Bahrain Mirror: Bahraini prominent Shiite cleric, Sayed Abdullah Al-Ghuraifi, said that the "high cost of livelihood" has become a terrifying ghost hunting the people of this country affecting all its sects and components, wondering what value do skyscrapers hold when the country is full of poor and wretched people.

Touching on the economic crisis, Al-Ghuraifi said in a sermon delivered at the Imam Sadiq Mosque on Thursday (January 18, 2018), that prosperity can be achieved only when it is "benefitting the whole nation and all the people of the country, and when there is no longer anyone struggling to make a living, find a home or achieve the necessities of life."

"We want building and reconstruction to take place, but what use are skyscrapers and when cabins and dilapidated houses exist in the country!," he further stated, adding that the new taxes came "to add additional burdens," and stressing that "a country has no beauty when its economy is in a state of crisis, its living conditions are stressful and there are hungry and homeless people."

Concluding his sermon, Al-Ghuraifi spoke of the issue of naturalization that was recently discussed in media outlets close to the government, noting that "the big fuss about (naturalization) that erupted in recent days is a matter that requires urgent treatment with full transparency and boldness," and highlighting that naturalization " is an issue that has very harsh ramifications on the country and the region. It should be studied with all seriousness and courage, and its terms reconsidered, so that its repercussions that are detrimental to the interests of the country, its identity and composition do not accumulate, thus making addressing it extremely difficult and complicated."

Arabic Version