Racism in Saudi Arabia extends to allegations of imprisonment, physical abuse, rape, murder,[1] overwork, and wage theft, especially of foreign workers who are given little protections under the law.
According to a 2009 Human Rights Watch report, Shiite citizens in Saudi Arabia "face systematic discrimination in religion, education, justice, and employment".
Although there is discrimination against non-Muslims (usually Western foreigners, Jews, Christians, etc) in general this goes unnoticed as these cases are relatively uncommon compared to those of other minorities.
Saudi Arabian government officials and state religious leaders often promote the idea that Jews are conspiring to take over the entire world; as proof of their claims they publish and frequently cite the fictional work, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion as factual.
[4][5][6][needs update] Human Rights Watch (HRW) describes the working conditions of foreign workers, most of whom come from developing countries in South Asia, as "near-slavery" and attributes them to "deeply rooted gender, religious, and racial discrimination".
Tribal (qabili or asil) people assign themselves into inferior and superior tribes that assume purity in blood and root (asl).
These include multi-ethnic citizens from Medina and Taif in the Hejaz area, and from Jeddah, Mecca, and Yanbu in the Hejazi part of the Tihamah.
[13] Their diversity is largely due to their ancestors migration to Hejaz, cradle of Islam, from all over the world prior or in the early days of the Saudi reign.
[16] Following Hamza Kashgari's controversial messages, racist comments in reference to his Turkmen family background were made against him on Twitter as "[not being] enough of a 'pure' Saudi".
Recently King Salman's nephew was banned from media after referring to an individual as "tarsh bahar" during a call to a sports program.