Bahrain Al Wefaq rejects the regime’s sectarian practices

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - The regime in Bahrain has started its abolition attempts to dissolve the Olamaa (clerics) Islamic Council, the highest religious foundation in the Shiite sect in Bahrain. On Tuesday 1st October, Bahraini courts looked into the case by which the regime intends to close the Council and tighten its restriction on all civilian and religious activities. On the other hand, the people are demanding an impartial and fair judiciary that is independent of the Authority’s agenda and decisions.Al Wefaq National Islamic Society stressed that the regime’s efforts to close down the Olamaa Islamic Council is a sectarian targeting and is condemned in all international covenants. The international community is called upon to take a strict position towards the regime’s sectarian targeting of a wide segment in the Bahraini society, Al Wefaq said.The threats to dissolve the Council come within the regime’s intensified campaign of violations of human rights and restriction of freedom.The lawsuit against the Council will be looked into by the very same courts that had acquitted torturers and killers and handed harsh sentences to dissidents and activists. Al Wefaq stressed that this escalation is strongly rejected and illustrates official recklessness, adding, this doctrine had led the country into dangerous problems.This step comes after the arrest of a number of clerics for reasons related to freedom of expression and opinion. The Bassiouni report as well as other rights reports had documented many cases of humiliation, arrests and torture against clerics in Bahrain. The violations went as far as revoking the citizenship of Ayathollah Sheikh Hussain Najati and requesting him to leave the country.Al Wefaq said the regime’s attempts to rip the society apart makes the people more convinced of the necessity of democratic transition in a state that is based on citizenship and justice.Al Wefaq pointed out that the regime has turned its back on the international community after it has been condemned by 47 states in the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva in September. The regime has also ignored the statements made by the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights, Navi Pillay, who expressed serious concern over the human rights situation in Bahrain. This was followed by a resolution of the European Union which demanded practical steps to be taken towards the violations in Bahrain.The regime’s destructive sectarian projects have continued after the eruption of the nationwide 14 February revolution in 2011. The Bahraini regime had demolished many mosques and used its media against the Shiite sect and its clerics and figures within the official hatred campaign it is spreading./129