Activists warn of intensifying religious persecution against Bahrain’s Shiite majority

  Monday, 15 July 2019

source: abna

Amnesty International’s GCC researcher, Devin Kenney, warned on Monday that the level of repression against Bahrain’s Shiite majority was on the rise.
AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): Amnesty International’s GCC researcher, Devin Kenney, warned on Monday that the level of repression against Bahrain’s Shiite majority was on the rise.
He made the remarks at a conference organized by the Bahrain Center for Dialogue and Tolerance and in collaboration with Amnesty and the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR).
Kenney told the conference in Beirut that Manama’s discriminatory practices against the Shiite community have only increased since the start of Bahrain’s pro-democracy protests in 2011.
He pointed to the persecution of Bahrain’s highest religious authority Sheikh Isa Qassim and the revocation of his citizenship, the detention of 15 Shiite clerics this year alone as well as bans on Friday prayers at local Shiite mosques.
Speaking on behalf of the Bahrain Center for Dialogue and Tolerance, Sumaya Al-Hajj Hassan, welcomed last month’s US State Department report on international religious freedom.
The report cataloged Manama’s numerous abuses of religious freedoms throughout last year and concluded that the regime “continued to question, detain, and arrest Shiite clerics and community members.”
Meanwhile, BCHR’s Ghina Faroukh addressed violations of religious freedoms in Bahraini detention centers where she said Shiite prisoners are being denied their right to worship.