Qatif, Saudi Arabia - Several thousand Saudi Shi'ites took to the streets on Wednesday to mourn the death of the Prophet Mohammad's grandson, pushing the boundaries in a country that regards them as heretics.
Participants said the mourning ceremonies were the biggest in the kingdom where Shi'ites are slowly testing government pledges to let them practice their religious rites more freely.
Within the confines of Shi'ite towns and villages in the Eastern Province, youths dressed in black beat their heads and chests to echo the suffering of Imam Hussein and mark Ashura, the main event in the Shi'ite calendar.
"O Hussein, you have been wronged!" said banners, referring to the killing of Imam Hussein 1,300 years ago in Kerbala in neighboring
Iraq.
For Shi'ites in Saudi Arabia, which imposes the strict Wahhabi form of Sunni Islam, marking Ashura so openly reflects a desire for greater freedom since Iraqi Shi'ites emerged from decades of repression under Saddam Hussein after the 2003 U.S.-led war.
"If we can't link the slogans we use to our situation today, then what's the point in these ceremonies?" said Adel Omran, organizer of mock battle scene of Kerbala, which for Shi'ites is symbolic of political and social injustice in the world.
One banner upheld a phrase from Imam Hussein championing freedom, saying: "If you can't have your religion, then at least be free in this world." Men who packed mosques overnight wept in silence as they listened to sermons about Hussein's suffering.
Police had set up checkpoints in the area. A car carrying bearded religious police, a special Saudi body charged with upholding Wahhabi values in society, drove by one gathering.
Shi'ites are believed to make up around 10 percent of Saudi Arabia's native population of 16 million and complain of being marginalized by a government allied to Wahhabi Sunni scholars who consider Shi'ism a heresy.
King Abdullah has since ascending the throne last year overseen a modest easing of restrictions on Shi'ites in the Eastern Province.
To mollify the authorities, Ashura organizers say they have made sure that Shi'ites chant slogans about the Prophet Mohammad as well as Hussein and his father Ali.
"Since the seventh day we've also been saying 'I answer to you, Mohammad!'," Adel said. Ashura reaches its climax on Thursday, the tenth day of the Islamic month of Muharram.