In this still image taken from video provided by Saudi TV, investigators collect evidence at the scene of a suicide bombing, outside the the Imam Hussein mosque, in the port city of Dammam, Saudi Arabia, May 29, 2015. A suicide bomber blew himself up in the parking lot of a Shiite mosque in eastern Saudi Arabia during Friday prayers, killing four people in the second such attack in as many weeks claimed by the Islamic State group. In another incident, a member of the Shiite minority said he was sentenced to jail and ordered lashed 60 times for using his house as a prayer room. AP
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – A member of Saudi Arabia’s minority Shiite community said Tuesday he has been sentenced to two months in jail and 60 lashes for hosting weekly prayer meetings in his home.
Zuhair Busaleh, 47, told AFP he held the Friday prayers on the first floor of his house because “there is no Shia mosque in Khobar”, the Gulf coast city where he lives.
Busaleh, a retired airline ticketing agent, said he remains free pending an appeal, which will be heard on August 2.
His sentencing several days ago came with the Shiite community still shaken by two mosque bombings that killed 25 people in communities near Khobar on successive Fridays in May.
Islamic State of Iraq and Syria extremists, who consider Shiites to be heretics, claimed those attacks as well as another suicide bombing that killed 26 people at a Shiite mosque in Kuwait last month.
Leaders of Sunni-majority Saudi Arabia condemned the bombings in Eastern Province and dismissed them as contrary to the values of Islam.
They also reached out to the minority group by approving the first Shiite cemetery in Dammam city where one of the blasts occurred, adjacent to Khobar.
But an activist in Eastern Province, Naseema Assada, said the “silly sentence” against a man whose only crime was praying shows that Saudi officials have not taken meaningful steps towards equality for Shiites.
The group, most of whom live in the oil-rich East, have long complained of marginalisation.
The United States State Department, in its annual global religious freedom review, has cited reports that another Shiite served a week in jail six years ago for hosting weekly prayers at his Khobar home.
Authorities approved construction of Shia mosques in Qatif and al-Ahsa cities but not in Dammam, the State Department said in its 2013 report.
Busaleh told AFP by telephone that, over the past seven years he has been jailed at least three times, for between one and five days each, for holding prayers in his home.
He hosts more than 80 worshippers each Friday, and knows of two or three other people whose homes have also become unofficial mosques.
Busaleh added that Khobar Shiites have been asking officials for an authorised house of worship for about two decades.
“They said that most of the people in Khobar are Sunni,” and only they can have mosques, he said.
Busaleh said he previously sought help from the prince in charge of his city and received permission to pray at home, only to have other officials order him to stop.
Now he plans to pay the royal another visit.
“I will ask him why they put me in this situation. I want him to cancel this judgment,” he said.