Saudi Shia complain they are not allowed to have their own mosques
|
A report by the Human Rights Watch pressure group has detailed what it says is systematic discrimination in Saudi Arabia against Shia Muslims.
Unfavourable treatment of minority Shia extends from education and employment to the justice system, leading to a big increase in sectarian tension, it says.
They comprise 10 to 15% of the Saudi population, and have long complained of being treated as second-class citizens.
Human Rights Watch wants a government commission to tackle the problem.
Saudi Arabia follows the puritanical form of Sunni Islam known as Wahhabism, and many Wahhabi clerics regard Shia Muslims as unbelievers.
Equal opportunities
The report focuses on an incident in February, when Shia pilgrims in the holy city of Medina clashed with religious police.
This led to Shia demonstrations in the Eastern Province followed by the arrest of a number of the protestors.
Shias want equal opportunities in government and the military as well as freedom of worship.
They want to be able to build their own mosques, have their civil courts granted more power and to print their own religious books.
Human Rights Watch says that a government commission should explore the sharing of holy places among Muslims of differing creeds, especially in Mecca and Medina.
The BBC’s Middle East analyst, Roger Hardy, says that there are both internal and external factors in relation to discrimination against Shia Muslims in Saudi Arabia.
In addition to its puritanical Wahhabi stance, Saudi Arabia has been affected by the rise of sectarianism in the Middle East as a whole, associated with events in neighbouring Iraq and the regional role of predominantly Shia Iran, our analyst says.
Although the Saudi monarch, King Abdullah, has tried to promote greater religious tolerance, Human Rights Watch says that much more needs to be done if the Shia are to be treated as equal citizens.
ThereAreNoSunglasses 