Bahrain Mirror: Al-Wefaq Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Hussein Al-Daihi criticized the Bahraini authorities' continued crackdown on Shiite citizens as they commemorate Ashura rituals, considering what is happening part of a "bigoted policy that has grown and expanded in recent years."

In a series of tweets via his official Twitter account (July 30, 2022), Al-Daihi said that the imbalance between the government and the people of Bahrain is very deep, adding that "when a security official notices the interest in a matter related to the Shiite community, you then know that the country is on a very steep slope."

Al-Daihi accused the government of exercising the role of guardianship by force and using state institutions to diagnose the interests of the country, Shiites, Husseiniyas and preachers, and punishing those who don't abide by the orders, wondering "to what age they belong?"

He added that the homelands are not straightened with authoritarianism and what is happening in Bahrain has reached the extent of "interfering in the sectarian peculiarities and their details and determining what is possible and what is not," considering that we are "facing a dangerous, intolerable and unacceptable reality. The country needs comprehensive reform that provides security, stability and freedom for all equally."

"The Shiites in Bahrain are not seeking Shiite rule and at the same time they refuse imposing the rule of another religious doctrine or orientation, and this is what is happening in Bahrain, because punishment, law, curricula, media, justice and security are designed to punish Shiites, which is the most dangerous level of tyranny," he said. 

Al-Daihi called "to arbitrate on a national will that provides all citizens with religious freedom to equally practice their rituals," reiterating his refusal to infringe on "the religious freedom of all sects, doctrines and individuals" and that this "is our religion, belief, project and demand."

"Boasting about the existence of religious freedoms in Bahrain is a great lie and an unprecedented fraud, especially in the light of the existence of deep sectarian discrimination that is not concealed by superficial or non-influential actions, and what is happening needs real redress, as marginaliztion and discrimination are found in every corner of the government. Speaking of restricting the commemoration of Ashura in Bahrain, and tearing the banners of Ashura, the threats to preachers and Husseiniyas, is an extension of a bigoted policy that has grown and expanded in recent years and will continue unless there is a comprehensive political project that will shift the country to a state of true constitutional and national consensus."

Arabic Version