By Mohamed Zayed, iNews Cayman special correspondent

Saudi Arabia is branded by the Human Rights Watch as one of the most notorious regimes which trend on religious freedom especially against non-Muslims and Shiites. The Saudi regime depends heavily on the security solution to crush any possible protests against the Ruling Dynasty. Saudi Arabia is a religious country where the Sunni majority dominates everything in the kingdom. But the regime puts more restrictions on the Shiite minority that live at the eastern city of Qoutif where it is rich in oil. The Shiite population exceed 2 millions, and they are dealt with as second-class citizens.

As they see regime after regime falling throughout the latest revolutions in the Middle East, they found it a golden opportunity to demand their own rights. They demonstrated peacefully to better their lives and status in the country. But the royals have no faith in the Saudi Shiites, accusing them of collaborating with the Islamic Republic of Iran to spread the Shia sect across the mostly Sunni Middle East .The government has sent in their troops and   riot police to snuff out the protests, many Shiites have been dead during the clashes, but no account can be verified because the police don’t allow the press to cover the situation there. After studying their own living conditions, they are marginalized intentionally, no Shiite can apply to high positions in the government, and they live the life of nomads. So they don’t have much to lose in their struggle to grasp their taken rights.

The Saudi Shiite doesn’t demand the fall of the regime as happened in the spring Arab’s countries, but they want the simplest basic of life: equality. They are blacklisted in the high state positions and the Supreme Religious Association.  In neighboring UAE, though it is an autocratic monarchy, but the government reached a unofficial win-win deal, they have the right to practice their own rites away from the others’ privacy, the relations with the Iranians are improving, the Iran invest billions of US dollars in the UAE freely .In Kuwait, it is rare to hear any sectarian violence between the Sunni and Shiite, the latter always participate in the nation’s assembly (parliament) without any restrictions or extremism. As I was studying in the University of Al_Azhar, the biggest moderate Islamic organization in Egypt, there are many smaller sects within the Shia; they have different rites and principles. Most of them are peaceful, but a few are extremists, but not in the way that may hurt people. So Saudi Arabia shouldn’t be over-cautious when they demand better life.

Meeting their demands, or some of them, would have a positive impact on Saudi Arabia ‘s stability. This would grow Saudi Shiites’ belonging, thus weakening Iran’s powers in the kingdom. The Royals should think constructively to settle this crisis, before exploding to a level that would be difficult to control. Look at the Kurdish in Syria during the revolution; as result of long decades of oppression and marginalization, they established their liberating militias to free their region from Asad’s regime to build their own autonomous state. They refused to let the Free Syrian Army enter their cities to help them protect the armless residents.

The Saudi government should modernize the supreme religious systems to cope with the fast growing evolution regarding thinking and mentality. I don’t mean that is should be like Europe or the US. It is good to strike a balance between religion and life. Following the death of Prophet Muhamed ‘s cousin Ali in Abi Talib, there were no fighting between Sunni and Shia as is happening now across many parts of the Muslim world.

They should use religion to serve life not the contrary. The world are surprised to see Saudi Arab to send women to London 2012 Olympics, they wear decent clothes according to Islamic Sharia. The kingdom should get itself out of the long stagnation that that it has been experiencing for decades