Scores of people from across Bahrain on Monday assembled outside the house of Sheikh Qassim in Dirza area, Western Manama, and slammed Al Khalifa ruling regime’s decision to strip the top cleric of his nationality.
Earlier in the day, the regime’s interior ministry had announced in a statement that it has revoked the citizenship of Sheikh Qassim, accusing him of “sowing sectarian divisions”.
Large groups of people swarmed the streets of Bilad al-Qadim, Buri and Sitra after hearing about the decision.
The regime’s security forces attacked the peaceful protesters and later sealed off the area around the cleric’s house as hundreds of people were moving there. Then the demonstrators said their prayer near Sheikh Qassim's house in a bid to express their solidarity with him.
According to reports, the protesters, wearing white shrouds, also spent the night outside his house in Diraz.
In the meantime, Iran’s Foreign Ministry condemned the Al Khalifa regime’s move, saying it would dash hopes for reforms through dialogue in the tiny Persian Gulf kingdom.
“Iran condemns the Bahraini government’s move to revoke the citizenship of the cleric, intensify security approach toward religious and national leaders and misappropriate religious assets and funds of the Bahraini people,” the ministry said in a statement late on Monday.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah Resistance Movement also deplored the decision, describing it as extremely serious for the dignified and supreme position of the cleric in Bahrain and the entire Ummah (community).
It came days after a regime’s court issued an order earlier suspending the activities of Bahrain’s main opposition bloc, Al-Wefaq National Islamic Society, on charges of “terrorism, extremism, and violence”.
Bahrain, a close ally of the US in the Persian Gulf region, has been witnessing almost daily protests against the ruling Al Khalifa dynasty since early 2011, with Manama using heavy-handed measures in an attempt to crush the demonstrations.
Scores of Bahrainis have been killed and hundreds of others injured and arrested in the ongoing crackdown on the peaceful demonstrations.
Amnesty International and many other international rights organizations have frequently censured the Bahraini regime for the rampant human rights abuses against opposition groups and anti-regime protesters.