Grisly killing of child bares brutal nature of Wahhabism

The killing of a six-year-old boy in broad daylight in Saudi Arabia has generated a wave of shock and revulsion and drawn attention to the brutal nature of Wahhabi school of thought which governs the kingdom. 

The child, identified as Zakariya Bader al-Jabir, was brutally murdered last week by a man - described in some reports as a Taxi driver-  in front of his screaming mother in the holy city of Medina.


The killer repeatedly stabbed Zakariya in the neck with a piece of broken glass until he was beheaded, witness accounts of the gruesome killing said.

The child and his mother were reportedly attacked by the apparently sole assailant while they were on their way to visit the shrine of Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon Him).

Shia Rights Watch, a Washington-based advocacy group, said on Saturday the incident was “a result of ongoing violations against and lack of protection of the Shia population by Saudi authorities."

"Saudi Shia have been under military crackdown by their government and many Shia are in prisons and on death row," it said.

According to reports, Saudi officials were quick to state that the killer suffered from psychological problems.

Kuwaiti cleric Yasser Al-Habib, however, dismissed those claims, saying they are meant to acquit the murderer or reduce his possible punishment.

Ahmad Abul Ali, executive director of Child Development Center in the Eastern Province which is populated mostly by Shia Muslims, called for protection for all children in the kingdom, online newspaper Hasanews reported.

Ademrights, an Iraq-based rights group, also denounced the killing and held Saudi authorities responsible for fueling violence against the Shia minority in the Wahhabi-dominated kingdom.

The murder of the Saudi child, it said, is more dangerous than the crimes committed by Daesh terrorists in Iraq and Syria.

Takfirism is the trademark of many terror outfits operating in the two countries. The concept is largely influenced by Wahhabism, the radical ideology dominating Saudi Arabia and freely preached by Saudi clerics.

Riyadh is widely believed to be a key sponsor of Takfiri terrorist groups.

The regime has also adopted a zero-tolerance approach toward dissent, the latest example of which is the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

In an interview with Press TV, political commentator Alexander Azadgan said all journalists and human rights activists should shed light on Zakariya's murder and not let it become "the victim of media news cycles."

"This story needs to be repeated until there is some kind of resolution, until there is some kind of reaction from all sides for us to know whether the global community - the so-called global community - even cares about the plight of minorities in some of these Wahhabi-oriented countries," he added.

So far, the mainstream media in the West have largely kept silent on the grisly killing and except for a few British newspapers, no sections of the press have covered it.

Azadgan touched on heavy-handed tactics used by Saudi Arabia and its allies to silence opponents and instill fear, citing Bahrain which has been rocked by protests since 2011.

"Let's not forget what they are doing to Shia clerics in Bahrain, Sheikh [Isa] Qassim for example. This is part of much bigger hatred, prejudice and bias against the Shias," he said.