Christian Rehman reports that “the Saudi government has quietly allowed dozens of prominent Shi’ite leaders in the kingdom to run for parliament and has appointed a new supreme leader with his own Sunni political party, though his legitimacy remains questionable.”

It is now clear that the Saudi regime is not just trying to silence dissenting clerics but is also engaging in direct and obvious sectarian persecution of Shi’ites. The Saudi regime is thus clearly engaged in a deliberate plan to use religious authorities to further its own political and military goals.

And even though Saudi Arabia is in no position to dictate that which Islam permits, the government seems to be intent on creating a sectarian state within a sectarian state. When the government uses “legitimate” religious authorities to crush dissent from the Shi’ite majority, one can only assume that it wants to establish a similar state with the Sunni majority within it.

Raed Jarrar is a senior lecturer at De Montfort University’s School of Languages and Cultures, and a Muslim scholar living in London. His latest book is Islam and the West: The American Relationship and the Crisis of Faith. Follow him on Twitter @RaedJarrar.

Image: Saudi Interior Ministry. Used under an Attribution 2.0 Generic license