US Council on International Religious Freedom, comments on Mosque and Religous site Destruction by al Khalifa regime

USCIRF Comments on Bahrain Independent Human Rights Report
For Immediate Release – December 14, 2011

WASHINGTON, D.C. – A Bahraini government-appointed committee should address concerns related to the demolition earlier this year of dozens of Shi’a Muslim religious structures, said the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).

On November 23, the Bahraini Independent Commission on Inquiry (BICI), created and funded by the Bahraini government, released a 500-page report detailing systematic and egregious abuses in the government’s response to protests earlier this year. The BICI report includes findings and recommendations related to the destruction of Shi’a religious sites by government authorities.

The BICI received information that 53 Shi’a religious structures were demolished by Bahraini authorities between March 1 and May 11. The report found that, in violation of its own law, the Bahraini government did not give adequate notice of the demolitions nor did it allow judicial review before the demolitions took place. The BICI findings on the destruction of religious sites, and other Bahraini government abuses, affirmed a number of previous reports Bahraini and international human rights groups have issued that came to many of the same conclusions.

“Most of the BICI findings about the destruction of Shi’a religious structures are detailed and specific, including that the timing of the demolitions was ‘perceived as a collective punishment’ and provoked further tension between the government and the Shi’a population,” said USCIRF chair Leonard Leo. “However, the recommendations are incomplete, and do not help ensure that illegally destroyed religious structures are rebuilt or that the Shi’a community is adequately compensated or restituted for loss of religious materials.” …more