Independent Saudi News

(AlHasa – January 25, 2007) …The Saudi government has canceled all blood drives organized by Saudi Shia in the Eastern Province's region of Alhasa, SIA News has learned.

The governor of Eastern Province Mohamed Bin Fahad, a Sunni and a member of the Saudi ruling tribe has ordered all blood drives activities be canceled without explanation.

The blood drives, the largest in Saudi Arabia, are organized by Shia's in the Eastern Province during the annual celebrations of Ashura. Thousands of Shia's give blood annually to benefit local blood banks.

Blood drives during Ashura were started in Saudi Arabia by progressive Shia clerics who want to add useful activities to the annual commemorations that include speeches, processions, and flagellations.    

Ashura commemorates the martyrdom of Imam Hussain, the grandson of the Prophet Mohamed who was killed in 680 AD, and is buried in Krabala, Iraq.

The ban comes at time of heightened Shia-Sunni tension that witnessed rising anti-Shia fatwas, articles, and sermons.

The two top religious authority in Saudi Arabia's Wahhabi establishment, Sheiks AbdullaRhamn Al-Barrak, and AbdullaRahman Bin-Jebreen both issued fatwas this month calling all Shia as infidels that must be fought.

Saudi newspaper published articles even from supposedly Sunni liberal writers such as Hussein Shobokshi, Ali Al-Musa, and Thamer Al-Miman insinuating that Shia are not loyal to their respective countries.

Saudi Shia's who number around 3 million people are mostly concentrated in the oil rich Eastern Province, and play no political role in the country, unlike the Sunni minority in Iraq.