Ashura in Saudi Arabia

Ashura in Saudi Arabia
www.saudishia.com
Released: December 5, 2012
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Ashura in Saudi Arabia
Contents
Introduction
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Shiites’ Leaders’ Discourse
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 Human Rights
 Shiite and Social Issues
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 Political Topics
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Media Coverage
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 Ashura
 Aish AlHusain
 Ashura… Hashura… Khashura
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Introduction
In the light of expectations for having a tense Ashura season in the Shiite regions in Saudi Arabia after
the events of the last two years during which there were several confrontations with security forces,
this year’s season of Ashura ended without disturbance and involved various events and activities as
well as distinctive religious discourse that addressed significant social and political issues.
This report presents the most witnessed orientations that characterizes Ashura season for this year in
Qatif, Saudi Arabia, for viewing the political scene in the region after the events which had occurred in
the aftermath of the Arab Spring.
Social and Religious Activities
Mainly, people here are holding
lectures in different social,
intellectual religious and political
fields delivered by religious and
public speakers. During recent
years, many activities were
carried out such as poem sessions
and art exhibitions as well as
social and health programs
including blood and organ
donation campaigns and health
education corners. Thousands of
Shiites of both men and women
participate in these activities and
events.
In a move that was considered the first in local press, AlSharq Newspaper (in its Issue No. 360 dated
November 28, 2012) covered Ashura season in Qatif. AlSharq mentioned that most governmental
departments participated in providing facilities to citizens for carrying out activities, and many police
patrol vehicles spread in the region for maintaining security and facilitating traffic movement. It, also,
reported that municipalities were keen on cleaning the streets and collecting the accumulated garbage
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in a daily basis due to the spread of corners (Madhif) that provide free food and beverages everywhere
in Qatif. Moreover, temporary camps and tents that were installed in some areas were checked by the
civil defense in order to ensure their safety.
Many intellectuals in Qatif referred to the higher level of social coherence between citizens. One of
them said, through AlSharq Newspaper, that
brotherhood is the relationship between Sunnis and
Shiites in the region, and Sunnis in Qatif share Shiites
their sad and happy events.
Many campaigns for blood donation were conducted in
four places in Qatif region; Qatif, Qudaih, Saihat and
Safwa. More than 1284 of citizens had donated for
blood banks in the Eastern Province hospitals such as
the Regional Blood Bank in Dammam, King Fahad
Specialist Hospital in Dammam and Qatif Central
Hospital, and more than 35 of doctors, specialists and
medical technicians as well as dozens of organizers and civil committees participated in those
campaigns.
Shiites’ Leaders’ Discourse
The speeches, which were attended by thousands of people, covered different ranges of issues which
seem to be inter-related to the current regional and local developments. Beside the regular subjects
that are presented every year including historical and social ones, this year included subjects on human
rights and political issues.
Human Rights
In a lecture entitled “People Are the Source of
Legitimacy” delivered on Monday, November 19, 2012,
Sheikh Hasan AlSaffar said that what Muslims are living
today of submission to military regimes and totalitarian
governments is definitely the remains of tyrannical
ages.
He emphasized that the jurisprudential opinions that
legitimize seizing power by force date back to the
Umayyad Era which laid the basis for such action. He
confirmed that there are no religious texts in Islam that
legalize ruling people by force.
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AlSaffar mentioned that people, in our contemporary time, refuse to consider regimes, which are
ruling by force, violence or military coups, as legitimate. While discussing religious legitimacy of the
state, he emphasized that people are the main legitimacy source for any government.
On another lecture entitled “Democracy and Public Participation” that was delivered on November 21,
2012, Sheikh Hasan AlSaffar considered democratic system is the closest systems to the Islamic values
and principles, but political tyranny and religious radicalism hindered democratic system to exist in the
Arab world.
