Alwaght- "We have the determination to resist your injustice, and we will not surrender. The most you can do is kill us, and we welcome martyrdom for the sake of Allah. Life does not end when a man dies. Real life begins when he dies. Either we live on this land as free men, or die and be buried in it as pious men. We have no other choice.” These were the words of Saudi Shiite Cleric Sheikh Nimr who was executed by Saudi authorities. Under constant threat, Sheikh Nimr had always known that he would be killed eventually, by the Saudi regime because he was aware that he was the voice of freedom in a country of oppression.
Nimr has been martyred while fighting injustice and the terrorist policies of the Wahhabi kingdom. Riyadh thinks it could muffle the voice of freedom and its followers such as executed Nimr, unaware it was making a historic mistake.
Innocent Blood
On July 8th, 2012 Nimr was detained after being shot and wounded by Saudi police. Following his detention, thousands of supporters took to the streets to call for his release.
Saudi authorities claimed Nimr, an independent cleric who was popular among the Shiites in the Eastern Province and a staunch critic of the Saudi regime, was inciting strife in the kingdom.
However, Nimr was clearly being framed for something he didn’t commit. The real reason behind his detention and ensuing court ruling of his death, was the inspiration he sparked in the hearts of anti-discrimination protestors who took to the streets of Saudi Arabia in 2011 to call for freedom and an end to discrimination against the Shiite minority in the country.
Therefore, in the shadow of the suppressive Wahabbi kingdom, calling for democracy is tantamount to a crime.
Internal Rage
The moment Nimr was killed was the moment he was born again, and this is what he had believed. Little did officials in Saudi Arabia think that the execution of Nimr would trigger such anger among the Saudi public, but this is one aspect authorities failed to calculate. They thought by killing the respected leader, his followers would be deterred from continuing the path he helped chart but many believe this move will mark the beginning of the Saudi monarchy’s collapse from within. Already, protesters have been seen marching in the kingdom to condemn the killing of Nimr, leading many to foresee another uprising in the near future.
Muslims Join Hands
Sheikh Nimr’s blood has been shed without no legitimate basis. But then again, so has the blood of thousands of Yemenis who are being massacred by the Saudi-led coalition. Both share their innocence, but what makes Nimr different is that he represents an entire sect of Islam, rendering his killing a direct and systematic targeting of Shiite Islam, another Saudi bid to incite sectarianism.
However, in the face of such discriminatory and sectarian-motivated crimes, Muslims around the world must join hands and react to the Saudi regime’s continuing heinous crimes against humanity and the violation of basic human rights.
The Wahabbi mindset is not even remotely Islamic. Claiming to be enforcing the laws of Islam, the religion of more than one billion people, the Saudi monarchy instead kills, oppresses, and massacres to achieve its own ends.
To remove this growing tumour from the body of Islam, Muslims around the world must put up a united front and fight against its hegemony. The first step would be to collectively deplore the killing of the prominent Muslim cleric. Emerging from the hollowness of fear-based or interest-based silence, Muslim countries ought to take action against Saudi Arabia’s policies which have distorted the image of the holy religion.
Uniting instead of dividing, the Muslim world, must once and for all confront the danger that the Wahhabi regime poses to Islam, following its latest act of injustice, so that the blood of Nimr and all of those who have been wronged, wouldn’t have been spilled in vain.
