Bahrain’s top cleric warns Shia community faces ‘existential threat’
Bahrain’s top cleric warns Shia community faces ‘existential threat’
M.U.H
16/07/20268
Tehran: Ayatollah Sheikh Isa Qassim, the leader of Bahrain’s Shia community, warned on Wednesday that Shia Islam and its religious institutions in Bahrain face a “severe existential threat” amid the erosion of the community’s political and civil rights.
In a statement published by Bahrain’s Al-Wefaq movement on Wednesday, Sheikh Qassim said the political and civil rights of Shia citizens had been “severely eroded,” leaving “almost nothing” remaining.
He said there was “no room for leniency” in efforts to restore those rights and called for continued demands until they are returned to their “religious and legal owners.”
Sheikh Qassim also said Shia Islam in Bahrain, along with its clerics, preachers, writers, teachers, religious educators and those who answer religious questions, faces a “severe existential threat.”
He added that the situation also affects prisoners and others subjected to “unjust rulings”.
“Is there anyone across the Islamic world, among Muslim peoples or governments, who will deny this injustice, enjoin what is right and become angry for the sake of God? O Helper of the oppressed, help us, for You know better than all who are the oppressors and the oppressed among Your servants,” he concluded.
In recent months, pressure on Bahrain’s Shia community has intensified through increased security arrests and religious restrictions.
In May, Bahraini security forces repeatedly raided Shia-populated areas, detained several clerics and religious activists without judicial warrants, and transferred them to undisclosed locations.
Ahead of the Islamic month of Muharram, reports also described tighter religious restrictions, with Shia clerics, preachers and reciters summoned for questioning and instructed to avoid certain topics during religious ceremonies.
The reports said authorities also imposed restrictions on mourning ceremonies, limited the duration of religious speeches, and introduced travel restrictions for Bahraini citizens visiting Iran and Iraq.
Bahraini political groups and human rights activists condemned the measures and called for the immediate release of detainees, an end to arbitrary arrests, and the suspension of security policies and restrictions targeting the country’s Shia community.