He pointed out that this state of tyranny began gradually fading away and all indications show that
democracy is the future. He, also, mentioned that democracy represents the real Islam which
promotes establishing a partnership between authority and all citizens in decision-making process.
AlSaffar attributed most of disputes and crises in the Arab states to the existence of an unjust
relationship between governments and their citizens. He rejected the idea of democracy being a
western invention only, and indicated that real Islam undoubtedly urges people to benefit from others’
experiences, and what we need from the democratic system is its mechanisms; not its intellectual
background.
Sheikh AlSaffar criticized the predominance of states in the Arab world through imposing extreme
restrictions and dominating the civil society. This was in his eighth Ashura lecture which was delivered
on Thursday, November 22, 2012, and titled “The Civil Society; Official Restrictions and Public
Interaction”.
He criticized such restrictions over all civil activities in different commercial, intellectual and religious
fields in the region. He attributed this to the governments’ suspicion in all civil, voluntary activities
especially those related to politics and human rights. He indicated that such attitudes would not be for
the nation’s interest, and confirmed that the international conventions are now emphasizing on the
individual’s right to freedom of association and assembly and the right to belong to them.
AlSaffar said that although there are many Islamic texts urging voluntary work and charity, there are
only 600 societies in Saudi Arabia whereas there are hundreds of thousands of them in many other
states. He called for getting involved in civil society action and for establishing more institutions that
promote the potentials of youth of both genders and that address critical social issues like family
disputes, addiction to drugs and thefts.
In his ninth public speech on Ashura Season, Sheikh Hasan AlSaffar called for establishing an elected
parliament that replaces the officially appointed Shura council in Saudi Arabia. AlSaffar, in his lecture
which was titled “Parliaments and Public Representation” delivered on November 23, 2012, said that
although this parliament would withdraw some powers from the executive authority, it would enforce
its legitimacy between citizens.
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Sheikh AlSaffar stated that the elected parliament would contribute in solving the state’s issues, and
would hold its responsibility of enacting laws and regulation as well as approving balanced
development and controlling the executive authority.
On the other hand, AlSaffar confirmed women’s right to assume leadership and public positions in
Saudi Arabia. He emphasized that there is no approved evidences in Islam that prevent women from
holding such positions.
Shiite and Social Issues
Sheikh Fawzy AlSaif, a prominent public speaker, delivered a lecture titled “The History of Khoja
Shiites; the grand religious authority’s role and the public’s effectiveness” on the evening of Sunday,
November 18, 2012. He explained the meaning of
“Khoja” which is a term used to call a group of
people, originally Hindu, who converted to Islam.
He said that most of those people followed the
Ismaili Shiite sect but during their visit to Najaf,
Iraq, and meeting Sheikh Zain AlAbideen
AlMazandarani they converted to Twelver Shiites.
AlSaif mentioned that the Khoja, nowadays, live in
several places such as India, United Kingdom, Kenya
and Tanzania, and they are effective. The Khoja
community adopts a constitution and hold elections regardless of the existing political regime because
they seek democracy between them. He called for benefiting from the experience of Shiite Khoja in
regulating the society’s affairs.
On the evening of Monday, November 19, 2012, Dr. Sheikh Faisal AlAwwami delivered a lecture
entitled “Freedom to Express Religious Views” as a
response to the debate about filming prophets.
He attributed raising this topic to several reasons.
Dr. AlAwwami discussed in detail those reasons
which are the necessity to clear out the confusion
between the real manners of Prophet Mohammad
(PBUH) and Muslims’ practices throughout history,
and the local failure to understand the culture of
diversity as well as the freedom to express religious
views, and the criticism coming from outside of
that Islam does not promote the freedom of
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expression.
He confirmed the necessity of referring to Qur’an’s real interpretations and the Prophet’s real
biography and conducts to know about Islam’s true principles and provisions.
