Referring to the death sentence passed on Ayatollah Sheik Nemer and the fact that the Saudi government has threaten that it would carry out this sentence, Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi stated the following at the beginning of his Fiqh course in A’zam Mosque in Qom: “the Saudi officials are either really negligent or they are pretending to be negligent; the Shiites of Saudi Arabia, including those of Ahsaa and Qatif, who are strong and devoted Shiites, are under great pressure for holding their religious ceremonies and rituals”.
Emphasizing the fact that the Shiites of Saudi Arabia only seek to restore their rights peacefully, he noted: “Sheik Nemer has only talked about defending the rights of the people and he has not committed any crime, and he is a brave person. Which of the Islamic law allows the Saudi government to pass a death sentence on such a person?”
His eminence, then, addressed the Saudi government and asserted: “Know that if this sentence is carried out it will entail adverse consequences for you and all the Shiites around the world will bear you ill-will”.
Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi stated: “perhaps they think that by doing this the Shiites and the other people would be intimidated, but this is not true. The people will not be intimidated this way and if this sentence is carried out, other people will become more courageous. In the time of the Islamic revolution in Iran, the more revolutionists the regime killed, the more zealous the other people became and they were never intimidated by such brutalities”.
His eminence continued: “we hope that they would come back to their senses and they avoid carrying out this sentence, otherwise its adverse consequences will be inflicted on them, and if this sentence is carried out it would provoke the reaction of Allah Shiites, even the moderate Muslims all around the world”.
He added: “of course international organizations have also objected to this sentence and have maintained that the Saudi government does not have the right to carry out this death sentence. We hope that Allah would grant everyone enough wisdom so that they would be able to recognize what is in their interests and what is against them”.
