Bahrain Mirror: Top Shia clerics in Bahrain announced in statement issued on Monday (July 18, 2016) that the country's Shiite component is being targeted in its existence. This is the first statement of its kind given by the following four prominent Shia clerics: Ayatollah Sheikh Isa Qassim, Sayyed Abdullah Al-Ghureify, Sheikh Abdulhussein Al-Sitri, and Mohammad Saleh Al-Rabiee.

"As a main and indigenous component of this nation (the Shia component), we are now strongly convinced that we are being targeted in our very existence, identity, beliefs, rituals and [religious] duties," stressed the clerics in a brief statement.

"Thus, we call for putting an end to this persecution," they added.

Since the February 2011 nationwide pro-democracy protests were crushed, the island kingdom's Shiite majority has been the target of widespread crackdowns and attacks by the Bahraini authorities, which have not left out mosques, clerics and Shia beliefs and rituals.

Arabic Version