In his first lecture “Your Leadership in This World Is Leading You in the Hereafter” in Muharram
delivered on November 15, 2012, Sheikh Hasan AlSaffar rejected the accusations against Shiites of
being anti the companions of Prophet Mohammad, and against Sunnis of being anti the Prophet’s
family (Ahl AlBayt). He said that there are radical groups from both sects; Shiite and Sunni, who seek
exploiting such accusations to create division between citizens in order to serve their own political
interests. AlSaffar added that choosing a leadership is a serious, significant matter, and we should
choose according to the Islamic principles and constraints; not according to our affiliations i.e. tribes,
sects or parties.
On another lecture titled "The Balanced Society
and Making of Visions" delivered on the evening
of Sunday, November 18, 2012, Sayyed Moneer
AlKhabbaz, a prominent religious leader from
Qatif, talked about the four features of a
powerful, balanced society. He confirmed that
those features are determining goals, the
public’s self-supervision, making collective
decisions and promoting social solidarity.
Sayyed AlKhabbaz focused on explaining how the
society can adopt its own visions and make its
own decisions. He, also, mentioned the three pillars for decision-making; reading reality with a
scientific approach, benefiting from experiences and adopting the Islamic law.
In his lecture dated November 18, 2012, Sheikh
Mustafa AlMusa talked about the prevalence of
many serious criminal issues in Qatif’s society
such as murders, thefts and various criminal
acts. He pointed several reasons for such
situation, and considered the spread of drugs as
the most dangerous one because drugs lead the
individual to other problems which might harm
the society and threaten its stability.
He mentioned some of the statistics for the
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years from 1430AH to 1432AH (2009-2011) which were presented by the Ministry of Interior noting
that 181,145,914 pills of Amphetamine had entered the region besides 61, 500, 468kg of weeds as well
as 222,187kg of Heroin.
He pointed to the voluntary work of Straight Line Group which is also called “Saudi Narcotics
Anonymous” which works on treating addicted people in total secrecy. He confirmed that they
succeeded in addressing many cases of addiction, and mentioned that the group is an independent
society, not attached to any official institution and can be found in the Prince Nayef Sports City in Qatif.
Dr. Sheikh Faisal AlAwwami delivered a lecture on “The Modern Means of Social Media” on the
evening of Sunday, November 18, 2012, in which he mentioned that these means of social media are
definitely a great blessing, but they have negative impacts that must be avoided.
He said that mass media are used by many groups and authorities to influence people negatively
through delivering hidden messages by various means and creating the stimulating atmospheres. He
indicated that the solution for such situation is in creating substituting and competing atmospheres like
parental monitoring and tolerant religious discourse in order to prevent such negative impacts.
On one of his public speeches for this Ashura season, Dr. Sheikh Faisal AlAwwami talked about a
significant topic which is “Caring for Orphans” on November 25, 2012. He emphasized that the Islamic
law grants the human dimension a great deal of importance, and referred to the care for orphans as a
field that promotes this dimension.
He confirmed that orphans need emotional care more than financial support and that Islamic texts
emphasize the importance for fulfilling the orphans’ needs.
Political Topics
Sheikh Hasan AlSaffar, in one of his lectures which was titled “Political Awareness” and delivered on
the evening of Saturday, November 17, 2012, said that tyrannical regimes had worked for a long time
on making their citizens politically ignorant in order to completely control them. AlSaffar confirmed
that those regimes realize that prevalence of political awareness make people stand firmly against
oppression and corruption. He called for promoting political awareness in order to make people
recognize their rights and duties, participate in developing their nations and prevent them from being
exploited.
Sheikh Hasan AlSaffar, in analyzing the Arab Spring events, said that Arab populations had chosen to
make history and to follow a new path, and accused the tyrannical regimes of promoting the
“conspiracy theory” to contain revolutions. This was in his fourth lecture of Ashura season 1434AH
which was entitled “People Movements; Conspiracy or Way for Change” and delivered on Sunday,
November 18, 2012.
