid Hassan al Nemer was a young boy, Shiite clerics like himself were not permitted to wear a black turban. Nowadays, Sayyid al Nemer wears his turban everywhere, even when meeting senior officials in Riyadh.

On the other hand, said Sayyid al Nemer, 47, “our children are being taught that we are non-believers” by Sunni Muslim teachers in government schools.

Fifteen years after the Saudi government extended an amnesty to exiled Shiite leaders and began addressing their complaints, many in the Shiite minority say they still face widespread religious and political discrimination, according to recent interviews with more than a dozen Shiite activists, writers and clerics in the oil-rich Eastern Province.

Recent clashes between Shiites and security forces in the holy city of Medina, followed by a Shiite sheikh’s inflammatory threat that Shiite-majority areas might consider seceding from the kingdom are symptoms of the community’s growing frustrations, the leaders said.

“The feeling that they are discriminated against is very deep inside themselves,” said Jafaar al Shayeb, a Shiite member of Qatif’s municipal council.

Shiite community leaders added they are concerned about increasing anger among the younger generation, which is less willing to work peacefully to effect change.

“There is big blame from young people to leaders of Shia, especially to those leaders who believe in talking to the government like me,” Sayyid al Nemer, the cleric, said in an interview in his Dammam home. “We still try to calm them down and call for quiet … But we don’t guarantee it’s going to stay like this forever. So it’s advisable to move faster.”

One of the biggest improvements has been increased religious freedom. In some cities it is easier to get permission to build a Shiite mosque. And for almost a dozen years, Shiites have publicly celebrated Ashura, their major religious holiday. Though Shiite religious books are not sold in major bookstores, they are available from street vendors.

Shiites, who make up about 10 per cent of the kingdom’s population, also are receiving business licences and scholarships to study abroad.

But problems remain. Shiites say they face difficulties getting hired for government jobs, and are routinely passed over for promotions when they do. Sunnis occupy all senior posts in the municipality of Qatif, though it is nearly 100 per cent Shiite. And although government boys’ schools in predominantly Shiite areas have Shiite principals, that is not the case in girls’ schools, whose principals are all Sunni. Also, all religion teachers in government schools are Sunni, Shiites said.

Naseema Dawood Assadh, a housewife in Safwa who helps run training programmes for young mothers, said that when her daughter took sweets to school to pass out on the Prophet Mohammed’s birthday, the principal took them away saying “we don’t celebrate” this feast.

Mrs Assadh’s friend, Sabah Abass Ali, a writer, said her book on studying the Quran was refused a publishing licence because she cited Shiite religious sources.

And then there is the cemetery. Shiite activists said when they told King Abdullah that Shiites have no burial place in Dammam, he approved a plot for one. But many months later, local officials have not yet processed the paperwork to transfer the land.

“In any country that wants development all the people should be treated equally and should share,” Sayyid al Nemer said. “It’s not right for any majority to control the minority … we are asking for justice and democracy.”

Shiites said they were disappointed when King Abdullah failed to appoint any Shiites to senior posts during his cabinet reshuffle in February, though he named five Shiites to the 150-member advisory Shoura Council.

“I call it ‘love from one side’,” said Kadhim S al Shabib, a writer in Dammam. “The Shia want to be part of this nation, and to give the loyalty to the government. But up to now, there is no trust from the government in Shia.”

A week after the king’s cabinet reshuffle, scores of Shiite visitors to Medina ended up in street clashes with Sunni youths and security forces for three days.

The spark for the fighting is in dispute but Shiites were angry they could not perform certain rituals at the graves of revered Islamic figures. Under the ascetic brand of Sunni Islam upheld by the government, visiting graves is prohibited.

Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz, the interior minister, told the newspaper Okaz that Saudi Arabia follows “the doctrine of Sunnis” and while some citizens “follow other schools of thought … the intelligent among them must respect this doctrine”.

Gen Mansour al Turki, the ministry of interior spokesman, said in an interview “there are religious differences between Sunni and Shia on how to behave” in the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.

“The Shia think that one part of their rights is to be able to do what they believe is important based on their Shia belief, and Sunnis think no, what these people want to do contradicts Islam and they should not be allowed to do it.”

To avoid problems, Gen al Turki said, certain practices regarded as inappropriate by Sunnis – the majority sect – are banned.

“The kingdom is very much concerned that all Muslims have the right to perform haj, and to visit the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina. But all Muslims have to respect each other. We will not allow any group of Muslims to try to do anything which we feel will make the other party upset.”

Arrests from the street fighting were not partisan. Of the 71 people held – most of them youths – 22 were Sunni and 49 were Shiite, one Saudi source said, adding that all were released shortly afterwards.

Shiites have been living in Medina for years “and nothing like this happened before”, Gen al Turki said, adding that the authorities believe the protesting youths were “influenced by somebody in their community. But does this mean that all the [Shiite] community is going along with this or supporting this? Not at all.”

One person the police want to question about the Medina events is Sheikh Nimer al Nimer of Awwamiya, a Shiite village near Qatif.

Sheikh al Nimer, whose defiant words have put him in jail before, declared in a sermon in March that Shiites must demand their “dignity to be restored in all permissible ways”, but if necessary “we will call to secede from this nation”.

Sheikh al Nimer, who is unrelated to Dammam cleric Sayyid al Nemer, went into hiding to avoid arrest while about 200 of his sympathisers staged protests in Awwamiya. Police set up checkpoints for a while, and arrested about 18 people but Gen al Turki said that security forces do not want to escalate tensions with local residents.

Shiite leaders rejected Sheikh al Nimer’s talk of separation in a public statement, adding privately he had harmed their cause by giving the government a reason to suspect their loyalty.

Government officials “always say these problems are coming from outside Saudi Arabia. They want to show there is a connection between people making problems and Iran,” said Mr al Shabib, the writer.

“And this is not true.”

cmurphy@thenational.ae