Bahrain Mirror: Sheikh Maytham Al-Salman, head of the religious freedom department of the Bahrain Observatory for Human Rights, said that more than 17 figures have been summoned, including preachers, clerics and lecturers in addition to obsequies administrators and organizing committees for Ashura events.

Al-Salman considered this practice as a part of a wider crackdown on Shiites in the country and their religious rights and freedom of expressing their cultural identity.

"These summonings indicate that the government is continuing to violate its international obligations of being a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which states very clearly in Article 18 that ‘everyone shall have the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion... and manifest religion,'" he stressed, adding that Article 22 of the Bahraini Constitution also guarantees the practice of religious rituals and processions in accordance with the established customs in the country.

Al-Salman further stated that the authorities are involved in these actions as it continues to violate its international commitments and show the international community and all the competent parties that it is continues to violate the religious freedoms of Shiites in the kingdom.

Arabic Issue