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AlSaffar attributed the breakout of the Arab revolutions against the political tyranny to the lack of
freedom and public participation as well as to the prevalence of human rights abuses. He expressed his
hope of having essential transformations with the least losses and the least time as much as possible.
He urged the population to lead their movements wisely to avoid losses as much as possible, and
mentioned that those revolutions must stand firmly against the attempts of containment. Sheikh
AlSaffar, also, confirmed that the Arab Spring revolutions need awareness and wisdom in confronting
the attempts of containment in order to prevent ending or deviating them from their path.
On his fifth public speech which was delivered on Monday, November 19, 2012, in Ashura Season
1434AH, Sheikh Fawzy AlSaif talked about “Financial Corruption and Development Hindrance”.
AlSaif said that anti-corruption experts had set several types for corruption such as briberies, abuse of
power, illicit enrichment, embezzlement of public funds and fraud. He confirmed that all of those
illegal acts and practices hinder the track
of developmental programs in the nation.
Moreover, Sheikh AlSaif emphasized the
necessity of applying several procedures
on standing against financial corruption,
and stressed on passing the legislation of
financial disclosure on all officials, need to
investigate major cases; not minor ones,
like cases of weapons deals, and called for
having effective monitoring systems;
whether administrative or public, that
combat corruption on different levels.
Sheikh AlSaif, also, confirmed that Imam Husain refused to pledge to pay allegiance to Yazid not for
achieving worldly subjective goals but for exposing and combating Yazid’s corruption of Islam and
Muslims’ nation.
At the end of Ashura season 1434AH, Sheikh Hasan AlSaffar delivered a lecture entitled “Sectarian
Discrimination Threatens the Nation’s Unity” on the evening of Saturday, November 24, 2012, in Qatif
on the east of Saudi Arabia.
Sheikh AlSaffar confirmed that Islam, since its emergence, urges people to protect their dignity, and it
prohibits humiliation against all human beings. He stressed that Islam agrees with that “All human
beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights” which is the first article of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights.
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AlSaffar said that practicing discrimination against an individual or a group of people is a type of
humiliation which is rejected in Islam. He referred to two levels of discrimination against people; public
and official.
He mentioned that discrimination is practiced between people whether on the basis of color, gender,
religion, sect, tribe or other justifications. He indicated that people in Saudi Arabia suffer from the
discriminative orientations that contradict with Islam’s principles. As for discrimination on the official
level, Sheikh Hasan AlSaffar said that it is more dangerous when the state itself adopts discrimination
between citizens by not recognizing their different identities or not providing them equal
opportunities.
He attributed the issue of discrimination in the region to a political deficiency that leads to conflicts
and disorders which might be exploited by external forces, but refused to attribute this problem to
those external parties. AlSaffar called for ending this state of discrimination through admitting its
existence, criminating practicing it and providing equality to all citizens.
Media Coverage
It is noted that local media had talked about the program of Ashura this year for the first time through
publishing articles by Sunni and Shiite writers as well as preparing a report published in the Saudi
AlSharq Newspaper.
In an article by Jafar AlShayeb entitled “Ashura” dated November 25, 2012, and published in AlSharq
Newspaper, he wrote “the Commemoration of Ashura with all of its atmospheres, programs, events,
emotions and cultural orientation cannot pass through without shedding the light on the nature and
objectives of the prevalent discourse, and its social, intellectual and political atmospheres”.
“The rituals for reviving this occasion by Saudi Shiites
do not differ from other Shiites in general. Consolation
places for men and women spread everywhere and all
the day long. Mourning processions attract thousands
of people, and corners for free hospitality are in all
streets and neighborhoods”, AlShayeb wrote.
He, also, said “it is important, here, to draw attention
to the real development in the nature of leadership’s
discourse which is considered the most influential
source on this community because it passes thoughts
with religious and historical dimensions and mix them
with emotions”.
