Wednesday, April 06, 2005
Discrimination against Shiites in Saudi Arabia
Saudi Jeans tells a story about discrimination against Shiites in Saudi Arabia. The story is about a Shiite businessman who could not get approval to expand his business from a Saudi bureaucrat:
This really isn't a chilling story -- it reveals Saudi society because it is so mundane. It is also a story familiar to Westerners, who inflicted precisely this sort of day-to-day, petty discrimination on ethnic and religious minorities in their own countries for most of history. That Saudi Arabia still is this way in 2005 says much about that country's deficiencies as a society, but it is not in and of itself evidence that it cannot change in even one generation's time.
When he went there, the official told him that his project did not get the required permission. My friend, unpleasantly surprised, asked about the reasons of rejection. The official said, "you know, your name does not qualify." (الاسم ما يأهل) An expression that simply means, "you are not allowed because you are Shiite."
This really isn't a chilling story -- it reveals Saudi society because it is so mundane. It is also a story familiar to Westerners, who inflicted precisely this sort of day-to-day, petty discrimination on ethnic and religious minorities in their own countries for most of history. That Saudi Arabia still is this way in 2005 says much about that country's deficiencies as a society, but it is not in and of itself evidence that it cannot change in even one generation's time.
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