VZCZCXRO8523
PP RUEHDE
DE RUEHRH #1377/01 0650645
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 060645Z MAR 06
FM AMEMBASSY RIYADH
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 4712
INFO RUEHZM/GULF COOPERATION COUNCIL COLLECTIVE
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 2482
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 0438

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 RIYADH 001377 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DHAHRAN SENDS 
PARIS FOR ZEYA, LONDON FOR TSOU 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/05/2016 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM KIRF SA
SUBJECT: SHI'A "INDEPENDENTS" DISCUSS NEW OPPORTUNITIES FOR 
CIVIL SOCIETY, OTHER ISSUES 
 
 
Classified by Acting Consul General Dave Speidel for reasons 
1.4 (b) and (d). 
 
------- 
Summary 
------- 
 
¶1.  (C) A group of Shi'a independents again stressed to 
ConOffs their community's national identity, desire for 
reform in the Kingdom, and lack of political ties to Iran. 
They noted that the SAG is allowing the Shi'a community to 
build an active but small-scale and unofficial civil society, 
centered in Qatif, and said that other Shi'a communities in 
the Kingdom are beginning to express their identities more 
publicly.  They stressed the Saudi educational system as the 
area most in need of reform, gave examples of discrimination 
against the Shi'a in government hiring practices, expressed 
doubt about the efficacy of the Human Rights Commission to 
redress Shi'a grievances, and offered an interesting anecdote 
about the strategic thinking of President Ahmadinejad of 
Iran.  End summary. 
 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
Shi'a Communities Take Advantage of New Openings 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
¶2.  (C) CG, PolOff and PAO met on February 28 with a number 
of the Shi'a "independents" PolOff and PAO had met for the 
first time several weeks ago, including Hussein Al-Awami, 
Sheikh Abdullatif Al-Nasr, Naji Al-Nasser, Hesham Al-Quraish, 
Kathim Al-Shabeeb, and Ali Al-Marzouk (ref B).  The 
conversation began with a discussion of the regular cultural 
and even political gatherings that are springing up in the 
Qatif area (ref A).  Describing these gatherings as focal 
points for groups that verged on political parties, our 
interlocutors noted that there were at least eight such 
forums in the Qatif area.  Although the SAG will not 
officially sanction these forums and indeed has asked the 
organizers of several of them to shut them down, it is 
tacitly permitting them.  "It's better for the government to 
let us operate quietly in the open than to push us 
underground," noted Al-Quraish.  "It has enough on its hands 
trying to uncover the terrorist organizations." 
 
¶3.  (C) Shi'a across the Kingdom are taking advantage of this 
greater breathing room, said Al-Nasr.  As an example, he 
reported that the small Shi'a community in Medina had, for 
the first time this year, put out a public invitation to the 
community, through an Internet posting, to an indoor 
husseiniya gathering during Ashura.   He also said that 
small, indigenous Shi'a communities in Nejd cities such as 
Hail and Riyadh are cautiously beginning to permit their 
religious identities to be known.  (Note:  Some Shi'a hide 
their identity for self-protection, a practice known as 
"taqiyya."  Al-Nasr's remark marks the second time we have 
heard that there may be indigenous Shi'a communities in the 
Nejd.  End note.) 
 
----------------------------------------- 
Discrimination and Suggestions for Reform 
----------------------------------------- 
 
¶4.  (C) Our interlocutors offered additional information on 
discrimination against Shi'a in Saudi government hiring 
practices.  Although allowed to join the military, they said, 
Shi'a are effectively barred from any leadership role because 
they are not allowed to attend military academies and hence 
can never become officers.  (Note:  Al-Quraish added that the 
Saudi Navy allowed some Shi'a to attend its academy in the 
1960s and 1970s, but stopped after the Iranian Revolution in 
¶1979.  End note.)  Shi'a apply to the diplomatic corps, they 
also claimed, but the government will not accept them. 
(Note:  At a reception for first and second tour Mission 
officers and their Saudi MFA counterparts in Riyadh several 
weeks ago, a group of young Saudi diplomats studying at the 
MFA's training institute told PolOff that there no Qatifis 
amongst their colleagues.  "They are from an oasis," one said 
in all seriousness.  "I think they prefer farming and 
fishing."  End note.) 
 
¶5.  (C) Asked if they thought either of the human rights 
organizations in the Kingdom would be good venues to seek 
redress of these types of discrimination, our interlocutors 
said no.  "It is controlled by the government," Al-Nasr 
noted, referring to the government's Human Rights Commission 
(HRC).  Al-Awami relayed a story of a merchant he knew in 
Al-Ahsa who was arrested and then given a minor sentence for 
 
RIYADH 00001377  002 OF 002 
 
 
not going to maghreb prayer.  When he brought his case to the 
HRC, arguing that he, as a Shi'a, could legitimately combine 
the maghreb and asha prayers, he was ultimately told, 
according to Al-Awami, that the HRC could not help him 
because he was Shi'a. 
 
¶6.  (C) As in our past conversation, the group was intensely 
interested in steps the U.S. might be taking to push Saudi 
Arabia to reform politically and grant full rights to all its 
citizens.  When asked what they would recommend the U.S. 
focus on in a reform dialogue with Saudi Arabia, one 
interlocutor responded that the educational system was the 
key.  "The next generation of terrorists is being educated 
now," he said, arguing that curriculum reform efforts to date 
had produced only minor results.  Al-Awami said that the 
government had recently issued a decree stating that all 
extremists would be expelled from the Ministry of Education. 
He said that he had called Khalil Al-Khalil, a Majlis 
Al-Shura member, to ask if the decree would actually be 
implemented.  Al-Khalil, he said, responded with a belly 
laugh, "If they try to implement it they'll have to expel 75 
percent of the Ministry." 
 
--------------------- 
Iranian Brinksmanship 
--------------------- 
 
¶7.  (C) Finally, during a discussion about Iran (in which our 
interlocutors repeated the points reported in ref B), 
Al-Awami related an anecdote about President Ahmadinejad that 
the Afghan consul in Dubai, a friend of his, recently related 
to him.  "My friend the consul said that he met Ahmadinejad 
at the OIC conference in Mecca.  They knew each other as they 
had been friends from when they were students.  My friend 
asked Ahmadinejad why he was taking so dangerous a course and 
risking confrontation with the United States.  Ahmadinejad 
then talked about chess strategy for 15 minutes.  When my 
friend asked him why he was responding to the question about 
the U.S. by talking about chess, Ahmadinejad said, 'If it 
looks like we are about to be checkmated, we will change 
tactics.'" 
 
(APPROVED:  SPEIDEL) 
OBERWETTER