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In Legacy of a Revered Martyr, Saudi Shiites Find Sustenance
The monarch has been brought into the fray. In a widely circulated interview last week, Abdullah was asked about claims in the Arab media that Iran is attempting mass conversions of Sunnis to Shiism. Without mentioning Iran by name, he told the Kuwaiti daily al-Seyassah that the kingdom was aware of the issue but that Sunnis were immune to conversion and would retain their historical dominance.
Shiites here say Iraq's sectarian violence in particular has inflamed local anti-Shiite feelings. Lawyer and activist Sadeq al-Jubran accused extremist Sunnis of importing the problems of Iraq into the kingdom unnecessarily.
  A Saudi man weeps as he watches the reenactment of Imam Hussein's killing in A.D. 680. (Hasan Jamali - AP) |
"What's happening in Iraq is not my problem. If Sunnis and Shiites kill each other off, that's in Iraq," Jubran said. "But what's worrisome is that you have people here asking clerics whether it's permissible to kill Shiites because Shiites in Iraq are killing Sunnis."
Hassan al-Saffar, the country's most prominent Shiite cleric, said anti-Shiite fatwas are dangerous and should be criminalized. The community's sympathies with Shiites in Iran or Iraq should not be taken against it, the soft-spoken cleric said. "We are Saudi citizens concerned first of all with local issues. Our religious sympathies do not affect the security and stability of the country," he said.
Despite the common religious ties of the region's Shiites, Saudi Shiites have different interests and live in a different context, said Shiite writer and former dissident Taufiq al-Seif. "Shiites here have reached a level of political maturity and have realized that though they sympathize with co-religionists in the region, they have their own concerns and their own very unique situation. Our interests lie not with Iran but very much with other Saudis."
Speaking at a recent Ashura gathering, Seif urged his listeners to distinguish between religion and politics and not to be swayed by ideology. "We should not sympathize with Shiites just because they're Shiites, even when they are wrong," he told the dozens gathered.
Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr, who was detained last year for calling for greater religious freedoms, said Shiites have learned from the example of Hussein to refuse injustice imposed by tyrannical leaders.
"You can't separate Shiite Islam from politics," Nimr said. "It's in the nature of Shiites to fight oppression, and it's in the nature of governments to be oppressive, so naturally there is a confrontation." Nimr said that he did not condone violence or confrontation but that he had learned from the lesson of Hussein not to fear death and to fight for his rights.
Outside, Qatif, a predominantly Shiite enclave that is home to about 900,000 people, was an area in mourning. Black cloth covered entire sides of small apartment buildings, while young boys and girls ran around with red and green mourning bands tied around their heads with the words "O Hussein, O Martyr" sewn on them.
In the Awami neighborhood in the town of Tarut, huge portraits of Hussein, some with blood running down his forehead, lined an empty sandlot in preparation for a reenactment of the events in Karbala surrounding his death. Black and white tents were pitched next to red papier-mache rocks, and plastic sheets were laid out to look like the Euphrates River in Iraq.
On Sunday, after the call to afternoon prayers, Muhammad Zaki Khabbaz took off his jacket and joined several hundred young men for a funeral procession. They snaked their way through narrow, garbage-strewn alleys dotted with green and red banners, beating their chests rhythmically as a poem about the events in Karbala was recited through a bullhorn. The group passed under a covered alleyway with a large cloth banner that read, "Every day is Ashura, and Every Place is Karbala."
"Imam Hussein died rather than bow down to the oppressor," said Khabbaz, a 27-year-old computer company manager. "And by commemorating Ashura, we are confirming our allegiance to never giving up and to upholding those principles.
"When we beat our chests, we are saying that we will never forget Imam Hussein's tragedy," he said. "Every day there is oppression is Ashura, and every place there is oppression is Karbala. And every day, we will fight that oppression."
