Saudi Arabia Facebook Group Calls For Protests

DUBAI (Reuters) - Hundreds of people have backed a Facebook campaign calling for a "day of rage" across Saudi Arabia next month to demand an elected ruler, greater freedom for women and release of political prisoners.

The page called for a "revolution of yearning" on March 11 in the kingdom, the world's biggest oil exporter and which is ruled by an absolute monarchy.

More than 460 people had endorsed the page by Wednesday morning, but it was impossible to verify how many of them were inside Saudi Arabia or whether any protest would materialize.

Arab uprisings which overthrew leaders in Tunisia and Egypt were mobilized by youths using social media, but activists in Saudi Arabia say a recent Internet call for a demonstration in Riyadh failed to bring anyone onto the streets.

A protest last month in Jeddah after floods swept through Saudi Arabia's second-biggest city was quickly broken up.

The demands included "that the ruler and members of the Shura (Consultative) Council be elected by the people" as well as calls for an independent judiciary, release of political prisoners and the right of freedom of expression and assembly.

They also sought a minimum wage of 10,000 riyals ($2,700), greater employment opportunities, establishing a watchdog to eliminate corruption and cancellation of "unjustified taxes and fees."

Other requests included rebuilding the armed forces, reforming Saudi Arabia's powerful and conservative Sunni Muslim clerics, and "the abolition of all illegal restrictions on women" in the kingdom.

Despite its oil wealth, Saudi Arabia is grappling with unemployment that hit 10.5 percent in 2009. It offers its 18 million nationals social benefits but they are considered less generous than those provided by other Gulf Arab oil producers.

Saudi state television said King Abdullah, returning home on Wednesday after months of absence for medical treatment, would grant benefits to Saudis worth billions of riyals.
The measures did not include political reforms in the absolute monarchy such as fresh municipal elections demanded by liberals or opposition groups. The kingdom has no elected parliament and does not tolerate public dissent.

(Reporting by Dominic Evans; Editing by David Stamp)

Copyright 2010 Thomson Reuters. Click for Restrictions.

Comments

[Maia Aiam]

01:03 PM on 03/01/2011

I also wish to add that many of us Saudi's living here are calling out daily for real political reforms and we hope that this revolution and alqaeda disruptions push the government to reform without thinking twice about how local fanatics react and what threats they make to overthrow the " foreign influenced " government. This has always been a barrier to any change we wish to see and sometimes an excuse used by the government to not make changes at all.Today this threat has been made , so let's wait and see the King's upcoming reforms and if they are truly as major as we expect.

[Maia Aiam]

12:53 PM on 03/01/2011

Dear Dominic, If you translated the full demands in English or maybe made sure to check out the religious background of your translator,you will know right away that it is Alqaeda who are behind this false call to freedom in their own fundamental understanding of the word .Haneen is also a name of a battle in Islamic history.The last demand on their list which you have quoted in your article ( the abolition of all illegal restrictions on women ) starts by this phrase you have correctly translated but ends with a famous fanatic call “ Taghreeb “ meaning to ( forbid any foreign influence on Saudi women the most famous are forbidding her to work in a mixed gender environment to study in a mixed gender college to travel alone without her male guardian or his permission and finally to drive a car) Fundamental Saudi Islamic clerics use this word to call upon King Abdullah to abolish any reforms to modernize the kingdom and which they have accused him of when his Universtity of science (KAUST) was opened.He fired a cleric from his council when he publicly denounced the University after the opening ceremony and not before and not in the King’s private audience.Regarding their demand to reform the armed forces, they add the right to arm any person fit. Do not be surprised if modernized,educated non fanatic Saudi women and men do not jump at this opportunity for freedom (Alqaeda freedom that is).

[YHI]

05:03 PM on 02/26/2011

Saudi Arabia, as always, is throwing money to paper over its problems.
read this great analysis of what needs to be done in the Middle East:
http://bit.ly/dMfwPI

[Alexx Shiraz]

09:53 AM on 02/26/2011

I'm all for the protests and a real democracy but Saudi Arabia is a special case. There are so many wealthy Wahabbis (a Saudi-practised extreme form of Islam) that are funding terror groups around the world that a democracy would even take many years to pass laws to stop this. As we speak, Al Qaida is still being funded by Saudis (fact) and also check out this link and tell me what you think.

www.asecondlookatthesaudis.com

[ManiKhawaja]

11:14 AM on 02/26/2011

i mistakenly favourited your post instead of another one :S

[hlove2012]

12:53 PM on 02/24/2011

I tried to find this group on FB. Does anyone have the link to the page so I can support the movement????

