{"id":855,"date":"2017-09-26T15:01:24","date_gmt":"2017-09-26T15:01:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/madaresharghi.com\/hrw-saudi-arabia-allows-clerics-to-preach-hatred-against-minorities\/"},"modified":"2017-09-26T15:01:24","modified_gmt":"2017-09-26T15:01:24","slug":"hrw-saudi-arabia-allows-clerics-to-preach-hatred-against-minorities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madaresharghi.ir\/en\/hrw-saudi-arabia-allows-clerics-to-preach-hatred-against-minorities\/","title":{"rendered":"HRW: Saudi Arabia allows clerics to preach hatred against minorities"},"content":{"rendered":"

madaresharghi<\/a>
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Some Saudi state clerics and institutions incite hatred and discrimination against religious minorities, including the country\u2019s Shia Muslim minority, Human Rights Watch said in a report.<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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\n\tAccording to hrw.org, the 62-page report, \u201c\u2018They Are Not Our Brothers\u2019: Hate Speech by Saudi Officials,\u201d documents that Saudi Arabia has permitted government-appointed religious scholars and clerics to refer to religious minorities in derogatory terms or demonize them in official documents and religious rulings that influence government decision-making. In recent years, government clerics and others have used the Internet and social media to demonize and incite hatred against Shia Muslims and others who do not conform to their views.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSaudi Arabia has relentlessly promoted a reform narrative in recent years, yet it allows government-affiliated clerics and textbooks to openly demonize religious minorities such as Shia,\u201d said\u00a0Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. \u201cThis hate speech prolongs the systematic discrimination against the Shia minority and \u2013 at its worst \u2013 is employed by violent groups who attack them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHuman Rights Watch found that the incitement, along with anti-Shia bias in the criminal justice system and the Education Ministry\u2019s religion curriculum, is instrumental in enforcing discrimination against Saudi Shia citizens.<\/p>\n

\n\tGovernment clerics often refer to Shia as rafidha <\/em>or rawafidh <\/em>(rejectionists) and stigmatize their beliefs and practices. They have also condemned mixing and intermarriage. One member of Saudi Arabia\u2019s\u00a0Council of Senior Religious Scholars, the country\u2019s highest religious body, responded in a public meeting to a question about Shia Muslims by stating that \u201cthey are not our brothers … rather they are brothers of Satan\u2026\u201d.<\/p>\n

\n\tSuch hate speech may have fatal consequences when armed groups such as Daesh or Al-Qaeda use it to justify targeting Shia civilians. Since mid-2015, Daesh has attacked six Shia mosques and religious buildings in Saudi Arabia\u2019s Eastern Province and Najran, killing more than 40 people. Daesh news releases claiming these attacks stated that the attackers were targeting \u201cedifices of\u00a0shirk,<\/em>\u201d (polytheism), and\u00a0rafidha,\u00a0<\/em>terms used in Saudi religious education textbooks to target the Shia.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n\tSaudi Arabia\u2019s former grand mufti, Abdulaziz Bin Baz, who died in 1999, condemned Shia in numerous religious rulings. Bin Baz\u2019s body of fatwas and writings remain\u00a0publicly available on the website\u00a0of Saudi Arabia\u2019s Permanent Committee for Islamic Research and Issuing Fatwas.<\/p>\n

\n\tSome clerics use language that suggests Shia are part of a conspiracy against the state. The government also allows other clerics with enormous social media followings \u2013 some in the millions \u2013 and media outlets to stigmatize Shia with impunity.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnti-Shia bias extends to the Saudi judicial system, which is controlled by the religious establishment and often subjects Shia to discriminatory treatment or arbitrarily criminalizes Shia religious practices. In 2015, for example, a Saudi court sentenced a Shia citizen to two months in jail and 60 lashes for hosting private Shia group prayers in his father\u2019s home. In 2014, a Saudi Arabia court convicted a Sunni man of \u201csitting with Shia.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Saudi Ministry of Education religion curriculum\u00a0al-tawhid,<\/em>\u00a0or monotheism, which is taught at the primary, middle, and secondary education levels, uses veiled language to stigmatize Shia religious practices as shirk <\/em>or ghulah <\/em>(exaggeration).<\/p>\n

\n\tInternational human rights law requires governments to prohibit \u201cany advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence.\u201d Implementation of this prohibition has been uneven and sometimes used as a pretext to restrict lawful speech or target minority groups. Any steps to counter hate speech should be carried out within overall guarantees of freedom of expression.<\/p>\n

\n\tTo address this problem, experts in recent years have proposed a test to establish whether any particular speech can be lawfully limited. Under this formula, the speech Human Rights Watch documented by Saudi religious scholars sometimes rises to the level of hate speech or incitement to hatred or discrimination. Other statements don\u2019t cross that threshold, but authorities should publicly repudiate and counteract it. Given the influence and reach of these scholars, their statements advance a system of discrimination against Shia citizens.<\/p>\n

\n\tSaudi authorities should order an immediate halt to hate speech by state-affiliated clerics and government agencies.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has repeatedly classified Saudi Arabia as a \u201ccountry of particular concern\u201d \u2013 its harshest designation for countries that violate religious freedom.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe 1998 International Religious Freedom Act allows the president to issue a waiver if it would \u201cfurther the purposes\u201d of the act or if \u201cthe important national interest of the United States requires the exercise of such waiver authority.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tUS presidents have issued such waivers for Saudi Arabia since 2006.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe US government should rescind the waiver and work with Saudi authorities to end incitement to hatred or discrimination against Shia and Sufi citizens, as well as other religions. The US should also press for removal of all criticism and stigmatization of Shia and Sufi religious practices, as well as practices of other religions, from the Saudi religious education curriculum.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cDespite Saudi Arabia\u2019s poor record on religious freedom, the US has shielded Saudi Arabia from possible sanctions under US law,\u201d Whitson said. \u201cThe US government should apply its own laws to hold its Saudi ally accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

madaresharghi Some Saudi state clerics and institutions incite hatred and discrimination against religious minorities, including the country\u2019s Shia Muslim minority, Human Rights Watch said in a report. According to hrw.org, the 62-page report, \u201c\u2018They Are Not Our Brothers\u2019: Hate Speech by Saudi Officials,\u201d documents that Saudi Arabia has permitted government-appointed religious scholars and clerics to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[639],"yoast_head":"\nHRW: Saudi Arabia allows clerics to preach hatred against minorities - madaresharghi | An Analytical Look at Middle Eastern Developments<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/madaresharghi.ir\/en\/hrw-saudi-arabia-allows-clerics-to-preach-hatred-against-minorities\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"HRW: Saudi Arabia allows clerics to preach hatred against minorities - madaresharghi | An Analytical Look at Middle Eastern Developments\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"madaresharghi Some Saudi state clerics and institutions incite hatred and discrimination against religious minorities, including the country\u2019s Shia Muslim minority, Human Rights Watch said in a report. 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