On Nov. 3, the day of Ashoura, gunmen attacked a Shiite hall in the village of al-Dalwah in al-Ahsa district, killing seven people and wounding 13 others. The operation drew a wave of condemnation from disparate segments of Saudi society. It was especially sensitive as Ashoura marks the commemoration of the martyrdom of Imam Hussein Bin Ali, one of the Shiites’ 12 imams and a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad.
The Saudis' reactions differed from previous displays of ambivalence toward the deaths of Shiites, indicating the seriousness of the nature of the attack. In the past, the murder of Shiite citizens, such as Nasser al-Mahishi or Ali Folfol, who died in January 2012 during a “shootout between gunmen,” as described by the Ministry of Interior, did not receive much attention. The response to the al-Ahsa attack was notable in three respects: the kingdom's official religious institution, the General Secretariat of the Council of Senior Scholars, condemned the attack; the Ministry of Interior provided constant updates of the latest developments in the pursuit of the perpetrators; and the people commenting on the incident focused on people viewed as fomenting incitement, neglecting the Islamic State (IS) connection to the attack.
