The protest in Riyadh on Friday

  
The Saudi interior ministry yesterday announced a total ban "on all kinds of demonstrations, marches and sit-in protests as well as calling for them". Its statement claimed that such protests "go against the principles of Shariah [!!] and Saudi customs and traditions".

The ministry warned: "They will also lead to spreading chaos and confusion in the country, causing bloodshed, breaching honour, pillaging wealth and destroying public and private properties."

The move comes in the wake of several small demonstrations in the kingdom and amid fears of an uprising by the marginalised Shia minority.

In the Independent newspaper on Saturday, Robert Fisk 
reported that the authorities are drafting up to 10,000 security personnel into the north-eastern Shia provinces, "clogging the highways into Dammam and other cities with busloads of troops". This is intended to forestall a day of protests called for next Friday which opposition elements are referring to as the "HunaynRevolution". 

Fisk continues:

The opposition is expecting at least 20,000 Saudis to gather in Riyadh and in the Shia Muslim provinces of the north-east of the country in six days, to demand an end to corruption and, if necessary, the overthrow of the House of Saud. Saudi security forces have deployed troops and armed police across the Qatif area – where most of Saudi Arabia's Shia Muslims live ...

... Saudi security officials have known for more than a month that the revolt of Shia Muslims in the tiny island of Bahrain was expected to spread to Saudi Arabia. Within the Saudi kingdom, thousands of emails and Facebook messages have encouraged Saudi Sunni Muslims to join the planned demonstrations ... They suggest – and this idea is clearly co-ordinated – that during confrontations with armed police or the army next Friday, Saudi women should be placed among the front ranks of the protesters to dissuade the Saudi security forces from opening fire.

On Thursday, 22 people were arrested in Qatif in connection with a protest demanding the release of nine "forgotten" prisoners along with Sheikh Tawfiq al-Aamer, a Shia cleric who was detained on February 27.

Sheikh Aamer's offence, according to the Shia website, Rasid, was to deliver a sermon calling for political reforms, "notably the call for a constitutional monarchy in Saudi Arabia and [to] put an end to sectarian discrimination".

On Friday in Hofuf (Hufuf) there was another protest involving several hundred people which called for Aamer's release.

There was also a small protest in the capital, Riyadh, on Friday (see video above) when a dozen men gathered outside al-Rajhi mosque, denouncing "oppression" and the monarchy. "They were attacked by worshippers before the police intervened and arrested at least three people, including one of the leaders," AFP says, citing witnesses.

According to postings on Facebook (in Arabic), one of those arrested in Riyadh was Mohammad al-Wada'ani. There is a page about his activities here, and his personal Facebook page is here.

Posted by Brian Whitaker, 6 March 2011..

UPDATE, 8 March: Sheikh Aamer was freed on 6 March.