RNA – On Friday evening, Grand Ayatollah Jafar Sobhani met a group of Bahraini seminary students living in Qom and said, “I am not unaware of what is happening in Bahrain and the tragic news of what is happening in this country reaches us. We pray for you because prayer breaks the backs of the tyrants.”
The source of emulation addressed the Bahraini people and said, “Silence and retreat after this great sacrifice is never true and retreat is prohibited.”
Ayatollah Sobhani stressed the need to protect the Bahraini Revolution and added, “The revolution must remain alive in the hearts and souls but it should be such that it does not lead to the erosion of the power of the revolutionary forces.”
In regard to the importance of supporting the leader of Bahrain’s oppressed Shi’ah majority, he said that supporting Ayatollah Isa Qasim is essential because he is a symbols of the Shi’ahs of Bahrain, one of the factors for the survival of Shi’ahs in the tiny Persian Gulf nation and one of the pillars of Shi’ahs who must be protected.
His Eminence added that protecting Ayatollah Qasim is necessary through any means because the deprivation of his citizenship, arrest and other issues are a great loss for Bahrain.
On June 20, 2016, Bahraini authorities stripped Ayatollah Qasim, the head of the al-Wefaq National Islamic Society, of his nationality.
Ayatollah Sobhani explained, “If I was in Bahrain, certainly I would join the sit-in outside the house of Ayatollah Qasim. His sermons are entirely purposeful and full of wisdom and if the government used reason, certainly they would heed his useful sermons and discourses.”
Anti-regime demonstrators have been staging sit-in protests in the town of Diraz since authorities revoked Ayatollah Qasim’s citizenship in June 2016 over accusations of sowing sectarian discord in the kingdom. The top cleric has denied the charges.
Thousands of anti-regime protesters have held numerous demonstrations in Bahrain on an almost daily basis ever since a popular uprising began in the kingdom on February 14, 2011.
They are demanding that the Al Khalifah dynasty relinquish power and a just system representing all Bahrainis be established.
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