“If you wish to be assailed with problems, to lose all comfort…then allow the spirit of antagonism to take hold and spread in your country,” he said.<\/p>\n
“This is a fire which may seem manageable at first, but is ultimately beyond control…and its consequences are always grave.”<\/p>\n
Shi’ite worshipers condemn Bahrain death sentences
\nBy Frederik Richter<\/p>\n
MANAMA | Fri Apr 29, 2011 6:04pm EDT<\/p>\n
MANAMA (Reuters) – Thousands of Bahraini Shi’ites gathered before a revered cleric on Friday denounced death sentences given to protesters over anti-government rallies crushed last month in the U.S.-allied Gulf kingdom.<\/p>\n
The verdict, handed down by a military court a day earlier to four men accused of killing two policemen in violent protests last month, could intensify sectarian tension in the Sunni Muslim-led state that hosts the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet.<\/p>\n
“It’s not true that they killed them,” said a man who identified himself only as Moussa, after praying at the mosque of Sheikh Issa Qassim, as a police helicopter circled overhead. “The government made it up just like a movie.”<\/p>\n
He was referring to video footage that Bahraini authorities have circulated showing the two policemen smashed by a vehicle that sped through a crowd of protesters, some of whom appeared to then trample and kick the fallen men.<\/p>\n
Police kept a tight grip on roads leading to the village where the mosque is located, turning back many vehicles.<\/p>\n
The rulings were only the third time in over 30 years that a death sentence had been given to a Bahraini citizen.<\/p>\n
They have further divided a country whose Shi’ite majority says it faces systematic discrimination, but whose Sunni leaders warn Shi’ite giant Iran is trying to extend its regional influence by manipulating its co-religionists.<\/p>\n
“The sentence was appropriate,” said Mohammad al-Ammadi, a Sunni lawmaker, citing what he saw as the extreme brutality of the killings. “This is the first time this happened in Bahrain.”<\/p>\n
In his sermon, the cleric Sheikh Issa Qassim alluded to the growing rift in the country.<\/p>\n
“If you wish to be assailed with problems, to lose all comfort…then allow the spirit of antagonism to take hold and spread in your country,” he said.<\/p>\n
“This is a fire which may seem manageable at first, but is ultimately beyond control…and its consequences are always grave.” …more<\/a><\/p>\n