Hawzah News Agency (Qom, Iran) – Ayatollah Alireza Arafi issued a statement in which he slammed Al Khalifah’s cruel measures against Bahraini citizens.

The text of the statement is as follows:

In the Name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful

 “The angels will descend on those who said: 'Allah is Our Lord, ' and have then gone straight, (saying :) 'Be neither fearful, nor sad; rejoice in the Paradise you have been promised.” Holy Quran (41:30)

The peaceful Bahraini uprising is continuing forward despite the fact that Al Khalifah regime is carrying out its atrocities with the support of US government and is denying their citizens’ basic civil rights.

Undoubtedly, the path that Al Khalifah regime has taken is completely inhumane. The Saudi regime supports Bahraini dictatorship and their long history of aggression and injustice against people; Now Al Khalifah intensified their cruelty by stripping Bahrainis of their citizenship, especially religious scholars, through issuing arbitrary legal sentences. They even grant Bahraini nationality to foreign citizens in a bid to manufacture demographic changes in Bahrain.

Such measures not only are against the international law, but also they are against religion; every human being is entitled to their nationality and according to Islamic teachings, love of the country is a sign of religious faith. No one has the right to strip others of their citizenship and expel them from their home country.

The international Islamic and Human Rights bodies must recognize Bahrainis’ peaceful uprising and support them until their legitimate rights are realized. Bahrainis’ only demand is for them to be able to decide their own destiny and their country’s future. This is a right embedded in religions as well as the international law.

I’d like to thank Bahraini Muslim scholars for their sincere efforts in leading the popular uprising in Bahrain, especially Ayatollah Shaykh Isa Qassim. Iranian Islamic seminaries condemn Al Khalifah’s measures in revoking Bahrainis’ citizenship and issuing cruel sentences against Muslim scholars including Shaykh Abdullah al-Daqaq, Sayyed Murtadha al-Sanadi and some other religious figures. We hereby ask the Bahraini government to put an end to such unjust decisions, recognize their people’s legitimate demands and respect the integrity of religious scholars since they are the symbols of Bahrain’s national integrity and guardians of the country’s Islamic identity.

It is no doubt that Bahrainis’ persistence in their peaceful uprising serves as a successful model for fighting oppression and dictatorship; this movement will most certainly succeed with the help of Allah almighty and the people of Bahrain will be victorious. As Islam says, an infidel government may last but not an oppressive one.

Alireza Arafi

Head of Iranian Islamic Seminaries, April ۳۰, ۲۰۱۷