DAHRAN, Saudi Arabia: A postcard sent Saturday to about 8000 students and workers in a Saudi university caused a commotion and mixed reactions against Saudi Shia.

Several students in King Fahad University of Petroleum & Minerals (KFUPM) reported that they received a congratulatory postcard in their emails marking the birth of Imam Al-Mahdi, the twelve Imam of Shia Muslims.

The message contained four postcards carrying congratulatory statements like «Ya Qaem Al Mohammad», «Wa Yabqa Al-Amal» and «Asakum Min Uwaddh».

The later postcard is a typical congratulatory statement used exclusively for Eid Al-Fiter and Eid Al-Adha and is not common among Shia celebrating Imam Al-Mahdi day of remembrance.

KFUPM was established by the oil company ARAMCO and is considered to be the best in Saudi Arabia. It has a mix of Shia and Sunni faculty and students.

KFUPM is situated between the American Consulate and Saudi ARAMCO headquarter in Dhahran, East of Saudi Arabia.

An open discussion started in the University's electronic forum was immediately closed by the administrator as the discussion took a sectarian turn.

The forum administrator said that the Dean of Student Affairs, currently out of Kingdom, was notified.

There were several harassing and inciting statements made by extremist wahhabis against Shia students. The climax inciting statement was the call to «have all Shia beheaded».

Other students said that may be the email system was hacked or it is simply an honest mistake made by an employee.

The matter was further escalated as several extremist wahhabi online forum took part in the discussion describing the event as seditionary and whomever made it should be presented to court of law as per Shareaa (Islamic law).

Shia Muslims celebrate Imam Mahdi day of remembrance on Friday corresponding to middle of Shaaban (8th month of Islamic calendar).