Bahraini Shias resume Friday prayers after 4-week suspension
Shia Muslims in Bahrain have held congregational prayers in the tiny Persian Gulf country nearly a month after clergymen declared a pause to the religious ritual in protest at the ruling Al Khalifah regime's heavy-handed crackdown against Bahraini Shais.
The Muslims converged at the Imam Sadiq Mosque in the northwestern village of Diraz, situated about 12 kilometers (seven miles) west of the capital Manama, to observe Friday prayers.
The worshipers chanted different slogans, demanding an end to the regime's sectarian discrimination against them.
They also stressed the need for dialogue as well as public reconciliation to safeguard the country’s security and stability.
The Friday prayers worshippers later took to the streets in Diraz, expressing their resentment over the Al Khalifah regime’s suppression of political dissent.
Bahraini Shia clerics, in a statement titled “Those Barred from Praying” released on June 16, condemned the Manama regime’s efforts to restrict Shia Muslims’ freedom of religion and belief, describing the situation in the country as “deplorable,” Arabic-language Bahrain Mirror news website reported.
The statement said that the Al Khalifah regime’s systematic suppression of Bahraini Shia Muslims had reached its highest level ever, and members of the kingdom’s largest religious community feel insecure and face threats of arrest and prosecution if they seek to observe their religious rituals, primarily Friday and other congregational prayers.
On June 20, Bahraini authorities stripped distinguished Shia cleric Sheikh Isa Qassim of his citizenship less than a week after suspending the country’s main opposition bloc, the al-Wefaq National Islamic Society, and dissolving the Islamic Enlightenment Institution, founded by Sheikh Qassim, and opposition al-Risala Islamic Association.
Since February 14, 2011, thousands of anti-regime protesters have held numerous demonstrations in Bahrain on an almost daily basis, calling on the Al Khalifah family to relinquish power.
In March that year, troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — themselves repressive Arab regimes — were deployed to the country to assist the Bahraini government in its crackdown on peaceful protests.
Scores of people have been killed and hundreds of others injured or arrested in Manama's crackdown on the anti-regime activists.
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