Alwaght- Saudi dissidents are set to launch a new initiative in Ireland in support of freedom of thought and speech in Saudi Arabia.
Citizens Without Chains (CWC) hopes to “disrupt the status quo, and begin to take the steps to realize these beliefs and change the social fabric, and in turn, the lives of the Saudi people”.
A number of clerics, rights campaigners and outspoken critics of the west-backed Saudi regime have recently been arrested in the Kingdom in its effort to silence dissent and crash all opposition voices.
“The primary aim of the Citizens Without Chains (CWC) Movement is to reform the legislative framework of Saudi Arabia, to allow for the true civic participation and emancipation of all citizens,” the organization explained.
“The movement … will aim to create a society which is built on the sharing of knowledge, ideas and culture, and which is protected by the rule of law to celebrate the diversity and freedom of these.”
While the Saudi regime claims that the recent crackdown aims to secure the country against threats of “terrorism”, CWC does not believe this to be the case.
Instead, CWC calls for “a nation that does not live in fear of what their silence, let alone words might bring”.
The keynote address at the organization's launch event, due to take place in Dublin on 29 September, will be given by visiting Professor at the London School of Economics: Middle East Centre, Madawi Al-Rasheed.
Meanwhile, al-Rasheed told The New Arab in an interview this week that the recent detention of around two dozen people, including influential clerics, are linked to the "failure" of a Saudi-led boycott of Doha.
"The detainees' identities and their ideological and political leanings indicate that the authorities want to send a message to Qatar after they have failed to make Doha kneel.
Rasheed explained that bin Salman, who is viewed as the country's de facto ruler, is attempting to stamp out traces of internal dissent towards his failed "media assault" against Qatar and military intervention in neighboring Yemen.
"Bin Salman stands alone as he prepares himself to be the future king. He has not guaranteed the backing of all the princes. The problem is that he cannot predict what their reactions will be if he becomes king should his father abdicate or die," the academic said.
