From being a person who was accommodative towards Shiism, Rashid Rida would gradually become a sharp critique of it. In a book originally published in 1929, he states that he was once willing to work with the balanced reformers amongst Shias, but explains that the situation has changed. He also alleged that Shiites "worship the dead" attributing to their intercessionary practices towards "awliyaa" in their shrines and called upon Shias to condemn these practices. Although he fell short of censuring all Shias, Rida left them few options. Pan-Islamic unity was still conceivable, but it had to be on Salafi terms. In 1927, in the context of heightened communal tensions following the Saudi's heavy-handed efforts on the Shi'i population of the kingdom, "al-Manar" published a series of seven anti-Shi'i articles written by the Salafi scholar and Rida’s disciple Muhammad Taqi ud din al-Hilali.