Hawzah News Agency (Manama, Bahrain) -The clergymen, in a statement released on Saturday, January 28, and entitled “In Defense of Our Faith and Pride,” urged Bahrainis to take to streets on Sunday in protest at the Manama regime’s ongoing persecution of Shia Muslim majority in the Persian Gulf kingdom.

“We hereby pledge to shed the last drop of our blood in defense of religious and national leader, Ayatollah Sheikh Isa Ahmed Qassim,” the statement read.

It added, “The response to the regime’s bloody and aggressive crackdown is steadfastness, taking to the streets … and showing a strong presence in all peaceful activities.”

The statement further blamed the Al Khalifah regime and its foreign backers for growing instability in Bahrain.

 “It is a crime to murder people by means of decrees. The head of the state [King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifah] and the British security services are fully responsible for such a crime and the prevalent sectarian violence,” the scholars pointed out.

Meanwhile, hundreds of people in Bahrain have voiced their unstinting support for Sheikh Qassim and other imprisoned Shia clerics, vowing to defend their religion and national pride by any means.

Local residents in the villages of Diraz, Karbabad, al-Markh, Sanabis, al-Dair and Eker said they would be clad in shrouds during nationwide rallies on Sunday to make it clear to the ruling Al Khalifah regime that death and threats would not stop their quest for democracy and legitimate demands. 

On January 26, Manama regime’s mercenaries attacked a sit-in near Sheikh Qassim’s residence in the northwestern village of Diraz, firing live bullets at unarmed protesters.

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