Obama inaction setting up Bahrain Civil collapse

Shi’ite cleric warns Bahrain nearing “abyss”
June 10, 2011 1:30 PM EDT

A top Bahraini Shi’ite cleric said trials of dozens of people and the breaking up of Shi’ite religious marches were dragging the country towards destruction, not reconciliation, ahead of a planned national dialogue.

State officials have promised the talks, which King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa said would start on July 1, can discuss all types of democratic reforms in the country, rocked by anti-government protests that were quashed by security forces in March.

But Sheikh Issa Qasim, the most revered Shi’ite cleric in Bahrain, told a crowd of hundreds in his Friday sermon that current conditions did not match government rhetoric.

“This country is being brought closer to an abyss of terrifying destruction unless quick reforms are offered to satisfy the people,” he said.

Opposition groups say hundreds of people, most of them Shi’ite, have been put on trial on charges ranging from illegal gatherings and fabricated news to plotting a coup with foreign terrorist organisations. They say over 1,000 people remain in detention. The government says the numbers are much lower.

Bahrain’s Sunni rulers said the democracy protests earlier this year, led mostly by the country’s Shi’ite majority, had a sectarian agenda and help from Iran. The opposition denies this.

Emergency law was lifted last week, and since then small protests have broken out daily in Shi’ite neighbourhoods that are quickly broken up by riot police.

Sheikh Abdul-Aziz bin Mubarak al-Khalifa, Senior International Counselor from the Information Affairs Authority, has encouraged protesters to stop and instead focus on national dialogue. “We hope people will channel their energy in a more positive direction,” he said. …more