SHI'A "INDEPENDENTS" DISCUSS NEW OPPORTUNITIES FOR

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 RIYADH 001377

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DHAHRAN SENDS
PARIS FOR ZEYA, LONDON FOR TSOU

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/05/2016
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM KIRF SA
SUBJECT: SHI'A "INDEPENDENTS" DISCUSS NEW OPPORTUNITIES FOR
CIVIL SOCIETY, OTHER ISSUES


Classified by Acting Consul General Dave Speidel for reasons
1.4 (b) and (d).

--------------
Summary
--------------


1. (C) A group of Shi'a independents again stressed to
ConOffs their community's national identity, desire for
reform in the Kingdom, and lack of political ties to Iran.
They noted that the SAG is allowing the Shi'a community to
build an active but small-scale and unofficial civil society,
centered in Qatif, and said that other Shi'a communities in
the Kingdom are beginning to express their identities more
publicly. They stressed the Saudi educational system as the
area most in need of reform, gave examples of discrimination
against the Shi'a in government hiring practices, expressed
doubt about the efficacy of the Human Rights Commission to
redress Shi'a grievances, and offered an interesting anecdote
about the strategic thinking of President Ahmadinejad of
Iran. End summary.

-------------- ---
Shi'a Communities Take Advantage of New Openings
-------------- ---


2. (C) CG, PolOff and PAO met on February 28 with a number
of the Shi'a "independents" PolOff and PAO had met for the
first time several weeks ago, including Hussein Al-Awami,
Sheikh Abdullatif Al-Nasr, Naji Al-Nasser, Hesham Al-Quraish,
Kathim Al-Shabeeb, and Ali Al-Marzouk (ref B). The
conversation began with a discussion of the regular cultural
and even political gatherings that are springing up in the
Qatif area (ref A). Describing these gatherings as focal
points for groups that verged on political parties, our
interlocutors noted that there were at least eight such
forums in the Qatif area. Although the SAG will not
officially sanction these forums and indeed has asked the
organizers of several of them to shut them down, it is
tacitly permitting them. "It's better for the government to
let us operate quietly in the open than to push us
underground," noted Al-Quraish. "It has enough on its hands
trying to uncover the terrorist organizations."


3. (C) Shi'a across the Kingdom are taking advantage of this
greater breathing room, said Al-Nasr. As an example, he
reported that the small Shi'a community in Medina had, for
the first time this year, put out a public invitation to the
community, through an Internet posting, to an indoor
husseiniya gathering during Ashura. He also said that
small, indigenous Shi'a communities in Nejd cities such as
Hail and Riyadh are cautiously beginning to permit their
religious identities to be known. (Note: Some Shi'a hide
their identity for self-protection, a practice known as
"taqiyya." Al-Nasr's remark marks the second time we have
heard that there may be indigenous Shi'a communities in the
Nejd. End note.)

--------------
Discrimination and Suggestions for Reform
--------------


4. (C) Our interlocutors offered additional information on
discrimination against Shi'a in Saudi government hiring
practices. Although allowed to join the military, they said,
Shi'a are effectively barred from any leadership role because
they are not allowed to attend military academies and hence
can never become officers. (Note: Al-Quraish added that the
Saudi Navy allowed some Shi'a to attend its academy in the
1960s and 1970s, but stopped after the Iranian Revolution in

1979. End note.) Shi'a apply to the diplomatic corps, they
also claimed, but the government will not accept them.
(Note: At a reception for first and second tour Mission
officers and their Saudi MFA counterparts in Riyadh several
weeks ago, a group of young Saudi diplomats studying at the
MFA's training institute told PolOff that there no Qatifis
amongst their colleagues. "They are from an oasis," one said
in all seriousness. "I think they prefer farming and
fishing." End note.)


5. (C) Asked if they thought either of the human rights
organizations in the Kingdom would be good venues to seek
redress of these types of discrimination, our interlocutors
said no. "It is controlled by the government," Al-Nasr
noted, referring to the government's Human Rights Commission
(HRC). Al-Awami relayed a story of a merchant he knew in
Al-Ahsa who was arrested and then given a minor sentence for

RIYADH 00001377 002 OF 002


not going to maghreb prayer. When he brought his case to the
HRC, arguing that he, as a Shi'a, could legitimately combine
the maghreb and asha prayers, he was ultimately told,
according to Al-Awami, that the HRC could not help him
because he was Shi'a.


6. (C) As in our past conversation, the group was intensely
interested in steps the U.S. might be taking to push Saudi
Arabia to reform politically and grant full rights to all its
citizens. When asked what they would recommend the U.S.
focus on in a reform dialogue with Saudi Arabia, one
interlocutor responded that the educational system was the
key. "The next generation of terrorists is being educated
now," he said, arguing that curriculum reform efforts to date
had produced only minor results. Al-Awami said that the
government had recently issued a decree stating that all
extremists would be expelled from the Ministry of Education.
He said that he had called Khalil Al-Khalil, a Majlis
Al-Shura member, to ask if the decree would actually be
implemented. Al-Khalil, he said, responded with a belly
laugh, "If they try to implement it they'll have to expel 75
percent of the Ministry."

--------------
Iranian Brinksmanship
--------------


7. (C) Finally, during a discussion about Iran (in which our
interlocutors repeated the points reported in ref B),
Al-Awami related an anecdote about President Ahmadinejad that
the Afghan consul in Dubai, a friend of his, recently related
to him. "My friend the consul said that he met Ahmadinejad
at the OIC conference in Mecca. They knew each other as they
had been friends from when they were students. My friend
asked Ahmadinejad why he was taking so dangerous a course and
risking confrontation with the United States. Ahmadinejad
then talked about chess strategy for 15 minutes. When my
friend asked him why he was responding to the question about
the U.S. by talking about chess, Ahmadinejad said, 'If it
looks like we are about to be checkmated, we will change
tactics.'"

(APPROVED: SPEIDEL)
OBERWETTER