Residents of Ahsa in eastern Saudi Arabia say the Saudi authorities have, for weeks, been carrying out what they describe as unprecedented sectarian and racist “thuggery” against them. This has included enabling a hardline Wahhabi group to distribute pamphlets to the public in Ahsa that denounce Shia Muslims as apostates and call for hatred against them.

Alongside this, a number of clerics in Ahsa have been arrested, including:

➖ Sheikh Abduljalil Alsameen

➖ Sheikh Hassan Alhaddad

➖ Sayed Mohammed Alnasser

➖ Sheikh Hussein Alnashmi

➖ Sayed Hassan Alyousef

➖ Sheikh Sami Albrahim