Shi’ite worshipers condemn Bahrain death sentences
“If you wish to be assailed with problems, to lose all comfort…then allow the spirit of antagonism to take hold and spread in your country,” he said.
“This is a fire which may seem manageable at first, but is ultimately beyond control…and its consequences are always grave.”
Shi’ite worshipers condemn Bahrain death sentences
By Frederik Richter
MANAMA | Fri Apr 29, 2011 6:04pm EDT
MANAMA (Reuters) – Thousands of Bahraini Shi’ites gathered before a revered cleric on Friday denounced death sentences given to protesters over anti-government rallies crushed last month in the U.S.-allied Gulf kingdom.
The verdict, handed down by a military court a day earlier to four men accused of killing two policemen in violent protests last month, could intensify sectarian tension in the Sunni Muslim-led state that hosts the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet.
“It’s not true that they killed them,” said a man who identified himself only as Moussa, after praying at the mosque of Sheikh Issa Qassim, as a police helicopter circled overhead. “The government made it up just like a movie.”
He was referring to video footage that Bahraini authorities have circulated showing the two policemen smashed by a vehicle that sped through a crowd of protesters, some of whom appeared to then trample and kick the fallen men.
Police kept a tight grip on roads leading to the village where the mosque is located, turning back many vehicles.
The rulings were only the third time in over 30 years that a death sentence had been given to a Bahraini citizen.
They have further divided a country whose Shi’ite majority says it faces systematic discrimination, but whose Sunni leaders warn Shi’ite giant Iran is trying to extend its regional influence by manipulating its co-religionists.
“The sentence was appropriate,” said Mohammad al-Ammadi, a Sunni lawmaker, citing what he saw as the extreme brutality of the killings. “This is the first time this happened in Bahrain.”
In his sermon, the cleric Sheikh Issa Qassim alluded to the growing rift in the country.
“If you wish to be assailed with problems, to lose all comfort…then allow the spirit of antagonism to take hold and spread in your country,” he said.
“This is a fire which may seem manageable at first, but is ultimately beyond control…and its consequences are always grave.” …more
