HRW: Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦 hate speech still targets minorities

A leading rights group says some state religious scholars and institutions in Saudi Arabia incite hatred and discrimination against religious minorities, including the country's Shia Muslim minority.

A report by the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) titled 'They are not our brothers: Hate Speech by Saudi Officials', says Saudi Arabia permitted government-appointed religious scholars to refer to religious minorities in "derogatory terms or demonise them in official documents and religious rulings" that influence government decision-making.

"Saudi Arabia has relentlessly promoted a reform narrative in recent years, yet it allows government-affiliated clerics and textbooks to openly demonise religious minorities such as Shia," Sarah Leah Whitson, a Middle East director at HRW, said.

The report highlights one incident where a member of Saudi Arabia's Council of Senior Religious Scholars, the country's highest religious body, replied in a public meeting to a question about Shia Muslims by saying that "they are not our brothers ... rather they are brothers of Satan ...".

UCJ, UNILORIN.