HASAWI SHI'A DETAIL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM VIOLATIONS,

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 RIYADH 003306 SIPDIS SIPDIS DHAHRAN SENDS PARIS FOR ZEYA, LONDON FOR TSOU E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/02/2016 TAGS: PGOV PHUM KIRF SA SUBJECT: HASAWI SHI'A DETAIL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM VIOLATIONS, DISCRIMINATION, AND THEIR ATTEMPTS TO OVERCOME Classified by Consul General John Kincannon for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C) Summary: In separate conversations with PolOff in Al-Ahsa on April 25, two groups of Shi'a leaders and activists discussed discrimination and restrictions on their religious freedom, as well as steps they had taken to address some of these problems. Abdulaziz Al-Bahrany, the patient and soft-spoken appointed member and vice president of the Al-Ahsa municipal council, expressed his disgust at the "tribal" way teaching fellows are selected at King Faisal University, noting that his attempts to raise this issue with the administration had proved futile. Activist Sadeq Al-Jubran and his colleagues discussed restrictions on Shi'a religious practices and institutions in Al-Ahsa and Dammam. Al-Jubran showed PolOff pictures of a recent meeting between a Shi'a delegation and Interior Minister Naif; Prince Naif's response to the issues they raised, according to Al-Jubran, was, "We'll see." End summary. -------------- -------------- Geographic Segregation, Educational Discrimination -------------- -------------- ¶2. (C) University professor and municipal council vice president Abdulaziz Al-Bahrany, businessman and community organizer Sadeq Al-Ramadan, and eye surgeon Taher Al-Bahrany described to PolOff the growing separation between Sunni and Shi'a communities in Al-Ahsa, an oasis area whose Saudi population is roughly half Sunni and half Shi'a. Sunnis and Shi'a generally lived amicably as neighbors in Al-Ahsa in the past, they noted, but beginning in the 1980s segregation began to take root. "The government tore down the old neighborhoods in the center of Hufuf," Al-Ramadan explained, "so people bought into new neighborhoods. Although both Sunni and Shi'a would buy into a new area, one group would then sell out to the other, segregating the neighborhood." The three attributed this process of mostly voluntary segregation to communal tensions that developed after 1979. ¶3. (C) The conversation turned to discrimination against Shi'a in the education system. Al-Ramadan claimed that there were no Shi'a principals at approximately 400 girls' schools in Al-Ahsa, and five Shi'a principals at about 350 boys' schools. He noted that there were no Shi'a heads or deputy heads of government departments in Al-Ahsa (a claim we have heard about Qatif as well). Turning to higher education, Abdulaziz Al-Bahrany estimated that at King Faisal University in Al-Ahsa only 1 or 2 percent of professors were Shi'a. He seemed particularly upset about the method used for selecting teaching assistants from among the students. "They (the administration) just pick the students they want, not the ones who are qualified and never Shi'a. Then they send them abroad for training, but they still aren't qualified. So they give them more instruction here, but it doesn't help. I wrote a memo to the president giving him details on this problem, but he has done nothing. It's a tribal system; they don't want to change it." Al-Ramadan summarized the Shi'a situation by saying, "We pay all the costs of citizenship and get none of the benefits." Anticipating PolOff's next question, Taher Al-Bahrany continued, "But we are loyal to our country. What choice do we have?" -------------- -- Religious Freedom Restrictions Outside of Qatif -------------- -- ¶4. (C) Community leader and lawyer Sadeq Al-Jubran; his legal associates Hussain Al-Bakshi and Abdulraheem Bo-Khamseen (also an elected member of the Al-Ahsa municipal council); Al-Jubran's brother Mohammed Al-Jubran, a hospital administrator and member of the National Society for Human Rights' (NSHR's) Eastern Province (EP) branch; and community leader Sheikh Adel Bo-Khamseen discussed with PolOff restrictions on religious freedom encountered by the Shi'a outside of Qatif, an area where Shi'a form the overwhelming majority of the population and where the SAG has permitted increased religious freedom. ¶5. (C) The group made the following claims, which will be reflected in post's input to the 2006 International Religious Freedom report: --Hawza: The long-standing hawza, or Shi'a religious training school, in Al-Ahsa is registered as a private house (in the name of Ali Al-Nasr) after the municipality refused to register it as a religious school. The government does RIYADH 00003306 002 OF 003 not provide money or other support to the hawza or provide employment for its graduates, as it does for many Sunni religious training institutions. The government turned down a request from Shi'a religious leaders to establish another hawza. (Note: