Bahraini Shi’ites Protest Mosque Closure
Written by The Media Line Staff
Published Tuesday, January 20, 2009
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Spiritual leaders of Bahrain’s Shi’ite community on Monday condemned the closure by the Sunni-led government of a Shi’ite mosque in the capital Manama, the Bahraini daily The Gulf reported.
“I reject the official policy of hegemony and guardianship over mosques, imams and preachers,” president of the Islamic Scholars Council (ISC), Majid Mash’al, told the paper.
Bahraini Shi’ites Protest Mosque Closure
Written by The Media Line Staff
Published Tuesday, January 20, 2009
E-Mail This
Printer-Friendly
Archives
Spiritual leaders of Bahrain’s Shi’ite community on Monday condemned the closure by the Sunni-led government of a Shi’ite mosque in the capital Manama, the Bahraini daily The Gulf reported.
“I reject the official policy of hegemony and guardianship over mosques, imams and preachers,” president of the Islamic Scholars Council (ISC), Majid Mash’al, told the paper.
The Bahraini government has not given an explanation for the closure of the Shi’ite mosque, stating only that it was preparing procedures to regulate sermons in the kingdom’s mosques.
Last year, Bahraini Prime Minister Sheikh Khalifa Bin Salman Al Khalifa ordered the formation of an inter-ministerial committee to fight “abuses from mosques, newspapers or Internet sites against national values, the king, the crown prince, national unity, sectarianism and Bahrain’s Arab identity.”
“The media, particularly newspapers, should refrain from publishing any material that could threaten national unity… Imams should focus on providing religious guidance… and should avoid engaging in divisive and controversial issues,” Al Khalifa said.
The decision to set up the committee came at the peak of a Sunni-Shi’ite conflict in the tiny Gulf kingdom.
A few days earlier, the Al-Wifaq National Islamic Society (WNIS), Bahrain’s leading Shi’ite movement, launched a rally calling for national unity in the face of growing discontent from the Shi’ite minority.
During that week, Bahrain witnessed a bitter standoff between supporters of Sheikh ‘Issa Qasim, the Shi’ite leader of WNIS, and Jasim A-Sa’idi, a Sunni imam and a former MP.
A-Sa’idi fiercely attacked Qasim for the latter’s claim that Shi’ite citizens, who were detained in December 2007 on suspicion of acts of sabotage, had been tortured by the Bahraini security forces.
Qasim’s statement was “irresponsible, irrational and ignorant,” A-Sa’idi said.
The conflict between the two was given a lot of publicity in the local media outlets, which had taken sides according to their leanings.
Shi’ites in Bahrain make up some 60 percent of the country’s population, according to unofficial estimates.
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