Strip malls and palm-dotted boulevards stand in the once bullet-scarred old quarter of Awamiya, a Shiite-majority town on Saudi Arabia’s oil-rich eastern coast where the long-planned facelift fueled deadly clashes.
Until a year ago, the Musawara neighborhood resembled a war zone following skirmishes between militants who chafe under Sunni rule and government forces who sought to tear down the walled area dating back to the Ottoman Empire.
After crushing the revolt, the government pressed ahead with plans to redevelop Musawara, saying that its honeycomb of twisting alleys and centuries-old buildings had become a breeding ground for “terrorism.”
Photo: AFP
Now an expansive plaza flanked by shops has risen from the ruins of an area that has been a flashpoint for protests by the Shiite minority since the 2011 Arab uprisings.
That contrasts with what was seen during a government-guided tour of the wasteland in October 2017 — buildings and mosques were constellations of bullet holes.
“In the area, old and densely populated with narrow lanes ... there used to be many security challenges,” the region’s Deputy Mayor Esam Abdullatef al-Mulla told reporters during a recent tour organized by the government.
Photo: AFP
“The revamp was done to convert the area into a cultural attraction,” he said.
The development has erased what officials say were militant hideouts and sniper nests. Armored vehicles still patrol the streets, maintaining a tenuous calm.
Public resentment still lingers.
“Most of Awamiya people did not visit this new site and they will not,” a Shiite advocate told reporters, claiming that most of the land was seized from residents.
“The destruction of the historical center of Awamiya is both a symbol of the negation of that city’s history, and a negation of Arabia’s pre-modern architecture and old towns more broadly,” said Toby Matthiesen, author of the book The other Saudi: Shiism, dissent and sectarianism.
Even if they resent the redevelopment, the town’s residents are unlikely to publicly resist.
“The Saudi Arabian state seems to be employing a classic carrot and stick approach towards Shia minority: stick with us and your fortunes will improve,” said Firas Maksad, director of the pro-Saudi Arabia think tank Arabia Foundation. “Do otherwise at your own peril.”
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