Saudi clerics spread hate on Twitter and textbooks, says group

DUBAI: Saudi Arabia is condoning hate speech against its Syiah minority from the upper echelons of its religious establishment, schoolbooks and social media, Human Rights Watch said.

Saudi clerics, including those holding official positions, have “vigorously employed” 21st century tools like Twitter to stoke intolerance among millions of followers, the New York-based watchdog said.

Often their words rise to the level of “incitement to hatred or discrimination”, it said.

Derogatory statements against the Syiah made by influential clerics mirror language found in state-sanctioned religious edicts and even children’s schoolbooks, which use widely understood terms to castigate Syiah religious beliefs, HRW said.

The watchdog cited numerous examples, including a Facebook post in which Al-Sharif Hatem bin Aref al-Awni – a former member of the government’s Shura council – hailed the bombing of a Syiah mosque in Qatif in 2015.

He later removed the post, without explanation. Anti-Syiah attitudes come from the top.

In September 2016, the current grand mufti of Saudi Arabia – the country’s highest religious authority – told Okaz newspaper that Iranians are “not Muslims”, HRW researchers found.

They point out that such designations are dangerous in a country where apostasy can be punishable by death.

HRW said hate speech against Syiah has had “fatal consequences” across the region, employed by groups including the Islamic State and al-Qaeda as justification for targeting Syiah civilians and religious sites.

“Saudi officials immediately condemned these attacks, but they have not acted to stamp out the hate speech that supports them,” HRW said. — AFP