Iraqi leader warns Bahraini Gov’t against disrespect for Sheikh Qassim

Sheikh Akram al-Kaabi, the leader of Hezbollah al-Nujaba, a major Iraqi Shiite resistance movement fighting the ISIL, warned the Bahraini government against showing disrespectful behavior towards distinguished Shiite cleric Sheikh Issa Qassim, who has been stripped of his citizenship by the ruling al-Khalifa dynasty.

“Sheikh Issa Qassim is one of the senior Shiite clerics and al-Nujaba movement and other Islamic resistance groups in Iraq and other parts of the world are entitled to confront any disrespect for him in Bahrain,” al-Kaabi said on Sunday, Taqrib News Agency (TNA) quoted Rasa as saying.

He underlined that the issue with Issa Qassim is not an internal issue in Bahrain and any disrespectful behavior towards him is equal to insulting all Shiites across the world.

Bahraini authorities stripped the cleric of his citizenship on June 20, 2016. They later dissolved the Islamic Enlightenment Institution, founded by him, in addition to the opposition al-Risala Islamic Association.

The Manama regime has leveled charges of “illegal fund collections, money laundering and helping terrorism” against Sheikh Qassim, who has strongly rejected them.

A trial session had been scheduled for the senior cleric on March 14, but was postponed to May 21 amid fears of a surge in popular outrage.