(FrontPageMagazine John R. Bradley - In recent elections for municipal councils in Saudi Arabia's oil-rich Eastern Province, Shia candidates were returned in districts where there was a clear Shia majority population. Where there was not, Sunni candidates, who had the semi-official backing of the Wahhabi religious establishment, were elected, just as their Wahhabi cousins in Riyadh were a few weeks earlier. Hussein Abdul Rahman Al-Khamis, one of the most popular Shia candidates in Al-Hasa region, was disqualified from running just a day before polling day. Throughout the ruling Al-Saud family's various victories and defeats there has remained only one constant: outright hostility from the Wahhabis to the Shiite sect.
2005-03-17 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive