An Edmonton based Imam was beaten and arrested by religious police in Saudi Arabia, according to eyewitnesses.

They said that Usama Al Atar was reciting prayers in Medina when he was confronted by officers from the religious police force.

According to Mohamed Hayward, who was travelling with Al-Atar, it all started at morning prayers on Saturday.

"We recite eulogies and hymns and so on," he explained.

"They (religious police) generally try to stop people from doing it loudly.

"We were told to quiet down, which we did. We were also told to leave, which we were ready to do."

But the harassment continued even after they had left the area.

Hayward said there was one particular officer who followed them.

"Every time we wanted to get away from it all he would come back and stir up some trouble."

The officer called out to some security guards and that is when Hayward said it got ugly.

"They jumped Usama. The security guards and some locals pinned him down.

"They basically manhandled him. They ultimately throttled him because they tried to put him in a small area under an air conditioning unit," Hayward explained.

"I saw him go black and blue."

The civil police force then took over and Hayward said they have not been able to track Al-Atar down.

"We are extremely worried because we are in an alien country," he said.

He added that Al-Atar has been accused of breaking the arm of a police officer.

That is something that supporters of Al-Atar don't believe.

"Even to think that Dr. Usama could do anything wrong is beyond my imagination," President of the Islamic Sha Ithna-Asheri, Mahmood Mavani.

Hayward added that Al-Atar was married with a 3-year-old child and another on the way.



The group has been in contact with the Canadian embassy that claimed they knew of the situation and would be addressing it but Hayward said he has not heard anything more.

Al-Atar is the leader of the Islamic Shia Ithna-Asheri Association of Edmonton, located in South Edmonton.

He is originally from Karbala in Iraq. He has been studying at the University of Alberta.

With files from Sonia Sunger and Sean Amato