Ali al-Ahmed

Early life and education

One of ten children, al-Ahmed was born in 1966 in al-Khobar, Saudi Arabia, to a politically active Shi'a family. His maternal grandfather, Salman Abdul Hadi al-Habib, was the Sheikh of Safwa in the early to mid twentieth century until his death. His oldest uncle Ali Salman was arrested for his nationalist opposition activities in 1969-1975, and his youngest uncle Adil Salman was imprisoned for 18 months in 1991 for membership in the Socialist Workers Party.

Al-Ahmed grew up in the Eastern Province city of Safwa. His political career began at the age of 14 when he became the Kingdom's youngest political prisoner, after he was arrested in Doha, Qatar and deported to Saudi Arabia while traveling with his parents and six siblings in 1981. Ten years later, he moved to the United States to earn a B.A. in Journalism and Science at Winona State University in Minnesota and a M.A. in International Finance at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN.

Later in al-Ahmed's career, in mid-May 2012, his brother Kamel Abbas al-Ahmed was arrested in Saudi Arabia. The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) believed that Ali al-Ahmed's activities as an expatriate Saudi dissident were part of the reason for Kamel al-Ahmed's arrest and that the arrest was part of a "security campaign launched by the [Saudi Arabian] government" against the 2011–2012 Saudi Arabian protests.

Saudi curriculum of intolerance

In May 2006, the Institute for Gulf Affairs and Freedom House’s Center for Religious Freedom released “Saudi Arabia’s Curriculum of Intolerance”, a report analyzing a set of 12 Saudi textbooks currently used in Islamic studies courses for elementary and secondary school students. The analysis showed that the textbooks espoused hatred toward non-Muslims and non-Wahhabi Muslims. IGA collected these textbooks, used in Saudi Arabia and Saudi-run schools outside the Kingdom, from teachers, administrators and families with children in Saudi schools.