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The event’s purpose is “a recognition of Muslims in Asian and Pacific countries, exchanging ideas on problems the Islamic world encounters and discussing solutions, re-establishing historical ties with Muslim countries and communities in the Asia-Pacific region, discussing opportunities for cooperation in religious education and services,” according to officials at the Presidency of Religious Affairs (DİB), Daily Sabah reported on Tuesday, October 13.

The summit is held under the title “Abundance In Unity: Thinking Hikmah (Wisdom) and Peace Together” and will be attended by 125 delegates from 37 countries, from Afghanistan to Australia and to tiny Pacific nations.

During the event, some sessions will be dedicated to discussing the effects of new mindsets in the Muslim world on the Asia-Pacific Muslim communities, the future of the Muslim world and Islamophobia.

Turkey’s DIB has been at the forefront of efforts for Muslim solidarity especially in the wake of rising Islamophobia, terror attacks and wars in Muslim countries.

Over the past decade, it has organized several events that summoned scholars from across the globe.

Some of those events included a summit of Eurasian Muslims, the African Countries Religious Leaders Summit, a convention of European Muslims, a meeting of scholars from Balkan countries and a summit of religious leaders in Latin American and Caribbean countries.

Mehmet Görmez, the head of the DİB chairs the Peace and Moderation Permanent Contact Group, a group of top Islamic scholars promoting unity among Muslims in the face of violence stemming from sectarian strife and other internal struggles in Muslim countries.

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Ali Mohammad al-Nimr’s nightmare began on February 14, 2012, when age only 16. Saudi Security Forces arrested him, as he rode his bike near his family home, by rear ending him with a Jeep.

Ali was born December 25, 1995 in Qatif, Saudi Arabia. He is the nephew of prominent Shia cleric and political activist Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr. In December, 2011, Ali accompanied his uncle to a meeting, where Shiekh Nimr called for the peaceful  respect human dignity for all citizens. For this crime, on October, 15  2014, Sheikh al-Nimr was sentenced to death by the Specialized Criminal Court, where charges included  “seeking ‘foreign meddling’,  ‘disobeying’ its rulers and taking up arms against the security forces.”  His brother, Mohammad al-Nimr (Ali’s father), was arrested on the same day for tweeting information about the death sentence.

In the terrible  day in February, without his parents ever being informed, Ali Mohammed al-Nimr was taken to a juvenile prison – there he was tortured for months and asked to confess to crimes he never committed: all of it to implications Shiekh Nimr.  For the next four month Ali Mohammad al-Nimr was held incommunicado, without any access to legal counsel or contact with the outside.

For he attended a peaceful rally in the Shia majority  Qatif (eastern province of Saudi Arabia), Ali Mohammad al-Nimr was abducted and incarcerated. Because his family represents outspoken beacon of hope for Saudi Arabia’s Shia community, Ali Mohammad has been brutalized by the regime.

In June 2012, Ali’s mother was finally allowed to visit her son in prison. There, she witnessed  the horrors her son was put through – the beating, the torture, the abuses and psychological duress he had to endure day after day, week after week, month after month.

In December 2012, Ali Mohammad al-Nimr, then age 17, was charged with thirteen ludicris charges including Hariba (treason against God and the King of Saudi Arabia) – a blanket accusation the Saudi regime has often times used to silence its prisoners of conscience.

Ali Mohammad was never allowed access to a lawyer, he was never offered the opportunity to defend himself, or even allowed to challenge the charges which were brought against him.

After being found guilty of all the charges against the King, Ali Mohammad al-Nimr was sentenced to death by beheading and crucifixion.

In May 2014, following a lengthy and difficult appeal, Ali Mohammad’s case was reviewed before a panel of judges. Judges in Saudi Arabia, fall under the direct authority of the king, and their allegiance is not to the rule of law but the throne. Ali Mohammad al-Nimr never stood a chance at any fair trial.

Again, the final appeal was handed out secretly in July of 2015, where 13 judges sentenced him to death with no chance of further appeal.Since May 2014, Ali Mohammad, this young boy from Qatif has sat in prison, awaiting for his accusers to steal his last breath. His crime? Being a Shia Muslim in Saudi Arabia.

Ali’s predicament is not an isolated incident – Saudi Arabia’s prisons hold many minors within their walls; and too many,  like Ali Mohammed al-Nimr, have been sentenced to death, in clear violation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).

It needs to be noted that in 1996, Saudi Arabia agreed to be a state party to the CRC, when the Saudi Human Rights Commission signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

And yet, Saudi Arabia has systematically violated Ali Mohammed al-Nimr’s rights.

Not only has the UN failed to fulfill its mandate by challenging those in infractions of international law, it rewarded the kingdom.

In June of 2015 Faisal Trad, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador in Geneva, was elected Chair of the UN Human Rights Council panel that appoints independent experts.

Today we wish to break the silence and denounce those crimes the international community should have acted against long ago!

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) states:

“Article 37 States Parties shall ensure that:(a) No child shall be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Neither capital punishment nor life imprisonment without possibility of release shall be imposed for offences committed by persons below eighteen years of age;

(b) No child shall be deprived of his or her liberty unlawfully or arbitrarily. The arrest, detention or imprisonment of a child shall be in conformity with the law and shall be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time;

(c) Every child deprived of liberty shall be treated with humanity and respect for the inherent dignity of the human person, and in a manner which takes into account the needs of persons of his or her age. In particular, every child deprived of liberty shall be separated from adults unless it is considered in the child’s best interest not to do so and shall have the right to maintain contact with his or her family through correspondence and visits, save in exceptional circumstances;

 (d) Every child deprived of his or her liberty shall have the right to prompt access to legal and other appropriate assistance, as well as the right to challenge the legality of the deprivation of his or her liberty before a court or other competent, independent and impartial authority, and to a prompt decision on any such action.”

Moreover, under article 15 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), peaceful assembly is a protected right. It reads:

“Article 15: 1. States Parties recognize the rights of the child to freedom of association and to freedom of peaceful assembly.

2. No restrictions may be placed on the exercise of these rights other than those imposed in conformity with the law and which are necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security or public safety, public order (ordre public), the protection of public health or morals or the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.”

Active petitions calling for the unconditional and immediate release of Ali Mohammed al-Nimr:

– The White House (for U.S. citizens only): https://petitions.whitehouse.gov//petition/negotiate-release-ali-mohammed-al-nimr

– Amnesty International: http://www.amnesty.org.au/action/action/38122/

– Change.org: https://www.change.org/p/king-abdullah-bin-abdul-aziz-supreme-court-of-saudi-arab-stop-the-crucifixion-of-ali-mohammed-al-nimr#petition-letter

– Reprieve: https://reprieve.bsd.net/page/s/saudi-arabia-do-not-crucify-ali-mohammed-al-nimr

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For all press queries and details please contact Al Nimr PR representatives at Veritas Consulting:

Catherine Shakdam in the UK at

Email: catherine.shakdam@veritas-consultancy.one

or

Marwa Osman in Lebanon at

marwa.osman@veritas-consultancy.one

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