We believe there are several undeclared hawzas in Qatif, although they may have as much a political as a religious function. End note.) --Mosques: Five new Shi'a mosques have been approved in Al-Ahsa in the last four or five years, in addition to a number of mosques in Qatif. In Al-Ahsa, government approval has depended on geography, with permission often not granted for Shi'a mosques in newer neighborhoods. The municipality, Ministry of Islamic Affairs, and the emirate must approve permits for a new Shi'a mosque; the emirate, which houses the branch Ministry of Interior office, does not need to approve Sunni mosques, and the process for Shi'a mosques always takes longer than for Sunni mosques. The SAG has refused to give permission for Shi'a mosques in Dammam. Two recent refusals, both for mosques requested by the Nimr family in Dammam, have been brought to the NSHR's EP branch. The government does not support Shi'a mosques or their employees financially, nor does it regulate or have a say in picking their imams. --Cemetery in Dammam: The Shi'a community in Dammam has sought for several years to establish a cemetery in Dammam, but the municipality will not allow them to buy land for this purpose. The Sunni cemeteries will not accept Shi'a for burial, forcing Shi'a residents of Dammam to bury their dead in Qatif or Al-Ahsa. According to Sadeq Al-Jubran, the issue of a Shi'a cemetery for Dammam was high on the agenda of a Shi'a delegation in a March 2006 meeting with Interior Minister Naif. The delegation, as shown in several pictures Al-Jubran proudly showed PolOff, included Al-Jubran, Jafar Al-Shayeb (an elected member and president of Qatif's municipal council),Sheikh Fawzi Al-Seif, Isa Al-Muzel (an elected member of Qatif's municipal council),and Abdulraheem Bo-Khamseen. According to Al-Jubran's account, "When we raised the issue of the cemetery, Prince Naif suggested perhaps the real problem was a shortage of land. We told him, no, there is plenty of land, but the municipality won't give us permission to use it to establish a cemetery. He then asked why Shi'a can't be buried in the already established graveyards in Dammam. We told him that would be great, but they wouldn't accept us. On this and other issues we raised, his final answer was, 'We'll see.'" --Husseiniyas: The government will not register Shi'a husseiniyas, which in Shi'a communities in other countries are endowed institutions that serve as community and religious centers. The Shi'a build new husseiniyas in people's homes, but they cannot be permanently endowed by the family that builds them, a legal reality that makes their status more tenuous, especially upon succession within a family. --Ashura: In contrast to the relatively free celebrations of Ashura in Qatif, in both Al-Ahsa and Dammam the government restricts Shi'a practices. In both places the broadcasting of husseiniya lectures into the street is prohibited, as are commemorative processions and public display of commemorative items such as the hanging of black cloth outside one's house. Al-Bakshi claimed that at least one Hasawi Shi'a was detained several days this year for hanging black cloth. There are also some restrictions during Ashura on which husseiniyas can be used and when. Sadeq Al-Jubran said that he went to the local mubahith offices this year to ask why the SAG would not loosen its restrictions in Al-Ahsa and received "no answer." --Other issues: The government continues to prohibit import or sale of Shi'a religious materials, although Shi'a do smuggle such materials in from Bahrain and, in Qatif, sell certain materials on the street during Ashura. Shiekh Bo-Khamseen described the ban as "laughable in the Internet age." Sunni men are permitted to marry Shi'a women, but the government will not grant marriage licenses to male Shi'a-female Sunni couples. -------------- Comment -------------- ¶6. (C) Having achieved a measure of religious freedom in Qatif, the Shi'a are clearly pushing to expand at least elements of this freedom to Al-Ahsa and Dammam. In the case of Dammam, they are seeking recognition that there is a RIYADH 00003306 003 OF 003 significant Shi'a community within the city limits, recognition that would be implicit in approval for a mosque or cemetery. As Sadeq Al-Jubran put it, "The government is doing everything it can not to admit there are Shi'a in Dammam. But we make up at least one third of the population." (Note: We have no way of judging the Shi'a/Sunni ratio in Dammam, though we doubt it is as high as Al-Jubran suggests. Other Shi'a contacts have also raised the same issue, however, noting that a number of Dammam neighborhoods, particularly those close to Seihat, are overwhelmingly Shi'a. End note.) Neither the Al-Jubran nor the Al-Bahrany group was optimistic that their efforts to seek redress for specific grievances via the NSHR, Prince Naif, or the university administration would bear fruit in the near future, but they appear determined to keep trying. End comment. (APPROVED: KINCANNON) GFOELLER