In modern day Saudi Arabia, the Sunni rulers limit Shia political participation to a game of notables. These notables benefit from their ties to power and in turn, are expected to control their community. Saudi Shias are a minority comprising only about 10-15%, about 3 million, of the some 30 million Saudi population. Although some live in Medina, Mecca, and even Riyadh, the majority are concentrated in the oases of al-Hasa and Qatif in the oil-rich areas of the Eastern Province. For years, they have faced religious and economic discrimination because they’re viewed as Iranian puppets. They have usually been denounced as heretics, traitors, and non-Muslims. Shias were accused of sabotage, most notably for bombing oil pipelines in 1988. A number of Shias were even executed. In response to Iran’s militancy, the Saudi government collectively punished the Shia community in Saudi Arabia by placing restrictions on their freedoms and marginalizing them economically. Wahabi ulama were given the green light to sanction violence against the Shia. What followed were fatwas passed by the country’s leading cleric, Abdul-Aziz ibn Baz which denounced the Shias as apostates. Another by Adul-Rahman al-Jibrin, a member of the Higher Council of Ulama even sanctioned the killing of Shias. This call was reiterated in Wahabi religious literature as late as 2002.

Unlike Iraq and Lebanon which hold sizable Shia wealthy, Saudi Arabia has nothing resembling Shia elite of any kind. There have been no Shia cabinet ministers. They are kept out of critical jobs in the armed forces and the security services. There are no Shia mayors or police chiefs, and not one of the three hundred Shia girls’ schools in the Eastern Province has a Shia principal.

The government has restricted the names that Shias can use for their children in an attempt to discourage them from showing their identity. Saudi textbooks, criticized for their anti-Semitism, are equally hostile to Shiism often characterizing the faith as a form of heresy worse than Christianity and Judaism. Wahabi teachers frequently tell classrooms full of young Shia schoolchildren that they are heretics. In the town of Dammam, a quarter of whose residents are Shia, Ashura is banned, and there is no distinctly Shia call to prayer. There is no Shia cemetery for the nearly quarter of the 600,000 Shias that live there. There is only one mosque for the town’s 150,000 Shias. The Saudi government has often been viewed as an active oppressor of Shias because of the funding of the Wahabi ideology which denounces the Shia faith.

A recent article speaking of these issues claims "Dr. Tawfiq AlSaif, a prominent Shiite intellectual and a political thinker, demanded the Saudi government to adopt a "courageous resolution" that ends sectarian discrimination against Shiite citizens.

In a recent political study that was published in the French Moyen-Orient magazine, Dr. AlSaif cleared what Shiites really desire which is to be treated as other Saudi citizens "no more, no less".

He said that Saudi Shiites want to be equal with other citizens in opportunities, before the law and in public resources. In return, they would hold their responsibilities as other Saudi citizens.

AlSaif believes that the Saudi government needs a scheduled program to end features of discrimination in law, policies and official practices. On the other hand, he confirmed the necessity of making initiatives by Shiite citizens in order to address the governmental concerns in terms of religion and security. He emphasized the necessity of enacting regulations that criminate sectarianism, and that determines the required procedures against practicing it through official bodies.

He recommended the government to take actions that "causes a cultural shock" like appointing a number of Shiites in higher governmental positions as minister, ambassadors, vice ministers or managers of major bodies.

AlSaif explained that such actions would not address the dilemma of sectarian discrimination, but they would give an influential message which shows that Shiites are not second-class citizens anymore. He said that Saudi Shiite leaders do understand that addressing the sectarian dilemma is not easy at all, but there are some approaches that could be considered effective in the middle or the short term. He indicated that "the major problem" is the absence of mutual trust in the relationship between the Saudi government and its Shiite citizens.

He stressed that the only way to attain this trust back is through transparent discussion about the concerns of both parties and their recommendations for addressing them. He confirmed that Shiites are ready to contribute in solving the problem but they are waiting for the government to make the first step by approving making discussions at the national level.