Al-Ahasa attack: Waiting for the Massacre

Both the popular and official reactions in Saudi Arabia condemned and denounced the attack targeting a Shi’ite Husseiniya in Ahsa, as if to say yes to sectarianism in theory but not in practice. This was the first attack of its kind in the Saudi society, but the sectarian clashes that Saudi citizens watch in Syria and Iraq are starting to move beyond their TV screens and become a tangible reality on their own streets. The blood that soaked the streets of Ahsa nourished a national unity that only lasted for few hours before making way for sectarian hatred to re-emerge unscathed.