Today in various countries of the world, the issue of religious, ethnic, and linguist groups are one of the main and sensitive issues. Unfortunately, ruling regimes in some countries do not observe the rights of other sections of the society. They subject them to various types of discrimination and deprive them of their rights. Until recently, Saddam’s Iraq was ruled by the tyrannical Ba’th minority that suppressed the rights of the country’s overwhelming majority for decades. As a matter of fact, Iraq’s Shi’ite Muslim majority had been suppressed for centuries. First by the Ottoman Turks, second by the monarchist regime the British had installed in 1921, and then by the various self-styled republican governments culminating in Ba’thist tyranny, until the first ever elections held five years ago in 2005 that saw Iraq’s Shi’ite majority establish representative rule. Today, the situation in Saudi Arabia is more or less similar to Ba’thist Iraq. Ever since the British officially installed the Wahhabi minority in power in the Arabian Peninsula in 1932 by carving out a country called Saudi Arabia in the name of the chief of the new regime, Abdul-Aziz ibn Saud, the Shi’ite Muslims and even Sunni Muslims of that land have been brutally suppressed and deprived of their birthrights. It is worth noting that when the Aal-e Saud clan of Nejd seized the Hejaz on the Red Sea, followed by Najran, Aseer, and Jeezan that belonged to Yemen, and then forcibly took control of eastern independent emirates of Ahsa and Qateef on the Persian Gulf coast of Arabia, the almost two-thirds of the people were followers of the school of the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt. That is they were Shi’ite Muslims made up of the Ja’fari, Ismaili and Zaidi denominations. The Saudis massacred thousands of people, mostly Shi’ite Muslims in the holy cities of Mecca, Medina, Jeddah, and Tayef, as well as on the eastern Persian Gulf coast. Today, a minority of hardly 15 percent Wahhabis is ruling the country and has deprived the Shi’ite Muslims, who still make up over 30 of the population of the whole land, of their rights.

However, despite this blatant suppression of human rights by the Saudi regime, since it is a loyal client of Britain and the US and tamely follows the policies of the West, there is no reaction towards its gross violation of human rights by the so-called international bodies. The Wahabbi clerics issued fatwas supporting the shedding of blood of Shi’ite Muslims, whether Ja’fari, Ismaili, or Zaydi. They do not give them white collar or even decent jobs. For instance, the oil which has made the Saudi regime the richest in the wealth is actually the property of the Shi’ite Muslims since it is drilled from their lands, but the Shi’ite Muslims in Saudi Arabia, do not benefit from it and remain very poor. The Wahhabi regime forbids them from observing the Muharram and other rituals and even does not allow them to hold congregational prayers. Hassan Ali al-Maleki is among the Shi’ite Muslims who was recently arrested on the charge of holding congregational prayer. It is worth noting that The executive director of Arabic Network for Human rights Information in Cairo, Jamal Eid, who is a Sunni, termed the Saudi government’s forcing of Shi’ite citizens to sign a commitment letter on not holding congregational prayer in their homes, as oppressive and anti-Islamic.

The founder and president of the Human Rights Society in Saudi Arabia, Ibrahim al-Muqaiteb, said Shi’ite Muslims are not allowed to enter Sunni mosques. The Prayer Leader of the Khobar region, Hojatoleslam Mohammad Baqer an-Nasr, who is a Shi’ite Muslim, criticized such a policy, calling it against Islamic unity. He said when the Shi’ite Muslims joined their other Muslim brethren in Sunni mosques the Wahhabis objected and forbade them to do so. Every year in the mourning month of Moharram, especially in the days leading to the anniversary of the tragic martyrdom of the Prophet’s grandson, Imam Husain (PBUH), the Saudi security forces adopt oppressive policies. This year on the day of Ashura they arrested 30 Shi’ite Muslims for commemorating the heartrending tragedy of Karbala. Since the Saudi seized control of the land many Husseiniyahs have been closed down or destroyed. Recently, Saudi Interior Minister Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz issued orders for closing of 9 mosques belonging to Shi’ite Muslims. This un-Islamic measure made the Shi’ites Muslims of al-Khobar city in Riyadh Province to send a lengthy scroll with thousands of signatures to King Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz to re-open the said mosques, but nothing has been done so far. The holy city of Medina used to have a Shi’ite Muslim population of almost 50 percent when the Saudis seized control of that city some 80 years ago, and today the Wahhabis have brought outsiders from other parts and settled in that holy city by seizing the lands of Shi’ite Muslims in order to change demography just as the Zionists are doing in occupied Islamic city of Bait al-Moqaddas.

In Saudi Arabia, a Shi’ite Muslim is humiliated from his birth till his death. At schools, Shi’ite Muslim students are insulted and are accused of being polytheist and atheist. The textbooks are full of false and hostile topics against Shi’ite Muslims. Shi’ite Muslim theologians are not permitted to openly teach the community. The regime accuses Shi’ite Muslims to be agents of Iran. After the triumph of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, and more recently following the historical victories of Lebanon’s Hezbollah over the Zionists, and the reclamation of their birthrights by the Shi’ite Muslim majority of Iraq, the Wahhabis have become more alarmed and also more brutal against the Shi’ite Muslims in Saudi Arabia. The recent Saudi offensive against the Zaydi Shi’ites of Yemen was part of these same oppressive policies. With the coming to power of Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz it was hoped that policies would change, but so far no such development has taken place. This is detrimental to Islamic unity and may badly boomerang on the Saudi regime.