AhlulBayt News Agency - The Bahraini Authorities have summoned one of the most prominent clerics and the imam of the largest Friday prayer in the country, Sheikh Mohammed Sangoor. The Ministry of Interior questioned the cleric in the Budaiya police station Wednesday morning 24th February 2016.
Al Wefaq National Islamic Society said the repeated targeting of Shia clerics and leaders is considered offensive and threatening to the Shia sect in Bahrain. These leaders have demonstrated patriotism and commitment to responsible speech for the good of all Bahrainis. They have been keen to maintaining civil peace and fostering national unity and preventing the nation from slipping into the regional tensions.
The Bahraini Authorities’ continuous harassment of clerics and religious and nationalistic figures is unacceptable and must come to an immediate end. These measures come within a broader message sent out in various forms and through several channels to an indigenous community in Bahrain, whose members face accusation solely for opposing the Authorities’ violations of their rights as citizens. These messages included explicit statements to ingrain isolation and exclusion against this sect, not only from the security apparatuses as has been since Bahrain’s independence, but from higher-ranked legislative, judicial and executive posts. These statements also included dangerous messages of refusing to accept the members of this community as national partners in the affairs of the country.
The Authorities have carried out many forms of harassment against senior clerics who enjoy respect from a wide faction of Bahrainis, including summonses to police stations and the Prosecution Office, the use of false accusations and revocation of citizenship, and most recently, the summoning of Sheikh Mohammed Sangoor. The latter measure carried veiled messages that clearly indicated a plan to target the whole Shia sect through the repression of rights, freedoms and its clerics and associations which is a blow to national unity, civil peace and stability.
Al Wefaq calls for the respect of the right to participation and to ensure the rights of whole citizenship for all Bahrainis through a consensus on an inclusive political system ruled by universal democratic principles. The language of exclusion must be abandoned and replaced with calls for reconciliation and unity. Security and civil peace need to be maintained through a comprehensive political process under a social contract that is obligatory to all sides.
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source : al-Wefaq
Thursday
25 February 2016
5:43:22 AM
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Al Wefaq National Islamic Society said the repeated targeting of Shia clerics and leaders is considered offensive and threatening to the Shia sect in Bahrain.