Bahrain Mirror: Bahrain's religious scholars issued on Monday (August 16, 2021) a statement condemning the authorities' arbitrary measures to restrict the citizens' commemoration of Ashura religious rituals.

Below is the full statement:

These arbitrary measures have nothing to do with medical precautions, and have no logical explanation other than sectarian politics and systematic religious targeting, which are increasing year after another, with the aim of authoritarianism and imposition of political domination over the particularities of the doctrine and religious community to change it according to the agendas of the unjust regime and its whims and desires, and to confiscate the narrow space of the remaining freedom of religious rituals. This is a corruption, injustice and tyranny to the fullest extent. Otherwise, what harm does the hanging of "Al-Hussein" banner or flag or a banner that reads a religious phrase here cause the government and its crazy arrogance, and what does this have to do with Coronavirus?

Why do the authorities provoke people's feelings of grief for the tragedy of Master of Martyrs, the grandson of the Messenger of Allah (PBUH), and why are these daily pursuits of obsequies, summonses, arrests, intimidation, surveillance and threats under the pretext of medical precautions, which is the most trivial and ridiculous pretext. There is no disciplined place in Bahrain more than obsequies and processions thanks to the awareness of the believers and their concern for the duty that scholars have stressed on.

If you were honest in prosecuting medical offences, you will find them openly during the day in other places you know.

Yes, the issue is clear and its political motives do not need to be stated, and the malicious objectives do not hide behind it, let the authorities stop the policy of sectarian persecution and its exploitation of every circumstance for unjust hegemony and domination.

We condemn the aggression of the authorities against religious rituals and freedom and demand an immediate end to the aggression and an end to the systematic policy of religious persecution.

Arabic Version