Hawzah News Agency (Manama, Bahrain) -The statement issued on Friday (May 5, 2017) stated, "We call upon all men and women, old and young, to take to the streets in sacred religious rage, and declare readiness to defend till death the religion and national leadership of Ayatollah Sheikh Isa Ahmad Qassim."

The Bahraini scholars had also issued a statement last Wednesday (May 3, 2017), stressing that the "targeting Sheikh Qassim over his Khums ritual is a blatant targeting of the religious existence of an authentic component of the country."

Furthermore, they confirmed that the revocation of Sheikh Qassim's citizenship is a "targeting of the national identity of each citizen belonging to this land, as the case is that of each believer who defends his religion, and of each citizen who is loyal to his country."

This comes two days before the court issued its verdict in the case of Sheikh Isa Qassim on Sunday May 7, 2017, the most prominent Shiite leader in the country.

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