While encouraging the uprising against President Assad's dictatorship in Syria, the Saudi authorities remain very wary of any demonstrations on their own soil.

Small anti-Assad protests popped up last week during the hajj and there were also occasional glimpses of pilgrims waving Syrian revolutionary flags. 

A Syrian revolution flag seen among the umbrellas during the hajj. Hat tip: Nora Basha

  
At least one demonstration by several hundred pilgrims was dispersed by police, Reuters reports:

Protesters held up rebel flags and marched toward the Jamarat Bridge in Mina, east of the Saudi Arabian city of Mecca, where more than three million Muslim pilgrims congregated for the annual hajj.

No one was hurt when two police vehicles drove slowly in the direction of the protesters with the sirens on as the officers asked the crowd through loudspeakers to leave the area. The protesters swiftly dispersed and merged with thousands of other pilgrims in the area, the witness said.

The hajj, of course, is a religious occasion and there are good reasons for keeping politics out of it – though one of the protesters quoted by Reuters argued that their purpose was not political: "It's more of a humanitarian demonstration because the Syrian question has become a humanitarian one." Even so, in Saudi Arabia it's not allowed.

While the Assad regime went through the charade of issuing a lawto "license" demonstrations (under conditions that are almost impossible to meet), the Saudi regime hasn't made the slightest move in that direction.

Last year, the Saudi interior ministry announced a total ban "on all kinds of demonstrations, marches and sit-in protests as well as calling for them" – though that still doesn't deter some people from protesting.

Despite this blanket ban, the authorities seem to be making a distinction between "good" and "bad" demonstrations. The anti-Assad protesters at the hajj were treated more gently than might have been expected – presumably because they were expressing a view that accords with Saudi government policy.

It's a different matter when people protest against the government's policies. Here's the latest example documented by Human Rights Watch:

On October 17, 2012, the Bureau of Investigation and Prosecution charged 19 men with "instigating chaos and sedition" and "gathering illegally" after they participated in a peaceful protest on September 23 outside Turfiya prison, in Qassim province in central Saudi Arabia. 

They were seeking the release of family members, some of whom have been held for years without charge. On October 18, a criminal court sentenced 15 of the men to between three and 15 days in prison, along with suspended sentences of between 50 and 90 lashes and suspended jail terms of between two and five months. The trial of the remaining four is scheduled for November 4.

"Instead of addressing the protesters’ concerns, the Saudi government has used the judicial system to punish them," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "The sentences handed to these men are part of a wider effort to target and harass activists across the country."

The authorities have not alleged that the protesters engaged in or called for violence, HRW says – adding that in video footage said to show the September 23 incident police are seen beating demonstrators.

However, cracking down on street protests has done little to stop public criticism of the government, with many Saudis outspokenly expressing their views on Twitter.

"Prominent judges and lawyers issue fierce public broadsides about large-scale government corruption and social neglect. Women deride the clerics who limit their freedoms. Even the king has come under attack," an article in the New York Times noted earlier this month.

Unlike other media, Twitter has allowed Saudis to cross social boundaries and address delicate subjects collectively and in real time, via shared subject headings like "Saudi Corruption" and "Political Prisoners," known in Twitter as hashtags.

With so many people writing mostly under their real names — there are some 2.9 million users in the kingdom, according to one recent study, and it is the world’s fastest-growing Twitter zone — the authorities appear to have thrown their hands up.

"Twitter for us is like a parliament, but not the kind of parliament that exists in this region," said Faisal Abdullah, a 31-year-old lawyer. "It’s a true parliament, where people from all political sides meet and speak freely."

Ominously for the regime, the article says Twitter reveals "a striking depth of anger at the royal family that cuts across the political spectrum and has led some Saudis to wonder how long this deeply conservative and seemingly placid society can survive without serious reform."

Posted by Brian Whitaker, 28 October 2012.