Bahrain Mirror: United States Ambassador to Bahrain, William Roebuck, refused, in his response to a question during his visit to the Al-Ayam daily to mark the end of his period as Ambassador to Bahrain, to retract the criticism raised by the US State Department in its report on religious freedoms in Bahrain.

Replying to a question directed to him about his point of view regarding the criticisms mentioned in the US State Department report on religious freedoms, particularly that he had recently attended some of Ashura activities in Bahrain, the ambassador said: "I will let the report speaks for itself, I'd say there are troubling aspects in each country. It is not limited to Bahrain only. I have visited some of Ashura ceremonies in Bahrain and I think the commemoration of Ashura is a good example that Bahrain allows different sects to commemorate their religious rituals freely and openly."

"Even in the United States, there are aspects of religious freedoms that can be strengthened. I think that in any country in the world there is room for development in various aspects, not only in the area of religious freedom, but also in the field of human rights. The US has a long history of work on the development of freedoms and it continues to work to reinforce them in different aspects. We can say that no county has reached perfection in this aspect, because all countries continue to develop. I think this is the vision we must deal with when it comes to all what is mentioned in the human rights reports, whether issued by US State Department or other side," he further stated.

Arabic Version