The Sheikh who Defied the House of Saud...

Khalil Kawtharani

An activist who is one of the sons of the al-Qatif area, and who lived in the company of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, relates that during the height of the [protest] movement in the region, [Nimr] would affirm to the youth of the demonstrations that there was no need to [wear] masks and cover their faces during protests, something which some participants would do [by covering the bottom part of the face]. This was done due to possible security prosecution. Indeed, some [demonstrators] indeed paid the price for appearing before the cameras and being recognised by the security forces, by being pursued and arrested.

The Sheikh was not oblivious of his enemy, nor was he unaware of its brutality, nor was he one who miscalculated or was reckless in taking decisions. The martyr Nimr deliberately [sought to] establish a common practice of audacity against the House of Saud. He knew simply that [the Saudis], due to the extent of their evilness and brutality, are unable to hide themselves, as words - no matter how small or weak - will expose them, and his words, which were backed by the people's trust and affection, were the Sheikh's weapon.

The audacious actions of the son of Awamiyyah matched his words. He was not in the eyes of his followers a leader who sufficed himself with giving cultural or political directions from behind a podium, a pen, or screen. With his tall stature and his quick movements - for which he became well-known for - he would himself move from one protest to a funeral of a martyr, to visiting the family of a martyr, while echoing his powerful voice with enchanting speeches, to crowds which he became a symbol for ever since he began fighting for their rights.

His tall and thin stature is well remembered by the old generation, when Nimr would be in the first row of the protests of the 1400 [1979] uprising, a practice that remained with the leader Sheikh, who adamantly stood in the front rows of the protests of 2011, so that he stands before the armored [vehicles] with full poise and courage.

The [Sheikh] of Najd-roots did not act out any of that courage at all. It is as if it is naturally found in the son of the family famous for its deep patience in rejection of and resistance against British colonialism. From 1979 to 2011, passing through the reconciliation of 1993 and the events of 2008, the famous [facial] features did not change in the two similar revolutionary periods, and what occurred between them, a reconciliation that was rejected by the leader in the Vanguard Movement, just as he rejected going to any events organised for pledging of allegiance to the House of Saud.

The year 2008 was decisive in shedding the spotlight on the courage of the Sheikh, when he came out with extraordinary audacity to oppose the attacks meted out by the Wahhabi guards against the visitors of the Baqi in Madina al-Munawwarah. After this stand, Nimr began to pay the price, by becoming homeless, remaining in secrecy, and being placed in prison, until the year 2011, when the confrontation came out completely into the open. Regardless of the political analyses and the timing of the crime, whoever wishes to know what the accusation against Sheikh Nimr is should know this side of this man's personality, that he knows the matchless level of audacity and courage in the kingdom of silence. Activists that were [companions] of the Sheikh confirm that he knowingly moved to this [eventual] ending [of his]. The Sheikh use to continuously repeat that he will definitely be killed.

As a result of the martyrdom of Sheikh Nimr, the true face of the House of Saud became clear, with its ignorance and Bedouin [nature], and rather its cowardice, because it put the Sheikh along with those to be executed due to their affiliations to "Al-Qaeda". An informed source who refused to reveal his identity, relates that Mohammad bin Nayef stayed fully up to date with the torture of Sheikh Nimr within the prison in Riyadh. The matter took on a completely personal nature. Bin Nayef entered the cell of the Sheikh, the source affirms, and he tried to make him backtrack from his stances towards his father Nayef by reaching [some sort of] deal, and when the Sheikh refused to back down on one letter that he said regarding Nayef bin Abdul Aziz, the [prison guard] began to pull out a tooth from Sheikh Nimr using a metal object.

Perhaps this story is abit hard to believe, yet this side of bin Nayef and the other princes of the Saudi dynasty do not hide this side themselves. After a few hours from the carrying out of the execution, bin Nayef gathered together at night his successor Mohammad bin Salman, and the minister of the National Guard, Motab bin Abdullah, and a gathering from the House of Saud, in a festival for the Horse Racing Club for the "Crown Prince Domestic and Imported Production of Horses" for the second group, in the King Abdul Aziz Janadriah Equestrian Club Complex.

This is how these killers celebrated the taking of revenge for his father, with complete arrogance apparent on his face during the Horse festival on Saturday night. As for the final state of Nimr, whose family was not even allowed to farewell him, it is not difficult to imagine it. It was as it had been throughout the previous years, as he opened his eyes in the face of the executioner of the House of Saud, staring firmly while borrowing words from the literature of Ashura which he use to use on the podium of Awamiyyah Mosque: you have not cut but your own neck...your days are naught but limited.

Source: al-Akhbar Newspaper, Translated and Edited by website team