From USA Today
They say Sunnis from Australia attacked the men and threatened to rape the women upon learning they were Shias.
A Detroit group visiting Saudi Arabia for the annual Muslim pilgrimage said they were attacked and threatened with death last week by a group of Sunni men from Australia because they are Shias, a minority sect within Islam.
One of the members of the group was strangled until his face turned blue and women in the group were threatened with rape, according to people who witnessed the attack last week. They allege that authorities in Saudi Arabia did not take their complaints seriously and deleted a video one of them had made of the incident.
A U.S. State Department official told the Free Press on Monday: “We are concerned by reports that a group of U.S. citizens was attacked … at a campsite for hajj pilgrims located outside of Mecca. We take these reports seriously and are committed to the protection of U.S. citizens traveling and residing abroad.”
The Embassy of Saudi Arabia did not return a reporter’s calls or an e-mail seeking comment. The State Department official said the hajj and interior ministries in Saudi Arabia “have confirmed that they are investigating” the incident.
The Michigan Shias, led by Imam Hassan Al-Qazwini of Dearborn, Mich., the spiritual leader of metro Detroit’s biggest mosque, were in Saudi Arabia on hajj, the Muslim pilgrimage that all observant Muslims are required to take at least once in their life if they’re able to. The group included three women from the Amen family who were featured in the reality TV show called All-American Muslim.
