RIYADH, Saudi Arabia: King of Saudi Arabia Abdullah has removed a ruling family member accused of discrimination against the Shiites & Ismaili community from his post apparently at his own request.

According to the official SPA news agency a royal decree relieved Prince Mishaal bin Saud bin Abul Aziz from his post as governor of southwestern Najran province "at his request."

It did not give details or any other reason for the move.

But Ismaili activists accused Prince Mishaal of encouraging the seizure of lands in the Ismaili stronghold of Najran to settle Sunni Yemeni tribesmen who are granted Saudi citizenship in an attempt to alter the area's demographic and religious makeup.

A group of Ismaili activists in last April presented to King Abdullah a petition signed by 77 Najran notables demanding the sacking of Mishaal.

In a report issued in September, New York-based Human Rights Watch urged the Saudi government to end what it called its "systematic discrimination" against Ismailis, charging that they are treated as second-class citizens.

HRW said that several hundred thousand, "perhaps as many as one million," Ismailis live in Saudi Arabia, mostly in Najran province on the southwestern border with Yemen.

Saudi Arabia took control of Najran from Yemen in 1934, incorporating into the kingdom the local Sulaimani Ismaili community.

More than 70 years on, "Saudi authorities at the highest levels continue to propagate hate speech" against them, HRW said.

In April 2007, the Council of Senior Religious Scholars, the body tasked with officially interpreting Islamic faith, termed Ismailis "corrupt infidels, debauched atheists."

Following clashes with security forces in Najran in April 2000, hundreds of Ismailis were arrested and about 400 others were purged from the local bureaucracy, the rights watchdog said.

Seventeen Ismailis are still serving jail terms over the unrest, it said.

Visit News Article published in Jafariya News on December 13, 2002

www.jafariyanews.com/dec2k2/13_saudicurbs.htm