Nimr al-Nimr

Ayatollah Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr, known as Sheikh Nimr, was a Saudi Shia cleric born on 21 June 1959 in Al-Awamiyah, in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province. He was executed on 2 January 2016, a move that drew widespread condemnation from governments and human rights groups. Popular with young people, al-Nimr was a vocal critic of the Saudi government and called for free elections in the country.

Al-Nimr began his religious studies in Al-Awamiyah before moving to Iran in 1980. There, he studied at the Al-Qaim seminary in Tehran, mainly under Ayatollah Ali-Akbar al-Modarresi and other senior scholars. After the seminary was shut down by Iranian authorities, he relocated to Damascus, Syria. He initially followed Grand Ayatollah Muhammad al-Shirazi and later switched to Grand Ayatollah al-Modarresi. By 2008, al-Nimr had become independent of the two main Shia political groups in the Eastern Province—the Shirazis and Saudi Hezbollah—and had been leading Friday prayers in Al-Awamiyah since that year.

Al-Nimr supported a governance model that blended individual and council forms of guardianship of the Islamic Jurists. He backed Kurdish majority control of Iraqi Kurdistan, believed Shia ayatollahs would not promote violence or murder in God’s name, and endorsed the idea of elections. He criticized Bahrain’s monarchy for suppressing 2011 protests, and condemned Syria’s Bashar Assad, calling the Al Khalifa family and the Assads oppressors, not true Sunnis. In August 2008, he described U.S. citizens as natural allies of Shia Muslims, citing shared values of justice and liberty, and told a diplomat he believed in these American ideals. He viewed the Saudi state as particularly reactionary and argued that agitation was needed to influence it. While some U.S. officials perceived his statements as supporting Iran, al-Nimr said in August 2008 that Iran and other outside states acted mainly out of self-interest, not religious solidarity, and distanced himself from Tehran. After Crown Prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz Al Saud died in June 2012, al-Nimr said people should rejoice at his death, adding that Nayef would be eaten by worms and suffer in Hell.

The Guardian described al-Nimr as having taken the lead in the uprising, and in October 2011 called him the most popular Saudi Shia cleric among local youth. This popularity persisted into 2012, with thousands demonstrating in Qatif after his arrest in July of that year.

Al-Nimr was first detained in 2003 for leading public prayers in Al-Awamiyah, and again for several days in 2004. In 2006, he was arrested by the Mabahith, Saudi Arabia’s secret police, and claimed to have been beaten during detention. Residents campaigned for his release, and he was freed after a few days. In 2009, after an incident in Medina involving Shia and Sunni customs at Muhammad’s tomb, al-Nimr criticized Saudi authorities and suggested the Eastern Province should secede if Shia rights were not respected. This led to his arrest along with 35 others. During the 2011–12 Saudi protests, he urged demonstrators to resist police bullets with “the roar of the word” rather than violence.

On 8 July 2012, Saudi police shot al-Nimr in the leg and arrested him, claiming an exchange of gunfire. Protests against his arrest saw police fire into a crowd of thousands, killing two men, Akbar al-Shakhouri and Mohamed al-Felfel. While in custody, al-Nimr began a hunger strike and was allegedly tortured. On 21 August, the Asharq Center for Human Rights voiced concern for his health and called for international support to allow family, lawyers, and activists access. On 15 October 2014, the Specialized Criminal Court sentenced him to death for seeking foreign meddling, disobeying rulers, and taking up arms against security forces. That same day, his brother Mohammad al-Nimr was arrested for tweeting about the sentence. Al-Nimr was executed on or shortly before 2 January 2016, along with 46 others. Iran, Shiites across the Middle East, Western figures, and Sunnis opposed to sectarianism condemned the execution. The Saudi government said his body would not be returned to his family. In March 2017, after a prolonged campaign of harassment, Saudi security forces killed two of al-Nimr’s cousins, Miqdad and Mohammad al-Nimr, during a raid on a farm in Awamiyah.