Who will speak up for the sheikh?OVER the past decade, Britain has stripped 27 people of their citizenship on national-security grounds. Bahrain’s native population is 1% of Britain’s, but since 2014 the kingdom has revoked the citizenship of over 300 people for supposedly similar reasons. The latest is Ayatollah Sheikh Isa Qassim, regarded as the spiritual leader of the country’s Shia majority. On June 20th the Sunni-led government said he had been promoting extremism and sectarianism. He was also an outspoken critic of an increasingly ruthless regime.
This is merely the latest example of a crackdown on peaceful dissent. On June 14th the authorities banned the biggest opposition group, al-Wefaq, having extended the prison term of its leader, Sheikh Ali Salman, from four years to nine. A day earlier they detained Nabeel Rajab, a human-rights activist. Another prominent dissident, Zainab al-Khawaja, fled the country in early June after being told that she would be rearrested.
The government, which is dominated by the royal family, claims the opposition is sowing discord. But activists blame the authorities...Continue reading
Source: Middle East and Africa http://ift.tt/28OcUeP
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