Bahraini Shiites turn out in thousands for third day of Iraq protests

Jun 15, 2007, 18:51 GMT

Manama, Bahrain - More than a thousand Bahraini Shiites took to the streets of Sanabis and Daih villages on the outskirts of Manama on Friday as protests against the bombing of Iraq's Golden Mosque in Samarra continued in the small Gulf state.

The two rallies, which mark the third day of Shiite protest in Bahrain, came just hours after an earlier rally in the Shiite village of al-Duraz north of Manama, which attracted some 6,000 people on Thursday.

Protesters chanting 'Death to America' and 'Death to Israel' as well denunciations of terrorism and Takfeereah groups - factions who consider Muslims who differ with them as infidels - dominated the angry protests.

Ayatollah Sheikh Isa Qasem, the chairman of the Olama Islamic Council (OIC), Bahrain's most influential Shiite group, had lead the al-Duraz protest himself.

In an apparent attempt to calm Sunni concerns, Qasem said that no retaliation would follow the bombings in Samarra, which has been blamed by Iraqi and US officials on the terrorist group al-Qaeda.

'Whether we had swords or even nuclear weapons, we would not use them against our Muslim brothers,' Qasem told the crowds during Thursday night's rally.

An earlier rally on Thursday in Nouaim on the outskirts of Manama, which was organized by the Islamic Scholars Hoza (school), called on the Iraqi government to punish the groups that carried out the bombings, and said the mosque destruction was an assault on all Muslims.

While the US and Iraq blamed the bombings on al-Qaeda, Qasem charged that the US and Western countries were conspiring with Takfeereah groups to bring about sectarian divisions between Muslims.

His remarks reflected an OIC statement issued Wednesday that charged that 'forces hostile to the nation' intended to create sectarian strife.

The OIC has warned that the attacks were designed to have very serious repercussions in Islamic countries in addition to provoking problems in Iraq itself by subverting the political process, prolonging the US-led occupation and sparking sectarian fighting.

Shiites make up more than 60 per cent of the Gulf island's population and have reacted sharply to regional developments affecting Shiites particularly in Iran, Iraq and Lebanon.

Bahrain's Shiite opposition group al-Wefaq Islamic Society, which has a 17-member bloc in parliament, said that the attacks should raise vigilance about plots that threatened to undermine the unity and cohesion of Muslims at the religious and national level.

The bombings of the revered al-Askari Shiite mosque in Samarra destroyed two minarets that were left standing after the 2006 bombing of the shrine's golden dome that sparked a wave of sectarian violence, killing thousands and bringing the country to the brink of civil war.

Two of the 12 revered Shiite imams are buried in the Samarra shrine - Imam Ali Al Hadi, who died in 868 and his son, the 11th imam, Hasan Al Askari, who died in 874.