Abu Dhabi: Saudi authorities have called in several influential Shiite Muslim clerics and intellectuals for questioning, as last month’s arrest of 16 people on charges of spying for Iran threatens to raise tensions between leaders of the religious minority and the government in the oil-rich kingdom.
Over the past days and weeks, the interior ministry has summoned scores of clerics and intellectuals from the towns of Ihsaa and Qatif in the oil-producing Eastern Province for interrogation, Saudi activists say.
The trigger for the summons was the Shiite community’s angry reaction to last month’s arrest of 16 Saudi Shiites, who are accused of providing information and documents to Iran, allegations that Iran denies.
Their arrest had prompted a wave of anti-Shiite rhetoric in the state media. Leading Shiite thinkers had then published statements questioning the timing and motive for their detention. Some suggested the arrests and the accusations of espionage had been designed to distract a population eager for reform.
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