Riyadh: They are angry and grief-stricken, but Saudi Arabia’s Shiites refused on Sunday to be provoked by a deadly mosque bombing that authorities called an attempt to promote sectarian strife.
“No, no, no ... There is no action” in the form of retaliation, a Shiite resident who said he lost three friends in the attack on Al Qadeef village said. “They just want justice.”
Naseema Assada, a resident of Al Qadeef city near the stricken village, said she visited seven families whose loved ones died in the bombing.
“They are angry at Daesh and radicals ...,” but not at Saudis in general, she said.
Residents said two children were among the dead, and plans were being made for a mass burial.
Demonstrators took to the streets of the region on Saturday to denounce the attack, which residents said occurred despite security checkpoints in Al Qadeef.
Political and religious leaders in the kingdom, and its media, condemned the bombing.
The interior ministry said the attack against “honourable citizens was carried out by tools controlled by foreign forces that aim to divide the unity of society and pull it into sectarian strife”.
But columnist Khaled Al Maeena, writing in Sunday’s Saudi Gazette, complained that “some imams spewed hatred and spread falsehood about Muslims of other sects ... we should not have remained silent.”
