2011-2012 Saudi Arabia protests

Description

The 2011–13 Saudi Arabian protests were influenced by the Arab Spring that started with the 2011 Tunisian revolution. Protests started with a self-immolation in Samtah and Jeddah street protests in late January 2011, followed by protests against anti-Shia discrimination in February and early March in Qatif, Hofuf, al-Awamiyah, and Riyadh. A Facebook organiser of a planned 11 March "Day of Rage", Faisal Ahmed Abdul-Ahad, was allegedly killed by Saudi security forces on 2 March, with several hundred people protesting in Qatif, Hofuf and al-Amawiyah on the day itself. Khaled al-Johani demonstrated alone in Riyadh, was interviewed by BBC Arabic Television, was detained in `Ulaysha Prison, and became known online as "the only brave man in Saudi Arabia". Small protests over labour rights took place in April 2011 in front of government ministry buildings in Riyadh, Ta’if and Tabuk and in January 2012 in Riyadh. Protests against anti-Shia discrimination and calling for prisoners held without charge or trial to be released continued in April and May 2011 in Qatif, al-Awamiyah and Hofuf in the Eastern Province, and extended to calls for the Peninsula Shield Force to be withdrawn from Bahrain and for the Eastern Province to have a constitution and a legislature. Four protestors were shot dead by Saudi authorities in late November in Qatif region protests and funerals, two on 12/13 and 26 January 2012, and two on 9 and 10 February 2012. In the early 2012 demonstrations, protestors chanted slogans against the House of Saud and Minister of Interior, Nayef, calling Nayef a "terrorist", "criminal" and "butcher" and throwing an effigy of Nayef at tanks. Police described two of the fatal shootings as responses to unidentified gunmen who had shot first. Eastern Province protests intensified after Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr was wounded in the leg and arrested by police on 8 July. Four men were killed in a protest immediately following the arrest, and on 13 July, with several funerals and protests following, including calls for the downfall of the House of Saud. While detained, al-Nimr was tortured and started a hunger strike. Protest organisers insisted on the use of nonviolent resistance and called for all Shia and Sunni detainees to be freed. A protestor and a soldier were fatally shot in Qatif during a 3–4 August protest, leading to more protests. (via Freebase)