Sectarian Clashes

Saudi Shia had occasionally held demonstrations since 1979. Yet, these were usually tied to a wider regional issue and only implicitly touched upon domestic Saudi matters. After anti-Israeli protests in 2002, Saudi Shia went out again in 2006 to voice their opposition to the Israeli attacks on Lebanon. In December 2008, anti-Israeli protesters displayed Hizbullah flags and pictures of Hasan Nasrallah, and the security forces arrested thirty. But in February 2009 sectarian clashes between Sunni and Shia pilgrims, the latter mainly from the Eastern Province, broke out at the al-Baqiʿ cemetery in Medina, leading to injuries and arrests. Follow-up demonstrations in Safwa, Awwamiyya and Qatif were the first large demonstrations on a domestic Saudi Shia matter since 1980.

Some Shia arrested in February 2009 in the wake of the clashes and demonstrations were released after a Shia delegation met King Abdullah in Riyadh on 3 March 2009. After the clashes in Medina, security forces in the Eastern Province told religious leaders to refrain from communal prayers in order not to heighten tensions. The cleric Nimr al-Nimr, however, did not obey this order. Opposed to the 1993 agreement, al-Nimr disavowed any engagement with the state, had called for a boycott of the municipal elections and had at one point demanded a share of the oil income for the Shia. On 13 March he delivered an angry sermon in his small mosque on the outskirts of Awwamiyya that was widely disseminated on the web. In it, he blamed the Saudi leadership for the events in Medina and for the situation of the Shia in Saudi Arabia and reserved the right of the Eastern Province Shia to secede one day. After the sermon, al-Nimr went into hiding to evade arrest. Small demonstrations were held in his support in Awwamiyya. The ruling family saw this as a confirmation of Shia disloyalty, while the remnants of the Shia opposition abroad tried to capitalise on these new developments.