Saudi Arabia bans all types of public protest
Ruling by senior clerical council follows two weeks of Shia demonstrations and 22 arrests
Riot police and protesters in Awwamiya, Saudi Arabia Riot police and Shia protesters in Awwamiya, Saudi Arabia, on Thursday. Photograph: Reuters
The ruling comes after widespread demonstrations in the Middle East including those that led to the downfall of regimes in Egypt and Tunisia and two weeks of Shia agitation in Saudi Arabia itself, during which 22 people were arrested.
A statement issued by the country's council of senior clerics said: "The council ... affirms that demonstrations are forbidden in this country. The correct way in sharia [law] of realising common interest is by advising, which is what the Prophet Muhammad established.
"Reform and advice should not be via demonstrations and ways that provoke strife and division, this is what the religious scholars of this country in the past and now have forbidden and warned against."
The statement goes on to make clear the council's stance against political parties, which are banned as they are deemed to be not in keeping with Islam.
The council's position on elections to bodies such as the advisory Shura Council has been more ambiguous.
More than 17,000 people backed a call on Facebook to hold two demonstrations in Saudi Arabia this month, the first of which went ahead on Friday.
Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam and home to its two holiest sites, applies sharia law and allows religious scholars wide powers in society. They dominate the judicial system and run their own police squad to enforce religious morals.
Many clerics campaigned for an elected parliament after the Gulf War in 1991 and more recently a loose alliance of liberals, moderate Islamists and Shias have petitioned King Abdullah to allow elections in the country, which has no elected parliament.
Last month, Abdullah returned to Riyadh after a three-month medical absence and announced $37bn in benefits for citizens in a bid to curb dissent.
Saudi Arabia bans public protest | World news | The Guardian
---------- Post added at 12:19 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:18 AM ----------
S Arabia says won’t tolerate protests
Sunday, March 06, 2011
RIYADH/ SANAA/ADEN: Saudi Arabia warned potential protesters on Saturday that a ban on marches would be enforced, signalling the small protests by the Shia minority in the oil-producing east would no longer be tolerated.
“The kingdom’s regulations totally ban all sorts of demonstrations, marches, sit-ins,” the interior ministry said in a statement, adding security forces would stop all attempts to disrupt public order.
Inspired by protests in other Arab countries there have been Shia marches in the past few days in the east and unconfirmed activist reports of a small protest at a mosque in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Friday.
The US ally has not faced protests of the scale that hit Egypt and Tunisia that toppled leaders, but dissent has built up as unrest has spread in Yemen, Bahrain, Jordan, Libya and Oman.
More than 17,000 have backed a call on Facebook to hold two demonstrations this month, the first one on Friday.
A loose alliance of liberals, moderate Islamists and Shias have petitioned King Abdullah to allow elections in the kingdom which has no elected parliament, although even activists say they don’t know how many of the almost 19 million Saudis back them. Last month, Abdullah returned to Riyadh after a three-month medical absence and unveiled $37 billion in benefits for citizens in an apparent bid to curb dissent. For about two weeks, Saudi Shias have staged small protests in the kingdom’s east, which holds much of the oil wealth of the world’s top crude exporter and is near Bahrain, scene of protests by majority Shia s against their Sunni rulers.
Shia protests in Saudi Arabia started in the area of the main city Qatif and its neighbour Awwamiya and spread to the town of Hofuf on Friday. The demands were mainly for the release of prisoners they say are held without trial.
Saudi Shias often complain they struggle to get senior government jobs and other benefits like other citizens.
The government of Saudi Arabia, an absolute monarchy without an elected parliament that usually does not tolerate public dissent, denies these charges.
The interior ministry said demonstrations violated Islamic law and the kingdom’s traditions, according to a statement carried by state news agency SPA.
Moreover, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh on Saturday reiterated that he would remain in power until his term ends in 2013, rejecting an opposition plan for him to step aside this year.
“The peaceful and smooth transition of power is not carried out through chaos but through the will of the people expressed through elections,” an official source at the presidential office said in a statement.
The opposition on Friday said Saleh was sticking to an earlier plan to step down in 2013 but had agreed to a proposal by religious leaders to revamp elections, parliament and the judicial system.
Saleh, an ally of the United States in its battle against an al-Qaeda wing based in his country, has struggled to cement a truce with Shia rebels in the north and quell a budding secessionist rebellion in the south.
Protests have taken place across Yemen, a country of 23million which borders the world’s top oil exporter Saudi Arabia.
The protesters say they are frustrated with widespread corruption and soaring unemployment in a country where 40percent of its 23 million people live on $2 a day or less and a third face chronic hunger.
Separately Yemen’s Deputy Minister for Youth and Sports, Hashid Abdullah al-Ahmar, resigned from the ruling party on Saturday in protest at the use of violence against anti-government demonstrations, a source close to him told Reuters.
His resignation comes just a day after an influential ally of the president, Ali Ahmad al-Omrani, a tribal sheikh from the southern al-Baida province, resigned.
Omrani’s resignation came a week after nine parliament members from the General People’s Congress Party (GPC) resigned.
Earlier on Saturday witnesses told Reuters three protestors were wounded on Friday evening when Yemeni security forces fired into the air and used tear gas to disperse demonstrators at a sit-in in the southern port city of Aden.
Protestors were dispersed after they had gathered at a square in the city’s Sheikh Othman district following Friday prayers, the witnesses said.
Possibly more than 100,000 protested on Friday in one of the largest demonstrations in Sanaa yet and similar numbers rallied in Taiz, south of the capital, a Reuters reporter said.
S Arabia says won
---------- Post added at 12:19 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:19 AM ----------
Saudi Arabia bans all rallies after Shia protest
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia said on Saturday it would ban all protests and marches after minority Shias staged small protests in the oil-producing eastern province.
Security forces would use all measures to prevent any attempt to disrupt public order, the interior ministry said in a statement carried by state television. The strict ban follows a series of protests by Saudi Shias in the kingdom's east in the past weeks mainly to demand the release of prisoners they say are long held without trial. Saudi Shias complain they struggle to get senior government jobs and other benefits like other citizens.
Saudi Arabia bans all rallies after Shia protest - The Times of India
Ruling by senior clerical council follows two weeks of Shia demonstrations and 22 arrests
Riot police and protesters in Awwamiya, Saudi Arabia Riot police and Shia protesters in Awwamiya, Saudi Arabia, on Thursday. Photograph: Reuters
The ruling comes after widespread demonstrations in the Middle East including those that led to the downfall of regimes in Egypt and Tunisia and two weeks of Shia agitation in Saudi Arabia itself, during which 22 people were arrested.
A statement issued by the country's council of senior clerics said: "The council ... affirms that demonstrations are forbidden in this country. The correct way in sharia [law] of realising common interest is by advising, which is what the Prophet Muhammad established.
"Reform and advice should not be via demonstrations and ways that provoke strife and division, this is what the religious scholars of this country in the past and now have forbidden and warned against."
The statement goes on to make clear the council's stance against political parties, which are banned as they are deemed to be not in keeping with Islam.
The council's position on elections to bodies such as the advisory Shura Council has been more ambiguous.
More than 17,000 people backed a call on Facebook to hold two demonstrations in Saudi Arabia this month, the first of which went ahead on Friday.
Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam and home to its two holiest sites, applies sharia law and allows religious scholars wide powers in society. They dominate the judicial system and run their own police squad to enforce religious morals.
Many clerics campaigned for an elected parliament after the Gulf War in 1991 and more recently a loose alliance of liberals, moderate Islamists and Shias have petitioned King Abdullah to allow elections in the country, which has no elected parliament.
Last month, Abdullah returned to Riyadh after a three-month medical absence and announced $37bn in benefits for citizens in a bid to curb dissent.
Saudi Arabia bans public protest | World news | The Guardian
---------- Post added at 12:19 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:18 AM ----------
S Arabia says won’t tolerate protests
Sunday, March 06, 2011
RIYADH/ SANAA/ADEN: Saudi Arabia warned potential protesters on Saturday that a ban on marches would be enforced, signalling the small protests by the Shia minority in the oil-producing east would no longer be tolerated.
