Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06RIYADH3589
2006-05-10 08:30:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Riyadh
Cable title:  

SHI'A CLERIC DISCUSSES SLOW BUT SIGNIFICANT

Tags:  PGOV SCUL KIRF SA 
pdf how-to read a cable
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PP RUEHDE
DE RUEHRH #3589/01 1300830
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 100830Z MAY 06
FM AMEMBASSY RIYADH
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7268
INFO RUEHZM/GULF COOPERATION COUNCIL COLLECTIVE
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 2599
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 0540
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 RIYADH 003589 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DHAHRAN SENDS
PARIS FOR ZEYA, LONDON FOR TSOU

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/10/2016
TAGS: PGOV SCUL KIRF SA
SUBJECT: SHI'A CLERIC DISCUSSES SLOW BUT SIGNIFICANT
CHANGES INSIDE KSA

REF: RIYADH 3301

Classified by Consul General John Kincannon for reason 1.4
(d).

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 RIYADH 003589

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DHAHRAN SENDS
PARIS FOR ZEYA, LONDON FOR TSOU

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/10/2016
TAGS: PGOV SCUL KIRF SA
SUBJECT: SHI'A CLERIC DISCUSSES SLOW BUT SIGNIFICANT
CHANGES INSIDE KSA

REF: RIYADH 3301

Classified by Consul General John Kincannon for reason 1.4
(d).


1. (C) In a meeting with PolOff on April 28, Shi'a cleric
Faisal Al-Awami gave a broadly positive account of changes in
Saudi Arabia over the past 10 to 15 years. Al-Awami, who,
like many of his politically and religiously active Shi'a
colleagues, studied in Iran and Syria starting in the early
1980s, began with the caveat that change in Saudi Arabia,
even if impressive when viewed over time, was very slow.
"Young people in our community are impatient. They cannot
see these changes. Instead, they compare the situation here
to what they see in other countries like Bahrain and Kuwait
and they question why we are willing to be patient. But
those like myself in the middle generations think that Saudi
Arabia is almost a different country from 10 to 15 years ago."


2. (C) Al-Awami described three changes at length. First,
he praised increased discussion of Shi'a issues in the media.
In addition to the airing of Shi'a perspectives on Arab
satellite channels, he noted that Saudi newspapers have
recently raised Shi'a issues as well. As examples, Al-Awami
cited a decision by the conservative Al-Medina newspaper to
publish a rejoinder he drafted to an article that attacked
the Shi'a, as well as Al-Watan's decision to publish an
article by a Sunni in response to President Mubarak's public
questioning of Shi'a loyalties in which the author argued
that Shi'a did have legitimate grievances and that the way to
resolve any potential questions about loyalty was to address
those grievances. Secondly, Al-Awami expressed his
enthusiasm for the growth in Sunni-Shi'a dialogue in the
Kingdom. This dialogue began after the first Gulf war, he
explained, when some Sunni opposition figures reached out to
the Shi'a opposition, yet it was the fall of Saddam Hussein
that, in Al-Awami's view, led to a broader base of contacts
between Sunnis and Shi'a. Many Saudi Sunnis were curious
about and impressed with the positions taken by Ayatollah
Sistani in Iraq, he claimed; they then began to seek more
information about their Shi'a fellow citizens. Saudi Sunnis
were contacting him with questions through his website
(www.alawami.org),he continued, and, on a more elite level,
a number of Sunni leaders who once held hardline views toward
the Shi'a, like Ayedh Al-Gurni and the chief Sharia' judge in
Qatif, were visiting forums in Qatif and participating with
Shi'a in the National Dialogue. Finally, Al-Awami praised a
newfound openness to dialogue sponsored by civil society,
citing the forums springing up throughout the country
(reftel) and crediting Minister of Information and Culture
Iyad Al-Medani's supportive position. Al-Awami opined that
the SAG wanted to encourage these developments but had to
proceed cautiously for fear of backlash from religious
conservatives.


3. (C) Probed by PolOff on whether any Shi'a groups, such as
Saudi Hezbollah, would contemplate resorting to violence
against the SAG in protest against Shi'a grievances or for
any other reason, Al-Awami responded, "We know the clerics
here who are part of Saudi Hezbollah and talk with them
frequently. They, and even the core members of the group
living in Iran, would not support violence against the
government. They saw what happened after the explosions at
Ras Tanura, when all Shi'a were punished for the acts of a
few individuals. It was terrible for the community." (Note:
Al-Awami was referring to an explosion at an Aramco gas
plant at Ras Tanura in the mid- 1980s that was ascribed to
Shi'a perpetrators. End note.) As for his own views on the
ideal relationship between government and the religious
establishment, Al-Awami said he believed that there should be
a process by which clerics had the opportunity to vet
government decisions for conformance to the Sharia'. "But
the form this process takes, he continued, "will naturally
vary from country to country. This process is what I
consider to be wilayat al-faqih."


4. (C) Bio note and comment: PolOff was introduced to
Al-Awami by another Shi'a contact as an active preacher and
lecturer in Qatif and a participant in political dialogue
within the Shi'a community. We expect based on his account
of where he studied that he is one of the "Shirazis," a
loose-knit group of former exiles who returned to the Kingdom
in the early to mid 1990s. His comments on Saudi Hezbollah
track with what post has heard from other contacts, namely
that its leaders do not currently support violence as a
tactic and that there is open dialogue between Hezbollah
clerics and their more moderate counterparts in Qatif. End

RIYADH 00003589 002 OF 002


bio note and comment.

(APPROVED: KINCANNON)
GFOELLER