Bahraini Regime Summons Shia Clerics for Questioning
Sheikh Muhsin al-Gharifi (son of senior cleric Allameh Sayyed Abdullah al-Gharifi), Sheikh Fadel al-Zaki and Sheikh Ali Naji al-Hamli were called to a police station in Hamad city on Saturday.
The Persian Gulf country’s security forces have also arrested Sayyed Majid Mashaal, president of Bahrain’s Shia Scholars Council.
It comes amid protests and simmering anger at the Manama regime for stepping up its crackdown on political dissent, especially its moves against Shia institutions and senior Shia clerics.
On Friday, residents of the village of Diraz once again protested against the Al Khalifa regime for its persecution of the Shia community.
Regime forces prevented the village’s Friday prayer leader from going to Imam Sadiq (AS) Mosque. Worshippers said the prayers individually.
The protesters demonstrated in the streets following the prayers. They also chanted slogans against King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifah.
It was the third time the Manama regime forces disrupted Friday prayers.
Diraz is the hometown of senior Shia cleric Sheikh Isa Qassim.
On June 20, Bahraini authorities stripped Sheikh Qassim of his citizenship, less than a week after suspending al-Wefaq National Islamic Society, the country’s main opposition bloc, and dissolving the Islamic Enlightenment Institution founded by Qassim, and the opposition al-Risala Islamic Association.
Bahrain, a close ally of the United States in the Persian Gulf region, has seen a wave of anti-regime protests since mid-February 2011. Scores of people have been killed and hundreds of others wounded or detained in Manama’s ongoing crackdown.
