The news has been verified and according to reliable sources the boy, Zakaria Al-Jaber, was in the holy city of Medina with his mother to visit the shrine of Prophet Mohammad (pbuh) when the tragic incident took place.

Many different versions of the incident have been reported in different media outlets. The most reliable version says the boy and his mother were traveling to the green-domed shrine, one of the two holiest shrines for Muslims, in a taxi when the driver got inkling that they were Shias.

The taxi driver immediately stopped the car near a coffee shop in Al-Tilal neighborhood and forced the boy out. Then he smashed a glass bottle and with a shard of broken glass slit the boy’s throat and stabbed him in front of his screaming mother.

The helpless mother tried to stop the assailant but he managed to overpower her. She cried out for help but nobody came. Then she collapsed on the ground, next to the bleeding body of her tender-aged son.

According to TMV, a broadcaster that shared the footage of slain boys funeral on its website, a cop near the site tried to stop the driver but was unable to save the boy. The incident occurred in broad daylight last Thursday.

TMV quoted officials in Saudi Arabia saying that the taxi driver had mental health issues but local residents were quoted as saying that it was an act of sectarianism.

Shia Rights Watch also confirmed that in an unprecedented incident the child was brutally killed after the assailant came to know about his Shia identity.

The rights group, in a statement said, the unidentified assailant had asked the mother if she was Shia when they were heading to the holy shrine, and she had answered Yes.

Minutes after that, the statement added, the car stopped and the child was dragged out of the car and mercilessly attacked with a broken piece of glass, quoting witness reports that the child was attacked from behind his head as his mother watched and screamed helplessly.

There was no intervention from anyone and no response from authorities thus far, the statement noted.

People in the community where the boy and his mother live came together to mourn the tragedy and denounce the growing number of sectarian incidents in the country and lack of action against the perpetrators.

The rights group said the Shias in Saudi Arabia have been under a military crackdown by their government and many Shia activists are languishing in prisons and [sentenced to] death.

According to sources, the regime in Riyadh has given free hand to state and non-state actors to inflict harm on Shias and force them into submission. That is precisely what emboldens people like this taxi driver to commit such a horrendous crime and possibly get away with it, said a source.

Shias in the country have been under fire since too long now. In a statement July last year, following the execution of four Shias men in country’s eastern province, Amnesty International said the Saudi regime was employing the death penalty as a political weapon to silence dissent.

The watchdog said it has documented the cases of at least 34 other Shia men currently on death row, including Ali al-Nimr, Dawood Hussein al-Marhoon and Abdollah Hasan al-Zaher.

Ali al-Nimr, Shaheed Baqir Nimrs nephew, was framed under dubious charges of participating in pro-democracy rallies in 2012 at the age of 17, and sentenced to death by crucifixion.
Meanwhile, social media has been flooded with posts condemning this atrocious crime and the regime that provides impunity for such crimes.

This little boy is 6 years old; he was brutally killed in Saudi Arabia, his crime? Being the wrong sect, tweeted Madiha Raza. This, amongst many others, is an unbearable injustice perpetrated by the Saudi ideology.

There wouldn’t be enough media coverage on the brutal killing of this Shia boy in Medina, tweeted Syed Akram Hussain. Remember, the whole world stood on their toes when a Saudi journalist was killed in Turkey.

This is what sectarian brainwashing does, and it benefits no one but the Satanic powers (Zionist entity, NATO etc). Sectarianism keeps us down and costs innocent blood, tweeted Ali Salaam.

However, despite the outcry on social media with hashtag #JusticeForZakaria, Saudi authorities have so far taken no action. As a Saudi source said, the case will be quietly brushed under the carpet of Mohammad Bin Salmans grand palace.

According to Almughawim, which is an institute for preserving and publishing the books by the Bahraini top cleric, Sheikh Qassim arrived in Mashhad on Saturday.

Mashhad in northeast Iran is home to the holy shrine of the eighth Shia Imam.

The cleric arrived in Mashhad from Iraqi city of Najaf, where he visited the holy shrine of the first Shia Imam.

While in Najaf, Sheikh Qassim also visited Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani as well as the Chairman of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI) Ammar Hakim.

He is leading an opposition movement in Bahrain against Sunni al-Khalifa dynasty demanding an elected government in the Shia majority country.

He arrived in Najaf from Britain, where he received medical treatment after his health condition was deteriorated for being under house arrest since May 2017 by al-Khalifa regime.

Daniel Philpott, a Professor of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame, says “if a religion can be shown to be hospitable to religious freedom, then we can say that it is a peaceful and tolerant religion.”

Author of “Religious Freedom in Islam” adds “religious freedom is present in the Muslim world and that Islam is not inherently hostile to it.”

“Religious freedom allows religious people and communities the space in which they can flourish as religious communities without interference from the state or from people of other faiths”, Professor Philpott said the Tehran Times.

Following is the full text of the interview:

What is your main question in your new book “Religious Freedom in Islam: The Fate of a Universal Human Right in the Muslim World Today”?

