Harsh crackdown on Shia worshippers in Bahrain
\n5:30 AM Thursday Apr 21, 2011<\/p>\n
Bahraini Government forces backed by Saudi Arabian troops are destroying mosques and places of worship of the Shia majority in the island kingdom in a move likely to exacerbate religious hatred across the Muslim world.<\/p>\n
“So far they have destroyed seven Shia mosques and about 50 religious meeting houses,” said Ali al-Aswad, an MP in the Bahraini Parliament.<\/p>\n
He said Saudi soldiers, part of the 1000-strong contingent that entered Bahrain last month, had been seen by witnesses helping demolish Shia mosques and shrines in the Sunni-ruled kingdom.<\/p>\n
Mohammed Sadiq, of the Justice for Bahrain organisation, said the most famous of the Shia shrines destroyed was that of a revered Bahraini Shia spiritual leader, Sheikh Abdul Amir al-Jamri, who died in 2006.<\/p>\n
A photograph taken by activists shows the golden dome of the shrine lying on the ground and later being taken away on the back of a truck. On the walls of desecrated Shia mosques, graffiti has been scrawled praising the Sunni King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa and insulting the Shia. …source<\/a><\/p>\n