“Desecration of religious symbols and insulting popular religious leaders and scholars signify the Bahraini government's failed security and ethnic approaches for confronting peaceful protests by the people of the country,” Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Marziyeh Afkham said on Tuesday.
Bahraini security forces raided the house Ayatollah Sheikh Issa Qassem on Monday. Witnesses say regime forces even took photos of the ID cards of everyone who was inside the house in Diraz, west of the capital Manama.
The Iranian spokeswoman called on Bahraini authorities to show respect for the highly respected position of Muslim scholars and religious leadership in the country and punish those who committed this “unacceptable measure” (raid on Sheikh Issa's house).
The raid on the home of the spiritual leader of the opposition al-Wefaq group comes just a few days after people voted in an alternative election held by the main opposition parties of Bahrain.
The opposition had boycotted the parliamentary elections which were held with a low turnout on the same day across the tiny kingdom.