Saudi officials arrest Shias over worship services
Wed, 07 Apr 2010 03:43:01 GMT
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Saudi authorities have arrested several Shia community leaders in the eastern parts of the oil-rich country for hosting Shia worship services in their homes.
"A 30-year old school teacher was detained on Monday in al-Khobar — 500km (310 miles) east of Riyadh — while three other Shias had been arrested a week earlier for private services on the Ashura —: a mourning ceremony to commemorate the martyrdom anniversary of the third holiest figure of Shia Islam — last December," Middle East Online quoted Ibrahim Mugaiteeb of the Human Rights First Society as saying.
Mugaiteeb added that Saudi authorities had shut down several makeshift Shia mosques and refused a mosque permit to the 20,000-strong al-Khobar Shia community.
"They cannot have their own mosques, and they can't pray in a Sunni mosque," he said. "They are not allowed to have prayers in the streets."
The Human Rights official said that three of those arrested were from al-Maki family; Hassan Ali al-Maki, the teacher arrested Monday, Abdullah Fahad al-Maki, 73, and Hassan Ali al-Maki, 45.
"The fourth man was Mahdi Ahmad al-Khodhair, 64, and all were arrested March 29," Mugaiteeb said.
The Shias constitute around 10 percent of the population in Saudi Arabia , where Wahhabism, also known as Salafism, has been accused of fueling and funding terrorism against the Shia community.
MP/CS/DT
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