Shia Muslims Killed inside a Mosque in Saudi Arabia: ISIS Claims Responsibility
Jibril Khoury, Noriko Watanabe and Lee Jay Walker
Modern Tokyo Times
Shia Muslims in Saudi Arabia were targeted while inside the holy mosque of Imam Ali in the governorate of Qatif. Currently it is known that twenty Shia Muslims have perished and this figure is likely to increase because around 60 people have been injured. Immediately ISIS (Islamic State – IS) claimed responsibility for the brutal suicide bombing of a Shia mosque.
Feudal leaders of Saudi Arabia will rightly condemn the bombing but this will ring hollow for many Shia Muslims in this nation. After all, Saudi Arabia is supporting sectarianism openly in Syria while bombing the Shia Houthis in Yemen and siding against the Shia in Bahrain. In other words, ISIS and Saudi Arabia both share the same Takfiri Islamist mindset irrespective if the modus operandi is different.
The BBC reports “The Sunni extremists of IS have a special loathing for the Shia and they will almost certainly have been looking to exacerbate sectarian tensions between Saudi Arabia’s Shia minority and the rest of the population.”
Tensions in the Eastern Province are nothing new and clearly the Shia feel marginalized in Saudi Arabia. The BBC highlights that this embattled religious community “have been concerned for some time at inflammatory speeches given by hardline Sunnis that depict them as being ‘not real Muslims’, a view shared by IS.”
Therefore, while Shia Muslims began to pray the barbaric terrorist group ISIS struck. It mattered not one jot to ISIS that worshippers in the Imam Ali mosque were devout Muslims. After all, in the eyes of ISIS it is abundantly clear that Shia Muslims are deemed non-Muslim. Also, like the BBC indicates, many Takfiri Islamist clerics are spewing anti-Shia rhetoric. On top of this, the policy objective of Saudi Arabia in Bahrain, Syria and Yemen bodes ill for the Shia in this nation.
Ominously, ISIS issued a pledge that “dark days ahead” remain for the Shia of Saudi Arabia. ISIS continued by stressing that Takfiri Islamists will “chase them from the Arabian Peninsula”
Given the brutal deeds that ISIS continues to do in Iraq and Syria – and in other nations like Libya where Christians were beheaded – then clearly the Shia have much to be worried about. Therefore, it is essential that Saudi Arabia focus on the deplorable actions of this nation in Bahrain, Syria and Yemen.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-32843510
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