In the book I confront the question of whether Islam is hospitable to the principle of religious freedom, a universal human right. Of course, this question can be asked of any religion. It is fair to point out that until modern times, no religion authoritatively espoused a teaching of religious freedom, and that all religions have had a history of violence and intolerance towards other religions. Still, in this book I pose the question towards Islam. I do this because in the West, where I live, a lively debate — even a culture war, one could say — has been taking place over the nature of Islam at least as far back as the attacks of September 11th, 2001. One side says that Islam is a violent religion. The other side says that Islam is essentially like any other religion – basically peaceful but containing some violent elements. The outcome of the debate matters a lot. Today, the US has a president, Donald Trump, who is manipulating the US population’s worst views of Islam and of Muslims. I do not agree with this approach. Through writing this book, I hope to arrive at a fair and balanced assessment of the Muslim world. I think that religious freedom is a good criterion for this assessment because it involves an enduring commitment to respect the full, equal citizenship of members of other religions. If a religion can be shown to be hospitable to religious freedom, then we can say that it is a peaceful and tolerant religion.

What is your hypothesis for answering your main questions?

I do not begin with any hypothesis. The study is an empirical one, meaning that I am open to finding different answers depending on where the evidence leads.

One of the main questions is whether Islam is hostile to religious freedom. Do you think that Islam is hostile to religious freedom?

The book’s finding is mixed. If you look at the levels of religious freedom in Muslim-majority countries from a satellite view – that is, in the aggregate — you will see that the Muslim world is less religiously free than the rest of the world. However, if we zoom in to a close-up view, we discover that the picture is more complicated. In fact, about one-fourth of Muslim-majority countries (11 out of 47) are religiously free. They are mostly on the western coast of Africa. Then, among those Muslim majority countries that are not religiously free (36), a sizable portion (15) are repressive on account of a secular ideology, not out of Islamic beliefs. True, the other 21 are not free for more religious reasons — they are governed by an ideology of Islamism. Overall, I try to be both honest and hopeful. In the end, I want to show that religious freedom is present in the Muslim world and that Islam is not inherently hostile to it.

In this book, you argue, the Islamic tradition carries within it “seeds of freedom”. How can we cultivate those seeds in order to expand religious freedom in the Muslim world and the whole world, in general?

Yes, I identify seven “seeds of freedom,” which are concepts or practices in the Islamic tradition that express religious freedom in a significant way but that fall short of a full human right of religious freedom that is articulated in its many dimensions, enshrined in law, protected in contemporary political orders, and broadly accepted by Muslims. By pointing out these seeds in the tradition, I seek to show potentialities for religious freedom to grow. They include 1) Quranic verses and traditions of interpretation; 2) evidence for freedom in the life of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH); 3) the tradition of treatment of minorities, or dhimmis; 4) periods of liberal Islam; 5) contemporary Muslim advocates of religious freedom; 6) elements of religious freedom in the law and institutions of Muslim-majority states; and 7) a tradition of separation of religion and state. We can cultivate these seeds by highlighting their presence in the Muslim tradition, spreading awareness of them, and building a network of people across traditions who are committed to religious freedom.

When you argue that the Islamic tradition carries within it “seeds of freedom”, which kind of interpretation of Islam do you mean?

The seeds of freedom are not tied to any one interpretation of Islam. Certainly, though, there are certain schools of thought that tend to favor religious freedom more than others, for instance, schools that stress the role of reason. It is important to remember, though, that even revivalist thinkers like Sayyid Qutb thought that religion could only be adopted freely. Religion, including Islam, is most authentic and beautiful when it is adopted freely and not imposed.

In this book you argue that “religious freedom promotes goods like democracy”. What is the preconditions for religious freedom (Democracy or not)? Some argue that secularism is precondition for having democracy. If this is true, it challenges your argument.

I would begin by saying that there are different forms of secularism. There is negative secularism, which embodies hostility to religion and has been exemplified by states like the Republic of Turkey as founded by Kemal Ataturk, Egypt under the rule of Nasser, modern day Syria, and the post-Soviet republics of Central Asia. But there is also a more positive form of secularism that views religion as a good thing and a strong contributor to justice and good governance, yet calls for religion and state to be separate in their functions and authority. The Muslim-majority states of West Africa, including Senegal, Mali, and Sierra Leone, meet this description.

What I want to stress most about religious freedom is that it is good for people — it manifests human dignity — and it is good for religions, good for Islam, and good for Muslims. Religious freedom allows religious people and communities the space in which they can flourish as religious communities without interference from the state or from people of other faiths. It does not involve a Western form of secularism that is hostile to religion but is rather a principle that carries the deepest respect for religion. That is one of the most important points I make in the book.

“This verdict will leave no room for any doubt in the public opinion and the international community that the Bahraini government does not intend to improve the situation, but it seeks to intensify its crackdown and worsen the conditions,” Bahram Ghasemi said on Sunday, hours after a Bahraini appeal court overturned the acquittal of the 52-year-old secretary general of the dissolved al-Wefaq National Islamic Society and two of his aides and leveled new accusations against them.

The court accused them of collaborating with Qatar and giving out information to foreigners in order to topple the regime in Manama.

Ghasemi added that the Bahraini authorities, instead of relying on other governments and looking for security outside Bahrain, need to solve their self-made crisis through holding real and serious talks with the opposition groups and answering the legitimate demands of Bahraini people.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman further urged Al-Khalifa regime to end its inhumane behavior and restrictions on people of Bahrain.