President Obama meets with Saudi Arabia's King Salman in September 2015 at the Oval Office. On January 1, Saudi Arabia executed 4 individuals who engaged in non-violent protest for democracy and human rights in the Kingdom. Behind the president and King Salman sits a bust of the champion of non-violent protest, Martin Luther King Jr. (photo: AP)
US
Ties to Saudi Kingdom Are Beheading Democracy: An Interview With the Son of an
Executed Political Prisoner
By Paul Gottinger, Reader
Supported News
26 February 16
Saudi
Arabia opened 2016 with a tragic, yet increasingly common event for the
Kingdom, a mass execution.
In the
words of Amnesty International,
“Saudi Arabia’s authorities demonstrated their utter disregard for human rights
and life by executing 47 people in a single day.”
According
to the British rights organization Reprieve, Saudi Arabia has
had one of the world’s highest rates of execution for over ten years. Many of
these executions occur after unfair trails and may be carried out by the
barbaric means of beheading, public crucifixion, stoning, or firing squad.
All 47
individuals executed on January 1 were accused of being terrorists. However,
four of those executed were involved in Saudi Arabia’s Arab Spring protests.
These four remained strictly nonviolent in their calls for greater democracy
and rights in the Kingdom.
Despite
being a major US ally, Saudi Arabia has an atrocious human rights record. The
Kingdom is intolerant of any dissent and harshly represses any critics. The
Kingdom has also banned all public gatherings and demonstrations since the Arab
Spring erupted in 2011.
One of
these four political prisoners executed was the well-known Shia cleric Sheik
Nimr al-Nimr. Al-Nimr was a powerful and articulate critic of the Saudi
government and royal family.
Amnesty
International stated that Sheik
al-Nimr’s execution showed that Saudi officials were “using the death penalty
in the name of counter-terror to settle scores and crush dissidents.”
Reader
Supported News spoke with Sheik al-Nimr’s son, Mohammed al-Nimr, just a few
weeks after his father’s execution.
Mohammed
described his father as someone who believed in the same values as Americans
and who wanted all people to have basic things like democracy, freedom,
justice, dignity, and human rights.“He was a peaceful man who demanded change
in my country because he wouldn’t tolerate any tyranny. He always spoke for the
oppressed against the oppressors.”
Mohammed
said his father guided Saudi Arabia’s Arab Spring protesters in the way of
nonviolence. “He demanded peaceful change in the form of democratic elections
and he also demanded basic human rights.”
Despite
the Saudi government labeling him a terrorist, Mohammed said, “My father was
always a strong supporter for peaceful change. He always asked people to be
peaceful and not to fall into violence. I never saw my father with a weapon. He
once told a protestor, you are right to demand your rights, but don’t engage in
even the smallest forms of violence like throwing rocks at riot police.”
Mohammed’s
father was first arrested in 2012. A security vehicle rammed into his car,
security personnel dragged him out of the car, then finally opened fire on him,
striking him 4 times.
When
Sheik al-Nimr woke up in the hospital his upper chin was broken and two teeth
were missing. “My father underwent an operation to remove the bullets, but the
hospital intentionally left one bullet in his thigh to cause him pain.”
Due to
his injuries, Sheik al-Nimr suffered an enormous amount of pain, which
prevented him from sleeping properly for an entire year. Sheik al-Nimr was also
held in solitary confinement for almost four years, the entire time he was
imprisoned.
I
asked whether the US reached out to help free his father, who believed in
democracy, nonviolence, and justice, the very values America claims to stand
for. But Mohammed said the US never reached out to him. “They know about the
case, but they didn’t do enough to stop the execution.”
In the
days after Sheik Nimr’s execution, the White House spokesman Josh Earnest said that
the White House had “raised concerns” with the Saudi government that executing
Sheik Nimr al-Nimr could heighten sectarian tensions.
Mohammed
said this is the US government’s way of saying they did their part. “But that’s
not enough. You don’t just warn them. He was a peaceful man. The US should have
demanded his release and done all they could to stop the execution from
happening.”
When
asked if he had a message for the American people, Mohammed said, “Your
security is in danger. As long as your government supports the Saudi regime,
which has a lot of money to support terrorism all over the world, your security
is in danger.”
“This
Saudi regime supported the Taliban, and the result was al Qaeda. Then the Saudi
regime supported the rebels in Syria, and the result was ISIS.”
“Where
does the money for all these terror groups come from? It’s the Saudi
government’s oil money. The Saudi government pretends to fight terrorist
ideology, but their ideology is the root of terrorist ideology. For example, 15
of 19 September 11th hijackers were Saudi. Why is that? Because that’s what
they teach people in school.”
“So my
message for American citizens is look out for your safety. You don’t want more
9/11 attacks, you don’t want more Paris attacks. That’s what this regime
supports, even if the regime shows another face.”
When
asked what his father would think of the attack on the Saudi Embassy in Tehran
that followed his father’s execution, he said, “I believe if my father was here
he would not agree to the attack in Tehran. As I said, he was a peaceful man
and would never encourage violence.”
Mohammed
said his father’s execution left an enormous impact on him. “My father was
really a friend to me. He was a great father and I will have a deep sadness for
the rest of my life due to his loss. I know he’s in a better place right now,
but the painful thing is that I’m never going to see him, or hear his voice
with new words about freedom, justice, dignity and humanity.”
When
asked how he planned to attain justice for his father, Mohammed said, “I will
make the whole world hear his voice. Make the whole world know what he stood
for and what he demanded and not the picture the Saudi government is trying to
paint of my father.”
“He
was not a violent man. He was just someone who wouldn’t tolerate any tyranny
and any oppression against anyone. He would stand up for anyone who is
oppressed.”
Paul
Gottinger is a staff reporter at RSN whose work focuses on the Middle East and
the arms industry. He can be reached on Twitter @paulgottinger or via email.
Reader
Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to
republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported
News.
Donations can be sent
to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD
21218. Ph: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class
has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.
The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject
class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their
lives." Eugene Victor Debs
