DATE  : 08 / 02 / 1999

NO  : 79 / H / 99

 

Breaking into a Mosque in al-Qatif by

al-Mabahith al-`Amma

                                                                      

   At the end of last week, many members of al-Mabahith al-`Amma (General Investigations) in Boostan District of al-Qatif broke into the mosque of Sayyid al-Khoe , disregarding the sacredness of the mosque. This action was carried out barbarically away from Islamic and human norms and values.

The contents of the mosque were thoroughly searched and the contents of the library which included religious and cultural books, cassettes , video tapes of religious lectures and ceremonies were confiscated.

Then the responsible of the mosque, the citizen Ali Al-Medan , was  arrested and he is still held in custody.

 

   It is worth mentioning that the prayer leader of this mosque (Sheikh Habib Abdul Ali Hamada) was arrested in the middle of August 1996 , That action was carried out without legal justification solely to exercise pressure by Saudi Regime against Shi'i scholars that they should not perform their duties to educate people and offer them guidance and help them in their social problems.

 

   It is note worth that Sheikh Hamada and another group of scholars are still held in Saudi jails for many years.

 

   On one hand, the Saudi regime launched a massive wave of arbitrary arrests during the previous days included a lot of citizens from al-Qatif city within the framework of religious persecution and sectarian discrimination against Shi'a adherents in order to untie the national harmony and unit.

 

   On the other hand , the case of the citizen Ahmad al-Mulablib , aged 55 (Muezzin of al-Jefar Mosque) in Ihsaa city , is undecided due to the Regime’s partiality with the perpetrators of the crime and they don't cooperate with relatives of the victim . His family refused to collect his body unless they know the reasons of his death and the perpetrators should be brought to justice.

The case of this citizen began in November 1998 when several members of the so - called the Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (CPVPV) arrested him because he did not abide by the way to call to prayer which is accepted by the Saudi Religious Establishment, then the (CPVPV) has called his family to collect his body and told them that his death was normal but in fact he spent a period of time in the prison of (CPVPV) and subjected to cruel torture on the hands of the members of the (CPVPV) on 20 / 11 / 1998 but his family refused  and submitted a complaint to hold investigation in the accident and to bring his killers to justice but the authorities did not pay attention for his family’s complaint or for the public protest and anger that followed the accident.