Saudi authorities banned recitation of Adhan (call to prayers) from loudspeakers in Shia mosques in Al-Hofuf
Saudi authorities banned recitation of Adhan (call to prayers) from loudspeakers in Shia mosques in Al-Hofuf, a major urban center in the Al-Ahsa Oasis in the Eastern Province.
The officials in the province have also ordered that Friday prayers sermons in Shia mosques should not last long and go beyond 12:30 afternoon.
This is the latest move by the Riyadh regime in its ongoing crackdown on the country’s Shia Muslims.
Earlier this month, Saudi regime’s security forces arrested a prominent Shia cleric over his anti-regime comments.
Ayatollah Hussein al-Radhi was arrested in the Eastern Province after he wrote an article in which he criticized Al-Saud for jailing and executing critics and dissidents, including Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr who was beheaded in January.
Shia Muslims have long complained of entrenched discrimination in a country where the semi-official Wahhabi school condones violence against them.
They face abuse from Wahhabi clerics, rarely get permits for places of worship and seldom get senior public sector jobs. Shia religious centers have also been target of a series of terror attacks across the region over the past few months.
