RIYADH — On Monday, militants attacked a Shi’a Muslim village in Saudi Arabia and left eight people dead. By Wednesday, grief among the villagers was mixed with anger about a culture of sectarianism they say paved the way for the shooting.

With civil wars in Iraq and Syria now being fought along mainly sectarian lines, Saudi Arabia’s Shi’a minority feels increasingly vulnerable in a country where anger is rising among the majority sect at the plight of Sunnis in other countries.

Sunni jihadis now speak about Shi’a as a greater enemy to members of their sect than the Western governments that were formerly their most hated foes. The Saudi government has done little to stem a corresponding upsurge of provocative language there, cracking down on only extreme examples and emphasizing a shared national identity irrespective of sect.

“For sure criticism of Shi’a by clerics and religious television stations creates the atmosphere where this can happen. In our own schools, the teachers tell our children that we are not Muslims,” said a witness of the shooting who did not want to be named for fear of repercussions.

Monday’s attack took place in al-Dalwah, located in Eastern Province’s al-Ahsa, an oasis that is home to around half the kingdom’s Shi’a minority. It prompted a police manhunt that has so far led to 20 arrests and the deaths of three suspects and two policemen in a gunfight.

Top Sunni clerics have condemned the attack, which officials have blamed on al-Qaeda, and Interior Minister Prince Mohammed bin Nayef visited Eastern Province to offer condolences to bereaved relatives of the victims.

Saudi Arabia follows the strict Wahhabi Sunni school, which is closely tied to the ruling Al Saud dynasty, and some of its senior clerics have taught that Shi’ism is heretical.

The day after the attack, the government shut down the Wesal religious television station that employed a cleric who was detained last month for tweets glorifying the killing of Shi’a in Yemen – but many of the sect only wonder why the station was not closed down earlier.

“We need the government to change the school books that say Shi’a are bad. We need them to do more against the people on Twitter who hate Shi’ites and encourage people to kill them,” said a man standing outside Dalwah’s Shi’ite prayer hall, the Hosseiniya.

“We’re not asking for them to build us places of worship or to let us go out onto the streets to protest. We just don’t want to be harassed and insulted by people,” he added.

The monarchy had sentenced prominent Shi’a sheikh Nimr al-Nimr to death last month for speaking against the authorities.