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“All people here are subjected to ongoing and
influential waves of discourse that involves religious
texts, high quality Arabic literature, great historical
biographies and commitment to addressing social
issues”.
AlShayeb mentioned that “some of the topics that
were raised by public speakers during this season
are social issues like martial relations, the
importance of parenting, addressing the state of
insecurity and drugs issues that threatens the
society’s stability as well as reform issues like
financial and administrative corruption, diverse dimensions of human rights and the impacts of social
communications networks and media.
In another article entitled “Aish AlHusain; Husain’s Rice” which was published in AlEqtisadiah
Newspaper in November 27, 2012, Dr. Tawfiq AlSaif described the public events that occurs in
Muharram.
“In the afternoon of that day, there was a long line of
people waiting to enter the blood donation unit,
another one in another place on a site distributing
“Aish AlHusain” and a third line near a gate leading to
semi-theatre installed for presenting imaginary
scenes about what had happened in Karbala. Dozens
of young men wearing traffic jackets regulates the
movement of people and cars that are crowding in
front of religious halls. The only thing, which is absent
in Ashura season, is the market. It is totally shut down
although the rituals of Ashura are another type of
business of different products and with different
terms of sale and purchase but with the same regular
customers”, AlSaif wrote.
He, also, said “in these days, I think that there is a
more developed art movement, and there are many
professional, amateur and young artists seizing this
opportunity to present their recent works. Fans of
theatre, vocal arts and poetry and poets rediscover
their audience or introduce themselves to people in
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this season”.
“Activists in charity work, local social committees and funds for poor and orphans welfare are all
preparing for these days. A member in a civil committee, which works on constructing a new mosque,
said that they had collected one third of the construction costs during the last season of Ashura and
they expect to collect the rest during this season”, Dr. Tawfiq AlSaif stated.
In an article by Edrees AlDurais; a Sunni writer, entitled “Ashura… Hashura… Khashura” dated
November 28, 2012, and published in AlWatan Newspaper, he wrote “Moreover, Husain bin Ali (may
Allah be pleased with both of them), who was the grandson of Prophet Mohammad, was killed in the
day of Ashura; therefore, Shiites commemorate this day with sadness and receiving consolation on this
(agony and ordeal) in Karbala and in other Shiite cities”.
He, also, wrote “what we- Sunnis- see through YouTube is one part of the activities which are
conducted on three days with people coming in large numbers on this occasion. Groups of volunteers
or even professionals are assigned to take over the
cooking and serving food, which is known as Aish
AlHusain (the rice of Husain) for people who are busy
in consolation. Other manifestations of this day are
people exchanging visits, installing camps and
corners, and sales and purchases flourish. It is an
annual occasion or a festival on which many events
and group activities are conducted”.
“Here- in Saudi Arabia- our Shiite brothers celebrate
this occasion as other Shiites in the world. They feel
sad, slap their chests, have their dinner, attend their events and exchange consolation. They, also,
exchange benefits, provide services, offer beverages and share work in an occasion which looks from
outside gloomy and sad and accompanied with self-blame and self-flagellation, but form inside it
involves celebration, revival and social participation”.
AlDerais, also, stated that “we must not be angry at
what happens of celebrating this occasion in Qatif for
instance. We should realize that it is a manifestation
of diversity although the term (diversity) might be a
big word for difference of sects as- Sunnis and
Shiites- belong to the same religion. However, it is
important to grant freedom to all citizens to practice
their rituals in a way that does not affect the nation’s
unity. We should not cram people, who have
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different backgrounds from us, into the exclusion corner, and this is why I have said (Hashura; means
cramming) in the title. We, also, should participate in each other’s occasions or as it is said in the
colloquial dialect (Natakhasher; used as Khashura in the title and means sharing) because such attitude
is way better than calling names and quarrelling. You will not make me a Shiite and I won’t force you to
be a Sunni, but all of us are under the shade of a unified national flag”.
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