Saudi Abuse Sparks Ire In North America

Canadians protest Saudi government, western backers
23 July, 2012 – Joshua Blakeney – Press TV, Calgary

Canadians took to the streets this weekend to protest the US-backed Saudi government. Activists drew attention to the human rights abuses against Shia minorities, criticizing Western governments for their lack of concern with what they called “Saudi Arabia’s abysmal human rights record.”
Canadians took to the streets this weekend to display their antipathy towards what they call the anti-democratic government of Saudi Arabia. Activists voiced concerns with the backing the Saudi monarchy receives from Western governments which regularly claim to be concerned with Human Rights and democracy in the Middle East.

Tthese activists refer to Saudi Arabia as a puppet state of the United States who they accuse of engaging in a divide and rule strategy in order to control the resources and destiny of the inhabitants of the region.

Many of the protesters were Shia Muslims who were particularly upset with the arrest and subsequent brutalization of the Saudi Shia cleric and human rights advocate Sheik Nemr.

Activists emphasized that they were keen to see Muslims unite to resist the attempts by the imperialist countries to foment sectarianism in the Middle East. Such ‘divide and rule’ policies, they say, are being exhibited currently in Syria where Israel, the United States, Qatar and Saudi Arabia are playing on confessional and ethnic differences in an attempt to weaken one of the more stable and prosperous countries in the region. …source