Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06RIYADH3306
2006-05-02 13:05:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Riyadh
Cable title:  

HASAWI SHI'A DETAIL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM VIOLATIONS,

Tags:  PGOV PHUM KIRF SA 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO0763
PP RUEHDE
DE RUEHRH #3306/01 1221305
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 021305Z MAY 06
FM AMEMBASSY RIYADH
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6958
INFO RUEHZM/GULF COOPERATION COUNCIL COLLECTIVE
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 2582
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 0523
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).

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