The Assistant Foreign Minister, Abdullah Al-Doseri, met on Thursday (March 22, 2018) a delegation from the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, on the occasion of the delegation's visit to the Kingdom of Bahrain.

Chief of Public Security Tariq Al Hassan received a delegation of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), claiming that Bahrain continues seeking “to reinforce dialogue between different cultures and religions.”

Bahrain Declaration of Religious Tolerance stands in such stark contrast to remarks made by US Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, where he cited Bahrain as one of the world’s leading violators of the right to freedom of religion or belief.

Bahrain’s Interior Ministry forces launched a campaign today, targeting religious manifestations of Ashura, a religious occasion commemorated annually by Shia citizens in the country.

Saudi Arabia’s school religious studies curriculum contains hateful and incendiary language toward religions and Islamic traditions that do not adhere to its interpretation of Sunni Islam, Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday.

Three Bahraini human rights organizations issued a report entitled “Chambers of Death”, which was widely received by both the human rights and media communities, having successfully and accurately documented the crimes of the national security agency.

In the report it recently issued about 2016 International Religious Freedom Report, the US Department of State discussed Bahrain’s condition and tackled some unresolved issues in this file.

The National Institute for Human Rights (NIHR) described the 2016 International Religious Freedom Report that was launched on August 15, 2017 as unfounded theories.

The United States issued its annual religious freedom report on Tuesday, slamming its allies in the Gulf, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, for persecuting religious minorities.

U.S. allies including Saudi Arabia and Bahrain did not uphold principles of religious freedom in 2016, while Islamic State has carried out "genocide" against religious minorities, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Tuesday.

Shia Muslims in Bahrain held evening prayers at the Al-Alawiyat Mosque, which was demolished by the Bahraini authorities in 2011.

Bahraini human rights defender of religious freedoms Sheikh Maytham al-Salman, believed that the Bahraini government is seeking the formation of an alternative political and civil society, obedient to it.

In an interview with Radio France Internationale (RFI), Sheikh Maytham Al-Salman noted that meeting with other religious clerics who call for dialogue and respect for political rights is becoming more difficult in Bahrain. He clarified that the Bahraini authorities are banning all forms of civil activities.

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) stressed that the religious freedom for the majority-Shi’a community deteriorated, stating that there was a sharp increase in the number of interrogations, arrests, convictions, and arbitrary detentions of Shi’a Muslim clerics, in particular most senior Shi’a cleric in Bahrain, Sheikh Isa Qassim, whose citizenship was arbitrarily stripped by authorities in June.

Bahrain Forum for Human Rights (BFHR) said that it documented 2389 violations in 2016. In its annual report entitled “Bahrain…The Map of Persecution: Undermining Civil Society”, BFHR said that the number of human rights violations in Bahrain has increased more than ever and in a more systematic manner.

Human rights activist Safaa Al-Khawaja, quoted families of detainees in Jaw Central Prison as saying that the prison's police bet one of the detainees for reciting Dua'a Kumail on Thursday night, and that he was returned to the prison cell while suffering from fatigue due to beating.

Detainees held in building 4 in Jaw Prison declared going on a hunger strike (Sunday December 11, 2016) in protest of a guard attacking detainees performing prayers.

Lawyer Sadiq Al-Dirazi said that the second criminal “appeals” court amended the one-year prison term against Mulla Habib Al-Dirazi making it 6 months only.

Salam for Democracy and Human Rights issued a special report about the violations practiced against the Shia majority in Bahrain during Ashura this year.

A crowd protest was staged in Diraz, condemning the sectarian persecution and noose tightening against Shia in Bahrain.