Al-Khalifa regime’s violations of human rights, the arrest of opposition leaders, and the policies of religious persecution spark huge anger among the Bahraini people.
The Bahraini authorities reject repeated calls to release opposition leaders and prisoners of conscience who have been detained for many years in Bahrain, which constitutes a source of tension in the country and the absence of any signs of reform.
The Deputy Secretary-General of Al-Wefaq National Islamic Society, Hussain Al-Daihi, said that the strained relations between Bahrain and Qatar were paid for by many victims, including prominent dissident Ali Salman, whom the regime accused him of false charges to blackmail him.
Al-Daihi stressed, in statements during a panel discussion, that the Secretary-General of Al-Wefaq Society, Ali Salman, represents a systematic and malicious moral decline aimed at his disappearance.
He stated that Bahrain is going through dangerous turns, and the continued absence of Sheikh Salman, despite the reconciliation with Qatar, is a condemnation of the regime itself for using fabricated charges to take revenge on this patriotic man.
He stressed that Al-Wefaq Society contacted all international and human rights bodies and demanded a move to pressure the regime, but the authorities refused and blocked the doors.
Al-Daihi stressed that a severe change that addresses the deteriorating situation at all levels is required and stressed insistence on a comprehensive, not a formal, solution.
He said that the current constitution does not preserve the rights and freedoms of the most significant component of the country, and the infringement on the practice of religious rites and privacy is the best evidence of the lack of coexistence.
According to a document leaked from the Bahraini government, a table containing “violations” of funerals, pioneers and preachers for the month of Muharram 1440, according to which a number of people were summoned to police stations for investigation or arrest.
For example, the table shows that there was no violation committed by the prominent preacher Sheikh Hassan Al-Aali; he was one of those who were summoned to the police station with “a warning to him to adhere to religious affairs during the sermons and not to deviate from the same framework.” In another example, Radod and Musharraf were summoned to take funerals, forcing them to pledge to abide by the law.
The document shows the extent of restrictions exercised by the security authorities in Bahrain against the Shiite community when it presents itself as a pioneering country in peaceful coexistence and respect for religious freedoms.
