Alwaght- Bahraini regime forces have stepped up their crackdown on Muharram mourning ceremonies, disrupting Shiite Muslim gatherings and making arrests among clerics.
On Tuesday, three Shiite clerics were arrested for what the kingdom’s Public Prosecutor’s Office claiming promoting hatred of the ruling regime and encouraging “acts of terrorism,” Bahrain Mirror news website reported.
The detainees were identified as Sheikh Yassin al-Harami, Sheikh Hani al-Bana’, and Sheikh Mohammad al-Sahlawi.
Manama’s forces also attacked residential areas and houses in more than 10 areas in the capital, Manama, destroying the banners and signs inviting the public to mourning rituals on Thursday.
Various videos, meanwhile, emerged online showing Bahrainis attending mourning processions on Tuesday, while holding up pictures of those killed during the regime’s crackdown campaign on opposition and political activists.
The al-Wefaq National Islamic Society, Bahrain’s banned Shiite opposition bloc, condemned the clampdown on religious rituals. It called the arrest campaign an outright violation of religious freedom.
The society said the regime’s desecration of Ashura’s symbols was taking place in complete ignorance of the sentiments of the island’s Shiite Muslims, who are mourning Imam Hussein’s martyrdom.
The first ten days of Muharram, the month of the Islamic Hijri calendar, mark the martyrdom of the third Shiite Imam and the grandson of Prophet Mohammad SAW, Imam Hussein AS, in 680 AD in a battle with the tyrant of the time. The tenth day of Muharram, known as Ashura, marks the day when Imam Hussein was martyred with 72 of his loyal companions.
The historic event's message of resistance and rising up against tyranny has been key to the evolution of a culture which rejects abjection at any rate
Protest rallies in Bahrain have continued on an almost daily basis ever since a popular uprising started in the kingdom in 2011. The protesters are demanding that the Al Khalifah dynasty relinquish power.
