Saudishia.com - « Bertelsmann Stiftung » - 13 / 1 / 2010 - 9:48 am

Bertelsmann Transformation Index (BTI) has issued its annual report which included Saudi Arabia, and showed the status of transformation in Saudi Arabia, and its economic and political developments. It, also, discusses the conditions of Saudi Shiites in different fields.

The Report refers to the social structure of the Saudi population. "Saudis from Najd constitute something like an aristocracy of the country, because the House of Saud, which is heavily influenced by the Hanbali school of Shari’ah in Najd, emerged from that region. Saudis from the other regions such as ‘Asir assume a second-class position. Shiites remain in third position and subject to Saudi government abuses".

The Report indicates that many religious minorities in Saudi Arabia; Shiites in particular, suffer from discrimination and alienation. However, it clears that "Western powers have forced some measures on Saudi authorities that aim at promoting greater freedom for religious practice and increased tolerance for religious groups. These measures include policies designed to halt the dissemination of intolerant literature and extremist ideology, both within Saudi Arabia and around the world, to protect the right to private worship, and to curb harassment of religious practice. For example, the Saudi Government is conducting a comprehensive revision of textbooks and educational curricula to weed out disparaging remarks about religious groups. The Saudi government is also retraining teachers and the religious police to ensure that the rights of Muslims and non-Muslims are protected and to promote tolerance and combat extremism. The king instituted an Inter-Faith Dialogue initiative in 2008 to encourage religious tolerance on a global level".

It, also, shows how the Saudi political system does not guarantee the basic rights of citizens "such as freedoms of belief, expression, assembly or political participation", but it prohibits "government agencies from arbitrarily arresting citizens or violating their privacy (privacy of residence and correspondence)". It states that the system forbids criticism of the government, Islam, the royal family and public expression of non-Islamic religious beliefs.

The Report shows how the Shiite community, which is about 15% of the population, "faces numerous restrictions on the practice of their faith". "Shiites encounter discrimination in all areas of public sector employment, and are targets of abuse by the security services. In spite of this, there were fewer reported police raids on religious gatherings in the Western Hijaz region and in the Eastern Province during 2008 than before. In contrast, in other areas with large Shiite populations, such as Al-Ahsa and Dammam, authorities continued to restrict Shiite religious practices".

Moreover, "the legal system serves the Shiites very poorly", and "testimony by a Shiite witness is often ignored in courts or deemed to carry less weight than the testimony of a Sunni. Moreover, it is worth noting that though the expansion of the Grand Ulama Council (announced as one of the major reforms of February 2009) broke the monopoly of the Hanbali School, it does not include any of the schools of Shi’ism".

Allegiance and loyalty of Saudi Shiites are highly questioned, and they are "still viewed semi-officially (and unofficially) as Iran’s fifth column in the country". So, if the tension increased between Gulf States and Iran, violence would be practiced against the Shiite community directly.

The Report suggests that the Saudi government has to make various political, economic and social reforms, as well as significant reforms in the educational curricula in order to eliminate the aspects that promote intolerance, extremism and violence.