Hawzah News Agency- In a scathing analysis published by the Bahrain Mirror, commentators say Manama no longer targets individual Shia activists but has instead criminalized the very identity of Shia Islam. The report argues the regime has constructed a legal framework where every Shia citizen, regardless of background or political leaning, is effectively positioned as an accused party and even a criminal.
Criminalizing religious obligations
Central to the regime's crackdown is the classification of Khums — an obligatory religious tithe and one of the ten Ancillaries of the Faith in Jafari Shia Islam — as "money laundering" under criminal law. By placing this fundamental religious duty on the list of criminal cases, the report states, the regime has made practicing the Shia faith a criminal act.
"Shia citizens are now left to choose between abandoning their religion or facing conviction in criminal cases," the analysis reads, describing the move as an unprecedented level of official hostility.
The report further accuses Manama of brazenly linking religious financial transfers to Iraq, Iran, and Lebanon with political charges, in what it calls a deliberate attempt to criminalize a centuries-old, openly practiced religious obligation.
Targeting top Shia clerics
The Bahrain Mirror analysis also highlights the regime's direct targeting of senior Shia scholars, noting that a number of detained clerics hold written authorization from specific high-ranking jurists abroad. Transferring religious dues to these authorities, it says, is part of their duties.
"One can simply consult the official website of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in Najaf to understand the designated channels and recipients of Khums funds," the report states, rejecting regime claims that these funds are funneled to political groups opposed to Manama. "It is a lie, and everyone knows the objective of promoting it under the current circumstances."
The report also condemns the regime's directive to publish images of detained clerics in a manner designed to demean and diminish their stature, describing it as part of an official campaign to insult the scholars of the Jafari school and degrade their standing in society.
No space for coexistence
The analysis concludes that the regime's actions have fundamentally restructured the relationship between the state and its Shia citizens on a basis of fear rather than citizenship. It argues that the government's media efforts to project an image of openness are doomed to fail, given the severity and scope of the ongoing crackdown.
International rights groups have long documented systematic discrimination against Bahrain's Shia majority, including mass arrests, torture, and the stripping of citizenship from dissenting voices. The latest developments underscore what observers describe as an intensifying campaign to erase Shia political and religious life from the public sphere in the Persian Gulf kingdom.
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