Orlando protest over execution of prominent Saudi Shiite scholar 'Sheikh Nimr'

AhlulBayt News Agency - Protesters marched through Orlando carrying signs such as "Shame on Saudi Arabia!", "Muslims against ISIS", "Justice for Nimr" and "We are all Nimr".

One of the participants in the march, Azhar Nasser, said that the crowd gathered "to express our disgust over what has happened to a very prominent Shia cleric in Saudi Arabia, who was executed for basically speaking out against the atrocities committed in Saudi Arabia".

Nasser went on to add that "it's really unfortunate that the United States government says that we are at the forefront in fighting ISIS, yet the United States remains close allies with Saudi Arabia."

Another participant in the protest, Shabeer Kirmani, said, "We're gathered here together in solidarity with the American community to condemn on strongest terms the actions that the Saudi regime has committed by constantly oppressing the minority, by constantly capture those who disagree with the regime and torturing them and imprisoning them and finally this has culminated with their actions of beheading Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a man who stood for peace, for equality, for justice. He was beheaded past Friday, just for his actions of dissent."

Sheikh Nimr was one of 47 people executed on Saturday by the Saudi regime after being charged with "terrorism" offenses. He was a vocal critic of Saudi Arabia, and was one of seven people accused of orchestrating anti-government protests that erupted in Saudi Arabia's eastern province in 2011.

The 47 executed people included a Chadian national and an Egyptian with the remainder being Saudis. Saudi Arabia executed over 150 people in total during 2015.


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