Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr was among a group of 47 people executed at the weekend by Saudi authorities in a move they say is a crackdown on terrorism.
Most of the men executed were Sunnis convicted of Al Qaeda attacks in Saudi Arabia between 2003 and 2006.
The execution of Sheik Nimr al-Nimr sparked global protests from Iran to the UK over the weekend.
Human rights groups have criticised the execution of Nimr al-Nimr, saying he was targeted for his anti-government views and was convicted on fabricated charges of allegedly encouraging violence.
Melbourne Sheikh and Islamic lecturer Ali Dirani said he hoped the global protests prompted people across Australia to take a stand against the Saudi authorities.
"I think the world needs to wake up. Those that have got ties with Saudi Arabia [they need] not to support it in any way or form."
"There are many lives that have been taken at the [Saudi government's] hands, with their money and their support.
“So I do pray and hope humanity does wake up and those that have been fooled in the past by the Saudi regime wake up to it and don't become part of it."
He said practical steps should be taken to express the seriousness of what has happened.
"Any human being that is concerned about humanity [should do] anything that they can do: maybe sending letters, emails, condemning this to the Saudi Arabian embassy and any government that's got ties with Saudi Arabia.
"I do hope that they do make a legitimate stand and make Saudi Arabia realise they can't just do actions like that (execution) … and the world remains silent about it."
'A voice for freedom'
The 56-year-old cleric was seen as a leader of the anti-government protests in Saudi Arabia following the Arab Spring of 2011.
Sheikh Ali Dirani said Sheikh al-Nimr was seen as a champion of the rights of Saudi Arabia’s marginalised Shia community.
He told SBS World News that it was Sheikh al-Nimr’s stance against tyranny and his criticism of the Saudi government’s role as a sponsor of the self-proclaimed Islamic State that earned him respect among Shias around the world, but it also made him a target in Saudi Arabia.
"Every Muslim I think that's a practising Muslim, and especially the Shia, they felt the loss. And there is resentment on how the Saudi government didn't respect the many requests and many demonstrations globally - requesting to free Sheikh Nimr,” he said.
“He spoke against oppression and it's a humans right to be able to voice that and it doesn't become an execution."
Local Shia groups gathered over the weekend to remember and mourn the loss of the prominent cleric.
President of the Australian Shia Gathering Place in Melbourne, Hassan Al-Khirsany, said Sheikh Nimr will be remembered as a brave and influential man.
"Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr is one of the scholars in Shia and unfortunately his fate is that he was in Saudi Arabia and he had to speak up to get their rights because there are no rights there at all for the Shia community in Saudi Arabia,” he said.
“He's one of our scholars and in the execution that happened to him, we missed a very important scholar."
Concerns about future executions
Human rights group Amnesty International said the executions demonstrated the Saudi authorities' utter disregard for human life, with fears many more people are now at imminent risk of execution.
Sheikh Nimr's nephew, Ali al-Nimr is among those detained and sentenced to death.
Hassan Al-Khirsany said there is concern the next round of executions will begin soon.
"It won't stop. The Saudi regime is going on by killing and executing Shia scholars and Shia people that stand up against the regime there, and the bad deal of the Shia community there,” he said.
“We will hear lots of news similar to this (executions) in the future."
The death of 47 men is the first mass execution in Saudi Arabia in 2016, it is also one the country’s biggest mass execution in decades.
The number of executions in the country spiked after King Salman was crowned as king last January, with at least 157 executions carried out in 2015, almost twice the number in the previous year.
