AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): Bahraini scholars, in a statement, warned about what they called the Al Khalifa regime's anti-religious path, and emphasized that a serious and existential threat has formed against religion, beliefs, and religious rituals.
Bahraini scholars declared, "The condition of man, life, and society is organized when its path does not conflict with God's religion and its principles and rulings. This belief, based on the Holy Quran and the noble Sunnah, is among the indisputable principles among Muslims."
They added, "Given deep concern for the country of Bahrain, which throughout its history has recognized Islam as its religion, we warn with utmost seriousness and responsibility that the ruling system has taken an anti-religious path; a path that, with acceleration and a dangerous approach, threatens the religion, beliefs, rituals, and other religious dimensions of the people."
The statement reads that this approach has been pursued through a set of systematic and escalating plans and decisions and has brought the threat against religion and beliefs to a stage that could have dangerous consequences for the country.
Bahraini scholars considered one of the most important examples of this process to be the regime's interference in Ja'fari endowments, husseiniyas, ma'tams, mosques, and cemeteries. According to them, the management of these places has been entrusted to a single government council chaired by one of the government's ministers, an action that violates the independence of endowment affairs from the political structure that had been established over long decades.
They also warned about this council's decision to obligate endowment trustees and overseers to implement its resolutions and to delegate the authority to appoint or dismiss them to official bodies, considering this action contrary to religious rulings and the conditions of the endowers.
The statement continues, "These actions are an explicit interference in the religious guardianship over endowments and can provide the ground for turning mosques, husseiniyas, and mourning ceremonies into centers affiliated with the government and subject to its political interests and calculations; a situation far from the objectives of the endowers and the rulings of sharia."
Bahraini scholars also referred to the recent decision regarding restricting religious activities and conditioning religious lectures, education, propagation, preaching, and religious invitation on obtaining a government permit, considering it an action in conflict with religion.
They emphasized that this decision also conflicts with the constitutional principles regarding religious freedom and Bahrain's rooted traditions and customs regarding the independence of mosques, husseiniyas, and religious activities from political interference and could weaken an important part of the religious heritage of Bahraini society.
Bahraini scholars concluded by calling for rationality and the annulment of the set of decisions that, according to them, put religion in chains, and warned that the continuation of this process will have a disastrous and destructive end.
They emphasized that Bahrain's situation will only be organized by adhering to religion, reviving its rulings, establishing justice, restoring the people's political and livelihood rights, and guaranteeing their dignity and freedom, not by depriving the people of more rights, damaging their dignity, and further restricting religious freedoms.
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