Braving intense heat, millions of Shiite Muslims in Bahrain, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, Pakistan, India, Turkey and other countries have marked Ashura.
Ashura is the culmination of a 10-day mourning period during which Shiite Muslims mourn the martyrdom of Imam Hussain, grandson of Islam's Prophet and the third Imam of the Shiite.
Authorities in Manama, for years, has been waging a fierce campaign against the Shiite majority as part of its intensifying clampdown on their religious freedoms.
In the run up to the sad event, the kingdom’s security forces forcibly removed black banners and announced that religious gathering would remain suspended, allegedly due to COVID 19 pandemic, drawing criticism from Bahrain’s highest Shiite religious authority, Sheikh Issa Qassim.
Ayatollah Qassim asked, "Is it reasonable that gathering in malls under specific conditions will prevent the coronavirus from spreading, while gathering in the matam is a special environment that attracts COVID 19?"
Ayatollah Qassim stressed that the “Matam comes first.”
A Matam is a Shiite congregation hall, aka Hussainia, (Arabic: حسينية(, for commemoration ceremonies and educational purposes. Besides, heads of those Matams have reportedly been summoned.
Bahrain’s religious scholars have already called on the people to observe Ashura while adhering to the utmost health precautions, including social distancing, the use of face masks as well as continuous cleaning disinfection designed to prevent the spread of COVID 19 pandemic.
The religious scholars also said that commemorations 'should be disciplined' stressing on the elderly, children and those diagnosed with chronic illnesses to observe the mourning period in their houses.
Indeed, the authorities which claim to be cautious about the citizens’ health have for months denied numerous calls to release 4000+ political prisoners and prisoners of conscience due to the notoriously poor conditions in the overcrowding Jau Central prison, where access to adequate medical care is neglected, and amid fears of COVID-19 outbreak. Besides those prisoners are denied freedom to practice their religious beliefs particularly Aashura rituals.
Bahrain's constitution allegedly guarantees thus constitutional freedom; however, things in Manama have gone different since the political unrest of 2011, whereby the security authorities systematically attack the rites. It also repeatedly summons and arrests Hussaini preachers, eulogy citers and obsequies' organizers on fabricated charges of "inciting hatred against the regime" without any clear evidences.
WRITER
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