AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): Sheikh Adel al-Shula said in his sermon in Qom, "Religious texts have warned against inclining toward the oppressor, even to a small extent, and have indicated that such an inclination leads to the fire. This shows the serious danger of this act."
He added, "Aiding the oppressor in his oppression has the same consequence a fortiori, and one who is content with the oppression of others is a partner to the oppressor."
He noted that there are motives that may justify this contentment for some, including differences in religious belief, differences in political belief, submission to deviant religious speech, and being influenced by misleading media.
He emphasized, "A believer must submit to his religion, not to his instincts and whims. Contentment with oppression, even against the real enemy, is unacceptable; let alone contentment with the oppression of a fabricated enemy created to divert enmity away from the real enemy toward it."
Al-Shula called on believers and Muslims to be aware of what he called the enemy's plans to dominate their resources and assets, and said, "This domination has in fact been carried out by rulers who care only about their own interests."
In continuation of his remarks, he accused some rulers of spending the assets of nations to guarantee their own survival and preserve their thrones, to the point that they "buy the people and turn them into a wage-earning nation whose loyalty is tied to its daily bread."
According to him, this situation is fed by a takfiri political and religious belief that "turns a Muslim into an enemy and a Zionist enemy into a friend."
Oppression and Monopoly of Power; The Real Enemy
Al-Shula believes the "real enemy" is not a fabricated external enemy, but oppression and the policy of monopolizing power.
According to him, what is happening in Bahrain, including "the policy of dominating the affairs and interests of the Shia community and the policy of suppressing its scholars," is an example of the monopoly of power and oppression.
He described what is happening as "clear and explicit oppression" and said, "This oppression is essentially manifested in the charges brought against Shia scholars, in the manner of arrests, which he said were accompanied by desecration of homes and their residents and confiscation of property, in torture and humiliating treatment during arrest, and also in interrogation and trial methods."
He said, "All these oppressions have been created to establish conditions in which power dominates the community's affairs, without any voice of protest or dissatisfaction existing."
He added, "God has lifted the obligation from the arrested scholars, and the responsibility for rejecting what is happening lies on the shoulders of those whose duty is not silence."
Al-Shula said, "I raise my voice in protest against the government's domination over religious affairs and its characteristics, which must be independent. Domination has no right, neither religiously nor legally, to control these affairs."
Al-Shula directed direct criticism at what he called the government's domination over Shia endowments and its seizure and management of their property.
He also criticized the government's domination over husseiniyas and Shia mosques, and even all mosques, alongside actions related to religious speech, the duty of preaching, the Husseini pulpit, Husseini rituals, and charitable work.
He believes the government creates anger and tension in society and that the same government increases it.
He emphasized, "Tension does not only arise from arrests, but also stems from 'continuous violation of religious rights and characteristics.'"
In his reading of what is happening in Bahrain, Al-Shula referred to the trial of dozens of scholars from the Shia community and said, "What is happening today is no different in nature from what happened previously in the trial of Sheikh Ali Salman."
He said, "The Al Khalifa regime previously showed hostility toward Qatar and used this hostility to accuse Sheikh Ali Salman of being affiliated with Qatar, while Doha was a mediator between the opposition and the government."
He added, "The trial of Sheikh Ali Salman was in fact not merely a trial of him personally, but was for the confiscation of the people's political rights."
Al-Shula then addressed the current situation in Bahrain and said, "The Al Khalifa regime today uses its hostility toward the Islamic Republic of Iran to accuse and try dozens of Shia scholars of accepting the idea of Velayat-e Faqih."
Al-Shula called these accusations lies and false, and added, "Hostility toward the Islamic Republic is not related only to today, and its roots go back to before the consolidation of the Islamic Revolution, when America, Israel, and the Persian Gulf countries united and launched an eight-year war that took the lives of many Iranians and Iraqis."
Al-Shula believes that using this hostility in the current time has transformed the trials from a case concerning specific individuals into a broader case.
According to him, what is happening is in fact "a trial of the rights of the religious community."
He added, "The region's security situation is being used to impose the government's domination over a specific community; not only over its political, economic, social, security, and educational rights, but this domination has extended to religious rights as well."
Al-Shula considered all measures issued by the government aimed at dominating the affairs of the Shia community as "void," citing as reasons their contradiction with the characteristics of Shia jurisprudence and their violation of the text of the constitution and the commitment of the government's leaders to Shia authorities regarding non-interference in the independence of Shia rituals and beliefs.
Al-Shula concluded his remarks by once again emphasizing that one must be inwardly dissatisfied with oppression and deny it, so that a person remains "zealous for religion, alive in conscience, and distant from the oppressors."
Emphasizing the continuation of the duty of enjoining good and forbidding evil, he noted that this duty must be performed "within the framework of religious conditions and valid regulations."
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