Ibrahim to al-Ahed: Saudi Regime Bears Responsibility of Al-Ahsa Martyrs’ Blood

Local Editor

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has entered a new stage after the incident that took place in the Eastern province. Things after al-Ahsa will not be the same as they were before it.
Riyadh is now reaping the consequences of all the sectarian and ideological sedition it has sown. The same state that has allowed the broadcasting of strife in mosques and satellite channels has now suffered a crime so far unprecedented throughout the kingdom's history: a peaceful group, practicing its right to commemorate religious rites, was assaulted by gunfire by their compatriots. This may set the ground for a new kind of popular movement.

Saudi affairs expert, Fouad Ibrahim, says Riyadh bears full responsibility for what happened in Ahsa. According to him, this dangerous development cannot be separated from the country's educational, cultural, and political context. The three criminals who perpetrated the crime are not aliens or mercenaries; they are this society's offspring. They grew up in it, attended its universities, and prayed in its mosques.

In Ibrahim's opinion, no external or anonymous party can bear responsibility. The Saudi government is directly responsible for this tense environment, which has allowed such factions to fulfill their purpose. What is bred in the bone will come out in the flesh, and as such, years of sedition, strife, and spreading sectarian tensions among people have not gone to waste.

What happened in Saudi Arabia, and in a city like al-Ahsa in particular, suggests that a dangerous development is underway in the kingdom, to the tone of the region's increasing sectarian and ideological tensions. Ibrahim believes that al-Ahsa is known as a model city for Sunni-Shi'a coexistence, which makes the crime all the more unusual.

Saudi Arabia, in his opinion, must reconsider its policies. It must achieve a complete social and political reform; or else, the country could grow closer to a new kind of popular uprising that it may not account for. The general discourse sponsored by Riyadh and its princes has produced a dangerous phenomenon which if left to grow, will mean that we must bid farewell to peace in Saudi Arabia.