region. In September 2017, Human Rights Watch reviewed Saudi's education curriculum and found that the Shi'ite "practice of visiting graves and religious shrines to venerate important religious figures and members of the family of the prophet, as well as tawassul," was stigmatised as "grounds for removal from Islam and incur the punishment of being sent to hell for eternity". The review concluded that "government textbooks perpetuate an anti-Shia narrative in Saudi society that serves to incite hatred against Shia citizens and maintain a system of discrimination against them." Responding to this in an interview with The Atlantic, conducted in 2018, Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman stated that "the Shiites are living normally in Saudi Arabia. We have no problem with the Shiites". According to Human Rights Watch however, the Crown Prince's reforms "did not remove all anti-Shia rhetoric in textbooks, especially at the secondary school level," as some texts continue to refer to Shi'ites as rafidha,'' or rejectionists. As of February 2021, Human Rights Watch maintain that "Saudi Arabia has taken important steps to purge its school religion textbooks of hateful and intolerant language, but the current texts maintain language that disparages practices associated with religious minorities". In 2019, the Saudi regime executed 37 men, charged by the state on convictions of terrorism, accused of colluding with Iran; a majority of these men were Shi'ites from the Eastern Province who criticised the policies of the Saudi regime. As of 2020, the government refuses to return the bodies of these men to their families. See also Iran–Saudi Arabia proxy conflict Shia Islam in Saudi Arabia Anti-Shi'ism Sectarianism References Society of Saudi Arabia Religion in Saudi Arabia