Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - Shiite Muslims are shouting anti-government slogans and demanding more freedoms in rare protests amid the minority's worst confrontations in years with authorities in this overwhelmingly Sunni kingdom.
Prominent Shiite clerics and intellectuals called on the government Wednesday to launch a fair investigation into a dispute last week that triggered the unrest.
Hundreds of protesters in the poor Shiite town of Awwamiya carried banners saying "Down with the government" and spray-painted the slogan on billboards Tuesday, witnesses said. One said youths threw stones at a police post before officers fired in the air to disperse the crowd, which included women. No casualties were reported.
Clashes between Shiites and religious police also were reported Monday and Tuesday outside a cemetery at the center of the latest uproar.
The Sunni majority has long had strained relations with Shiites, who are a small minority of the country's 22 million people. Considered infidels under the Wahhabi interpretation of Islam widely followed in Saudi Arabia, Shiites routinely complain of discrimination and outspoken Shiite critics have been jailed.
The latest eruption of tensions began with an argument Friday night near a cemetery in Medina, Islam's second holiest city, that contains the graves of revered imams.
Shiites say members of the religious police who maintain an office at the al-Baqee Cemetery filmed female pilgrims and refused to hand over the tapes or destroy them. A Saudi official blamed Shiite pilgrims for the trouble, accusing them of performing religious rituals offensive to other worshippers and authorities at the cemetery.
Shiites say riot police were heavy-handed in dealing with the pilgrims, beating them with batons and arresting some.
The protests came a week after King Abdullah ordered the most significant changes in government, the armed forces, the judiciary and the religious establishment since he became king in 2005, but left Shiites feeling left out of the reforms.
Shiites had hoped for appointments as ministers or representation in the council of senior scholars that had been restructured to include all schools of Sunni Islam. But no Shiites were chosen for those positions.
"There's a feeling that the Shiites' ambitions have not been realized as hoped, and that could have played an indirect role in inflaming emotions," said Najib al-Khonaizi, a Shiite columnist. "We have to admit that there's tension in the Shiite street."
Many Shiites say authorities deliberately provoked the dispute at the cemetery.
"There was a flagrant aggression on women's rights and the Shiite visitors," Sheik Hussein al-Mustapha, a prominent Shiite cleric, told The Associated Press. "It was a premeditated action by extremist men who want to put an end to visits by Shiite visitors."
"We demand an investigation into the incident in order to put an end to these ugly practices," he said.
A Saudi official put the blame on the Shiite pilgrims, saying they triggered the dispute by practicing rituals deemed by others to be "religious infractions," such as the practice of Shiites to grab a handful of dust as a blessing and pray at the graves of the imams.
The official, who would not allow his name to be used, said such "infractions" are frequent at al-Baqee and usually are dealt with quietly by asking pilgrims to stop. But last week, he charged, a large crowd of Shiites was bent on provoking other worshippers and authorities at the cemetery.
Asked if members of the religious police had videotaped Shiite female pilgrims, the official said that if there was filming it was to take evidence of the infractions and not for voyeurism.
The official said nine of the Shiite visitors to the cemetery were arrested. He said the government was keen to find out the truth and the reasons for the escalation. He said the perpetrators would be held responsible, but did not elaborate.