“The kingdom’s regulations totally ban all sorts of demonstrations, marches, sit-ins,” the interior ministry said in a statement, adding security forces would stop all attempts to disrupt public order.
Inspired by protests in other Arab countries there have been Shia marches in the past few days in the east and unconfirmed activist reports of a small protest at a mosque in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Friday.
The US ally has not faced protests of the scale that hit Egypt and Tunisia that toppled leaders, but dissent has built up as unrest has spread in Yemen, Bahrain, Jordan, Libya and Oman.
More than 17,000 have backed a call on Facebook to hold two demonstrations this month, the first one on Friday.
A loose alliance of liberals, moderate Islamists and Shias have petitioned King Abdullah to allow elections in the kingdom which has no elected parliament, although even activists say they don’t know how many of the almost 19 million Saudis back them. Last month, Abdullah returned to Riyadh after a three-month medical absence and unveiled $37 billion in benefits for citizens in an apparent bid to curb dissent. For about two weeks, Saudi Shias have staged small protests in the kingdom’s east, which holds much of the oil wealth of the world’s top crude exporter and is near Bahrain, scene of protests by majority Shia s against their Sunni rulers.
Shia protests in Saudi Arabia started in the area of the main city Qatif and its neighbour Awwamiya and spread to the town of Hofuf on Friday. The demands were mainly for the release of prisoners they say are held without trial.
Saudi Shias often complain they struggle to get senior government jobs and other benefits like other citizens.
The government of Saudi Arabia, an absolute monarchy without an elected parliament that usually does not tolerate public dissent, denies these charges.
The interior ministry said demonstrations violated Islamic law and the kingdom’s traditions, according to a statement carried by state news agency SPA.
Moreover, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh on Saturday reiterated that he would remain in power until his term ends in 2013, rejecting an opposition plan for him to step aside this year.
“The peaceful and smooth transition of power is not carried out through chaos but through the will of the people expressed through elections,” an official source at the presidential office said in a statement.
The opposition on Friday said Saleh was sticking to an earlier plan to step down in 2013 but had agreed to a proposal by religious leaders to revamp elections, parliament and the judicial system.
Saleh, an ally of the United States in its battle against an al-Qaeda wing based in his country, has struggled to cement a truce with Shia rebels in the north and quell a budding secessionist rebellion in the south.
Protests have taken place across Yemen, a country of 23million which borders the world’s top oil exporter Saudi Arabia.
The protesters say they are frustrated with widespread corruption and soaring unemployment in a country where 40percent of its 23 million people live on $2 a day or less and a third face chronic hunger.
Separately Yemen’s Deputy Minister for Youth and Sports, Hashid Abdullah al-Ahmar, resigned from the ruling party on Saturday in protest at the use of violence against anti-government demonstrations, a source close to him told Reuters.
His resignation comes just a day after an influential ally of the president, Ali Ahmad al-Omrani, a tribal sheikh from the southern al-Baida province, resigned.
Omrani’s resignation came a week after nine parliament members from the General People’s Congress Party (GPC) resigned.
Earlier on Saturday witnesses told Reuters three protestors were wounded on Friday evening when Yemeni security forces fired into the air and used tear gas to disperse demonstrators at a sit-in in the southern port city of Aden.
Protestors were dispersed after they had gathered at a square in the city’s Sheikh Othman district following Friday prayers, the witnesses said.
Possibly more than 100,000 protested on Friday in one of the largest demonstrations in Sanaa yet and similar numbers rallied in Taiz, south of the capital, a Reuters reporter said.
S Arabia says won
---------- Post added at 12:19 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:19 AM ----------
Saudi Arabia bans all rallies after Shia protest
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia said on Saturday it would ban all protests and marches after minority Shias staged small protests in the oil-producing eastern province.
Security forces would use all measures to prevent any attempt to disrupt public order, the interior ministry said in a statement carried by state television. The strict ban follows a series of protests by Saudi Shias in the kingdom's east in the past weeks mainly to demand the release of prisoners they say are long held without trial. Saudi Shias complain they struggle to get senior government jobs and other benefits like other citizens.
Saudi Arabia bans all rallies after Shia protest - The Times of India
