Thousands of mourners joined Friday the funeral of eight people killed during an unprecedented rampage against minority Shias in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province.
Seven of the dead were killed when masked gunmen opened fire on Monday night at a crowd in al-Dalwa town, as Shias commemorated Ashura, one of their most important holidays.
An eighth from a neighboring village was killed by the assailants as they robbed his car to use in the attack, residents and local press said.
Mourners poured into al-Dalwa from across the kingdom, a witness told AFP, saying that some also came from neighboring Bahrain.
“Sunnis and Shias, we are brothers! We shall not abandon our homeland,” mourners chanted, according to footage aired online, amid calls to reject sectarianism.
Senior officials in the kingdom have denounced the “terrorist” attack, which also led to the deaths of two policemen in a shootout with alleged suspects.
Posters of the deceased policemen were carried in the funeral.
Interior Minister Prince Mohammed bin Nayef on Wednesday evening visited families of the murdered civilians, as well as the wounded in hospital, the official Saudi Press Agency said.
The kingdom’s Grand Mufti, Sheikh Abdul-Aziz al-Sheikh, said such crimes “are against the teachings of Islam and create chaos among the ummah,” or community of believers, SPA reported.
Saudi judges have this year passed death sentences on five members of the country’s Shia Muslim minority, including prominent activist and cleric Nimr al-Nimr, for their part in pro-democracy protests.
Shias say they face discrimination in seeking education or government employment and that they are spoken of disparagingly in textbooks and by some Sunni-extremist officials and state-funded clerics.
They also complain of restrictions on setting up places of worship and marking Shia holidays, and say that Qatif and al-Ahsa, two regions with a large Shia population, receive less state funding than other communities of equivalent size.
The Saudi government denies charges of discrimination but according to a 2009 Human Rights Watch report, Shia citizens in Saudi Arabia “face systematic discrimination in religion, education, justice, and employment.”