The Bahrain government raises empty slogans; In reality, it launches systematic attacks – on the whole – on the aspects of the Ashura commemoration, in a scene that provokes Shiite citizens, and in clear violation of the Bahraini constitution, which allegedly guarantees the freedom to practice belief.
The regime not only interferes with the privacy of the Shiite population, but also impose on them arbitrary conditions that limit their religious freedoms.
This systematic war is a war against the Shiite doctrine, which rejects injustice, tyranny, exclusivity and arrogance. It is is war by a regime that rules Bahrain with an iron fist, has no legitimacy, no fair elections, no popular participation in decision-making, no coexistence, no freedoms, but exclusion and marginalization.
It is a comprehensive war – as described by Ayatollah Sheikh Isa Qassem – against Imam Hussain himself. The government of Bahrain is facing a large segment of Hussain followers and mourners who oppose its practice and repression; an oppressed group that has revolted against its oppression and abuse.
Hence, it has expelled them, pursued them, marginalized them, arrested their beloved sons, etc.
This war has begun with the scheme of political naturalization aimed at bringing about a comprehensive demographic change, marginalizing Shiites in jobs and education, arresting their peaceful leaders and arbitrarily dissolving their political and social associations, while high-ranking officials flinch in claiming that the regime is keen to preserve religious freedoms and ensure coexistence.
Total intimidation, a fierce, indiscriminate war, the aim of which is to subdue a resistant Husseini people, and here observers ask: Why does the regime follow this bullying logic against the indigenous inhabitants while normalizing relations with the temporary Zionist occupation entity?
It is worthy to mention that these measures have been accompanied by other provocative steps, including the ban on pilgrims to visit the holy shrines in Iraq and Iran – without justification – as well as the arbitrary ban on holding the well-known chanting event “Hello Commander”.
Meanwhile, Ayatollah Qassem has described this war in the context of retrenchment with Yazid and the war on the authentic Muhammadan Islam, a war that has been going on since ancient times, the war of the corrupt and immoral Yazid against the reformer Imam Hussain, but the victorious – as Ayatollah Qassem asserts – is Imam Hussein’s approach and thought.
