Ashura in Hasa

Lost in yesterday's tragedies in Iraq was the celebration of Ashura in Saudi Arabia's largely Shi'ite al-Hasa region. I generally think that attempts to tie every move toward freedom in the Arab world to the Iraq war are ill-founded, but in this case I think the two are probably related. The Saudis don't want to risk Shi'ite unrest should the people of al-Hasa perceive too great a gap between their own freedoms and what they see happening on TV to their north. In addition, I suspect that Crown Prince Abdullah is fostering relationships among Shi'ites for use in royal political intirgues.