Religious leader criticizes Bahraini gov't for brutal crackdown

Senior Iranian religious leader, Ayatollah Hussein Nouri Hamedani in an open letter, published on Thursday, criticized the Bahraini government for brutal crackdown on protesters and urged the international organizations to protect Shia citizens of Bahrain. Ayatollah Nouri Hamedani expressed support for Bahraini Shia religious leader Ayatollah Sheikh Isa Qassim. Ayatollah Sheikh Isa Ahmed Qassim is the spiritual leader of al Wefaq, Bahrain's biggest opposition society. He is considered as one of leaders of the Islamic Awakening movement of Bahrain. In this letter, the religious leader protested the killing of people and burning the holy mosques and holy Quran by the Bahraini government. “Bahrain's al-Khalifa rulers should learn lesson from ousting of other oppressors in the region and know that people and clerics would not stay silent in regard to the continued oppression,” the grand Ayatollah said in reference of fall of the US-backed Tunisian, Egyptian, Yemen and Libyan governments. He said that al-Khalifa regime has violated every human rights in the book. 'Hundreds of innocent protesters have been abducted at midnight raids. Threats, smear campaigns and a calculated policy of intimidation have become the rule of the land. Medics and hospitals have not been spared in this state violence. Even the most sacred symbols and sites have been violated by the al-Khalifa regime and its Saudi supporters, with the regime's hooligans and henchmen carrying out multiple attacks on mosques.'