The Organization for the Islamic Revolution in the Arabian Peninsula (Arabic: منظمة الثورة الإسلامية في شبه الجزيرة العربية Munaẓamat ath-Thawrah al-Islamīyah fī al-Jazīrah al-ʿArabīyah), OIR, IRAP or OIRAP[1] was an underground political organization led by Hassan al-Saffar that was active in Saudi Arabia and advocated a Shia Islamic revolution in the Arabian peninsula.

The group had its roots in the Shia Reform Movement in Saudi Arabia, although it was radicalized in 1979 as a result of the Iranian revolution and the Qatif Uprising.

However, after having failed to realise its goal of a Shia Islamic revolution in the Arabian peninsula, the group underwent a period of moderation in the late 1980s, leading to a détente with Saudi government.

[4] Following the failed uprising Saffar, along with much of the leadership of the OIR, went into exile in Iran,[5] along with Western Europe and North America.

By the late 1980s however the OIR leadership was becoming increasingly convinced that their aim of a Shia Islamic revolution in Eastern Province was wholly unrealistic.

As such, the OIR leadership backed away from their earlier, more radical demands, and instead decided to focus on petitioning for greater religious and political freedoms.

Whilst the Saudi government had resisted calls from ultra-conservative scholars for the violent suppression of Shias, the state failed to make any moves against scholars preaching anti-Shia sectarian rhetoric, calling for, among other things, the isolation, harassment, and murder of Saudi Shias.

[7] Secondly the OIR was opposed to the continuation of state policies that restricted the ability of Shias to freely practice their religion.

[4] The OIR did maintained relations with nearly all of the nationalist and religious movements in the Arab world, and participated in the November 1980 conference in Cyprus to support the opposition in the Arabian peninsula.