{"id":20535,"date":"2014-08-18T15:20:37","date_gmt":"2014-08-18T21:20:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=20535"},"modified":"2014-08-18T15:20:37","modified_gmt":"2014-08-18T21:20:37","slug":"sheikh-tawfiq-al-amr-victimised-by-sectarian-system-of-saudi-injustice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=20535","title":{"rendered":"Sheikh Tawfiq al-Amr victimised by sectarian system of Saudi Injustice"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Amnesty slams Saudi Arabia over Shia cleric verdict<\/strong><br \/>\n1 5 August, 2014 &#8211; Shia Post<\/p>\n<p>Amnesty International has slammed Saudi Arabia for handing down a harsh verdict to a leading Shia cleric in the country.<\/p>\n<p>Amnesty International said on Thursday that the harsh sentence of Sheikh Tawfiq al-Amr shows the disturbing pattern of harassment against the Shia community in Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n<p>A court in the Saudi kingdom has given the Shia cleric an eight-year jail term and a ten-year travel ban. He has also been barred from delivering religious sermons.<\/p>\n<p>    \u201cSheikh Tawfiq al-Amr is the latest Shia cleric to pay a very high price for refusing to be silenced,\u201d said Said Boumedouha, Amnesty International\u2019s deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa.<\/p>\n<p>The cleric has been charged with criticizing the country\u2019s ruling system and calling for political reform.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDaring to peacefully criticize Saudi Arabia\u2019s rulers is no reason to end up behind bars. He must be released immediately in connection with these charges,\u201d Boumedouha added.<\/p>\n<p>Sheikh Tawfiq al-Amer has been arrested several times over his calls on the Saudi government to give Shias further freedom to exercise their religious rights.<\/p>\n<p>    \u201cThe conviction of Sheikh Tawfiq al-Amr by a special security and counterterrorism court reveals the extent to which the Saudi Arabian judicial system is arbitrary and unfair. Had the cleric signed a pledge not to deliver religious sermons, he would have currently been a free man. Yet the authorities seemed concerned about one thing alone which is how to punish him harsher for not obeying them,\u201d said Said Boumedoua.<\/p>\n<p>There have been numerous demonstrations in Saudi Arabia\u2019s oil-rich Eastern Province since 2011, with the protesters calling for political reform and an end to widespread discrimination.<\/p>\n<p>Activists say there are over 30,000 political prisoners in Saudi Arabia.  <a href=\"http:\/\/en.shiapost.com\/2014\/08\/15\/amnesty-slams-saudi-arabia-over-shia-cleric-verdict\/\" target=\"_blank\">&#8230;more<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"igit_tsb_button\" style=\"float: left; margin-right: 10px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.crookedbough.com%2F%3Fp%3D20535&amp;text=Sheikh+Tawfiq+al-Amr+victimised+by+sectarian+system+of+Saudi+Injustice&amp;count=horizontal&amp;via=\" style=\"\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Amnesty slams Saudi Arabia over Shia cleric verdict 1 5 August, 2014 &#8211; Shia Post Amnesty International has slammed Saudi Arabia for handing down a harsh verdict to a leading Shia cleric in the country. Amnesty International said on Thursday that the harsh sentence of Sheikh Tawfiq al-Amr shows the disturbing pattern of harassment against <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=20535#more-'\" class=\"more-link\">more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[247],"tags":[4339],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20535"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20535"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20536,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20535\/revisions\/20536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}