Hawzah News Agency - The recent ruling of life imprisonment that was issued against six members of the Shia community in Egypt has once again brought to surface the grievances of Shia Egyptians in a society of hostility. The six were found guilty on alleged charge of “spreading Shiism”.

A commentary in Arabic website Alahadnews has states that the newly-released verdict is not very surprising considering the sectarian behavior of political, religious and military officials in Egypt, as they have been conducting a campaign of suppression on the Shia Muslims in the past couple of years. The commentary adds the systematic crackdown has extended in a way that forced the Shia to hide their religious identity in fear of persecution.

The most dangerous aspect of this sectarian policy is that, the systematic campaign against the Shia Egyptians becomes legal as the country’s judicial body joins this trend.

A report by Egyptian paper al-Fajr reveals Al-Zahar University and the Ministry of Awqaf have thrown their support behind efforts by the Salafis against the Shia. It is also part and parcel of a regional policy of killing Shia Muslims in masses.

The policy is backed by Saudi Arabia and certain Arab states who look at Shiism as a deviant movement that should be uprooted to save their own narrative of Islam. Anti-Shia sentiment runs high in Egypt and the fact that consecutive governments refused to hold an inquiry into the brutal killing of Shia figure Sheikh Hassan Shahhata and his co-religionists shows how this sentiment runs deep in Egypt. Sheikh Hassan Shahhata was a Sunni scholar at Al Zahar University and imam at Egyptian army who later converted to Shia Islam. He was killed in a mob attack in 2013.