[Maia Aiam]

12:54 PM on 03/01/2011

if you are alqaeda please go ahead support the end to peace please reveiw my other post here

[bsultan]

12:36 PM on 02/24/2011

Saudi Arabia is led by arguably the most corrupt monarchs of all time. They consolidate power by marrying dozens of women from prominent tribes and keep the general public living in a backwards culture by strictly applying 7th century law. What's worse is that they finance all the clerics who then turn a blind eye of the kingdom's evils. It's befitting that these monarchs are beasties with the Bushes.

[sak]

12:23 PM on 02/24/2011

Oh boy. If Saudi Arabia goes, we are in big trouble. That is the birthplace of the Wahabbis. If the royal family is deposed, I do not even want to think of the mess that would ensue.

[bsultan]

12:37 PM on 02/24/2011

Who do you think finances the Wahabbis?

[laymancanuck]

11:58 AM on 02/24/2011

The House of Saud is getting worried, trying to bribe it's people. Your days are numbered. Iran you are on the hit list too. Power to the People.

[sak]

12:25 PM on 02/24/2011

Iran overthrowing its radical religious leadership would be a good thing.
Saudi Arabia is another matter. The Saudi public is not at all Westernized. The royal family has been paying them off for decades. If the Wahhabi sect takes over, that would be a very big deal for the world because they would then control the oil money. I do not even want to think about it.

[bsultan]

12:38 PM on 02/24/2011

Way off the mark. There is no "Wahhabi sect", just a bunch of clerics that exempt the monarchy from any laws they apply on the rest of the population. It's the monarchs themselves, whom you evidently prefer, that created the Wahhabis what they are today.

[Andman0121]

11:50 AM on 02/24/2011

Out of all the tyrants in the Middle East that need to be overthrown, it is the SAUDI king. Absolutely.

[sak]

12:27 PM on 02/24/2011

He needs to be overthrown, but what would be the result? The royal family does not practice the radical religious teachings of the Wahhabi sect. They are westernized to the max. If the religious radicals take over, that would spell major disaster for the rest of the world.

[Andman0121]

07:41 AM on 02/25/2011

That in no way excuses the exercise of power by tyrants. That is a horrible trade off. Besides, have a little faith in democracy. Just because this is in the ME doesn't mean they will absolutely vote into power ultra-right wing religious radicals. The protests throughout the ME are from young Arabs are obviously knowledgable about and envious of the freedoms they see over here, so I think it is silly to think they would 180 once their objectives are complete.

[bsultan]

12:39 PM on 02/24/2011

I agree. If I ever had to pick up arms against any corrupt vile government, the kingdom of Saudi Arabia would be it.

[Chemicalogic]

11:40 AM on 02/24/2011

Good for them. Women deserve to be treated as equals, no matter what your holy book says.

[bsultan]

12:41 PM on 02/24/2011

Have you read the holy book? There's no doubt in mind that you haven't ever come close to reading it. Women are inherently egalitarian in Islam. It's the Arab culture that treats women as sub-humans, not the religion. If you don't believe me, ask the former female heads of states of various Muslim (non-Arab) countries.

[Chemicalogic]

01:28 PM on 02/24/2011

Yes. And it explicitly states that one is the protector of the other, and that one should punish the other for stepping out of line. Can you guess who's punishing who? And to separate Arab culture from Islam is disingenuous. It's not as if Islam is some minority sect in the region. Both the religion and culture (which are very intertwined) seem to propagate a conservative and deeply patriarchal society, hence the lack of anything even approaching equality.

[demsrsilly]

11:35 AM on 02/26/2011

Then surely you should be screaming about the way saudi women are treated.

Here is a fine example of how women are thought of in saudi arabia.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/1874471.stm

[SShaw490]

10:01 AM on 02/24/2011

Generally, the Saudis like their king. CNBC has a good piece on this today.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/41743620

[demsrsilly]

11:26 AM on 02/26/2011

Yes, most men there do. That is true. Wonder what the women would say privately .

[terramartom]

09:20 AM on 02/24/2011

You want to really see gas and oil prices spike. Over throw the Saudi Kings!

[sak]

12:27 PM on 02/24/2011

Absolutely.

[demsrsilly]

08:18 AM on 02/24/2011

This will never happen in saudi arabia, the government will just shoot people.

[romeoforever]

12:21 PM on 02/24/2011

What's left of the Libyan government is doing the same thing, and it doesn't seem to be working for them. Never say never.

[ManiKhawaja]

11:16 AM on 02/26/2011

i think you should read this article first: http://www.cnbc.com/id/41743620
this will never happen in saudi arabia because the people love the king. learn to live with it.

[demsrsilly]

11:25 AM on 02/26/2011

I am sure they do. Wonder what the women of Saudi Arabia would say privately.

Any of those cars cramming the street being driven by women?

[demsrsilly]

12:46 PM on 02/26/2011

Yeah, the people in north korea love kim jong il too, point?