Bahrain Mirror: Al-Wefaq National Islamic Society said that the arrest of Deputy President of Islamic Ulama Council prominent Sheikh Mahmoud Al-A'ali for expressing support with Ayatollah Sheikh Isa Qassim reflects the "extent of the hostility the authorities have towards religious freedoms and different opinions."

The society stressed in a statement that this targeting reflects "the authorities' black record of brutally targeting religious freedoms. This arrest is an extension to the arrests of dozens of clerics, their prosecutions and the defamation and insults they are subjected to, as well as the targeting of others by stripping them of their nationalities, summoning them for interrogation and harassing them. This is part of a systematic project that includes official and semi-official expression of contempt towards the Ja'afari sect and those who belong to it."

Al-Wefaq demanded to release Sheikh Al-A'ali and the other detained scholars and to stop targeting them.

Arabic Version