We are used to reading, watching and hearing the depressive news about Middle East. And if it isn’t about the drop in prices of Black Gold, nothing comes out except what the regimes want to tell the world. However, given to Indian economic systems, we rarely enjoy the benefit of this drop also in a palpable way.
We read about beheading, the Arabs killing and conquering the Arabs or a war of attrition against Iran; Palestinians being beaten by Israel. The world watches dispassionately this panorama and there is always a silence of the lambs in Non-Arab Muslim countries. Most of them are caught neck-deep in the vortex of their own problems. But there is something that is heartening to know.
According to a news portal ‘TheNewArab’ there is awakening that is taking place and people around the world have begun to take notice of what is happening in these benighted monarchies and dictatorships against the Human Rights.
In the ‘Annual Religious Freedom Report’ issued this Tuesday, the United States Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has slammed the US allies in the Gulf, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, for persecuting religious minorities. Launching the first report since Trump took office, he took swipes at these errant monarchies and other countries – Sudan, Turkey, Pakistan and China. Rex Tillerson urged Riyadh to “embrace greater degrees of religious freedom for all of its citizens”.
“The government does not recognise the right of non-Muslims to practice their religion in public and applied criminal penalties including prison sentences, lashings, and fines for apostasy, atheism, blasphemy and insulting the state’s interpretation of Islam,” he said.
He added that Saudi authorities were attacking Shia Muslims and allowing social prejudice and discrimination against the minority, which makes up around 15 percent of the country.
The Saudi security forces have recently sealed off a Shia-majority town AWAMIA, in the Eastern Province of the country, demolishing large sections of the town following months of unrest. Similarly, Tillerson slammed the Gulf state of Bahrain for the detention of Shia clerics and political activists.
“Members of the Shia community there continue to report ongoing discrimination in government employment, education, and the justice system,” he said.
Bahrain has been ruled for more than 200 years by the Sunni Al Khalifa dynasty. The Kingdom of Bahrain has been gripped by unrest since long and the situation has worsened further since2011, when the country’s majority Shia population took to the streets to demand an elected government.
As usual, the report did not criticise its key US ally Israel, despite its restrictions on the religious freedoms of Palestinians under occupation.
