In an outrageous example of Saudi Arabia's growing sectarianism, Muslims from Pakistan who wish to take part in this year's hajj are being forced to declare whether or not they are Shia.

A new question has been added to this year's hajj application form which says: "Are you Shia?" Applicants must answer yes or no.

According to the Pakistani authorities, "Saudi Arabia will not entertain any hajj application from aspirants that fail to specify whether the applicant is a Shia or a Sunni."

A report in the Express Tribune attributes the new rule to the conflict in Yemen (which Saudi Arabia has been trying to portray as a Sunni-versus-Shia war). The paper says:

Riyadh has made it mandatory for all hajj pilgrims to declare their sect as it fears that sectarian tensions could rise in the kingdom owing to the conflict in Yemen.

"Saudis do not want a repeat of the 1987 demonstrations during the hajj pilgrimage, which led to the deaths of over 400 people in Makkah," a senior official of Pakistan hajj mission observed.

Meanwhile, Pakistan's religious affairs ministry has been trying to play the issue down by suggesting, rather implausibly, that the "Are you Shia?" question isn't really about sects. Supposedly it's to determine whether female pilgrims need to be accompanied by a mahram (male guardian), since the guardianship rule applies only to Sunni women. According to the ministry, some Sunni women have been cheating by pretending to be Shia in order to perform the hajj without a mahram.

Last month, when Pakistanis were debating whether or not to provide military support for the Saudi war effort in Yemen, an article in the Pakistani newspaper, The Nation, said the Saudis were requesting that any troops sent by Pakistan should be Sunni Muslims, not Shia.

This claim wasn't independently confirmed by readers posting comments below The Nation's article didn't sound surprised by the story and some of them said it had happened before.

One reader said that in the 1980s General Zia-ul-Haq, the Pakistani president at the time, was asked to send only Sunni officers in a delegation to Saudi Arabia, but he refused.

Another reader said that in other military dealings between the two countries Saudi Arabia had asked for Sunni-only troops but Pakistan had always made a point of including small numbers of Shia – sometimes disguising them as Sunnis in their documentation.

Although Pakistan is an overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim country it does have a significant Shia minority. The figures are disputed but a report in the Financial Times says the Shia account for about 20% of the 185 million population. If this is correct, it would mean that Pakistan has the largest number of Shia Muslims outside Iran.
  
   
Posted by Brian Whitaker
Friday, 1 May 2015