Saudi Arabia: Shia Minority Treated as Second-Class Citizens

The 90-page report, The Ismailis of Najran: Second-Class Saudi Citizens, based on more than 150 interviews and reviews of official documents, documents a pattern of discrimination against the Ismailis in the areas of government employment, education, religious freedom, and the justice system.  
 
The Saudi government preaches religious tolerance abroad, but it has consistently penalized its Ismaili citizens for their religious beliefs, said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. The government should stop treating Ismailis as second-class in employment, the justice system, and education.  
 
At least several hundred thousand, and perhaps as many as 1 million, Ismailis live in Saudi Arabia, part of the Shia minority in the Sunni-dominated country of 28 million. Most Ismailis live in Najran province, on Saudi Arabias southwestern border with Yemen, where tensions have been growing in recent years.  
 
Saudi Arabia conquered Najran following a brief war with Yemen in 1934, incorporating into the kingdom the local Sulaimani Ismailis, one strand of Ismaili belief. Najran has been home to the highest Sulaimani Ismaili cleric, the Absolute Guide, since the 17th century.  
 
Despite more than 70 years of shared history, Saudi authorities at the highest levels continue to propagate hate speech against this religious minority. In April 2007, the Council of Senior Religious Scholars, the body tasked with officially interpreting Islamic faith, ritual, and law, termed Ismailis corrupt infidels, debauched atheists. In August 2006, Saudi Arabias highest judge, Shaikh Salih al-Luhaidan, declared to an audience of hundreds that Ismailis outwardly appear Islamic, but inwardly, they are infidels. Other Saudi officials did not rebut or disown those statements.  

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