Sheikh Isa Qassim condemn Manama’s clampdown against Ashura commemorations
Bahrain’s highest religious authority Sheikh Isa Qassim has strongly condemned Manama’s clampdown against annual Ashura commemorations.
Authorities in the state have interrogated dozens of Bahraini Shiite religious figures in recent days over the sermons they delivered ahead of Ashura – the climax of a 10-day mourning period during the Islamic lunar month of Muharram honoring the martyrdom of Imam Hussein (AS).
Speaking in the Iranian city of Qom on Monday evening, Sheikh Qassim said that Manama’s “outrageous” position towards Ashura commemorations “obliterates righteousness and defends injustice and vice.”
Recent years have seen a spike in the number of arrests of Shiite clerics ahead of Ashura coupled with the desecration of Ashura banners and the harassment of Bahraini prisoners of conscience marking the occasion.
