Bahrain Mirror: The Chairman of the Sunni Endowments Directorate (Waqf), Sheikh Salman bin Issa Al Khalifa, reiterated that he trusts in the Imams affiliated to the Endowments Directorate. He pointed out that none of the preachers are banned from delivering speeches and made it clear that the directorate is not questioning any of them but is only advising them.

The chairman also said that one of the well-known preachers was banned from delivering speeches for two weeks in Ramadan (Sheikh Jassim Al-Saidi) over allegations that his speech was an agitation. He was summoned and given advice. It turned out that there was a misunderstanding, Sheikh Salman Al Khalifa added, stressing that parts of Al-Saidi's speech were taken out of context and after that was confirmed, Al-Saidi returned to preaching.

The Sunni Endowments chairman asked the Imams to take the sanctity of the mosques into consideration and to bear their responsibility, denying that it is forcing the Imams of the mosques to deliver certain speeches. In this context, he said: "We have written speeches about several religious topics on the website of the Sunni Endowment. However, they are only available as a kind of aid for the Imams but they have the freedom to choose whether to use them or not."

He further stated that the Sunni Endowments Directorate always advises preachers to stay away from politics and to focus only on the religious matters that people need to listen to in Friday sermons to strengthen their religious beliefs. Nonetheless, political matters can be discussed elsewhere.

The Arabic Issue