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Summary Bahrains Shiite opposition group claims the government has demolished 30 mosques.
It has been done to quell political unrest in the Persian Gulf nation last month. The government “can’t justify it,” al-Wefaq said in an e-mailed statement. “ Bahrain’s security forces have been arresting activists and others including doctors since riot police drove protesters from their rallying point at the Pearl Roundabout in the capital Manama on March 16. The government declared a three-month state of emergency after Saudi Arabian-led troops arrived to help quell mainly Shiite demands for democracy and civil right inspired by the toppling of leaders in Tunisia and Egypt. The Ministry of Justice said the buildings were “illegal” and “unlicensed” and demolished “to protect houses of worship and maintain their sanctity,” Bahrain, an island nation, hosts the US. Navy’s Fifth Fleet. Shiites make up about 70 percent of the population of less than 1 million and many retain cultural and family ties with Iran as well as with Muslims of the same sect in Saudi Arabia. Other Gulf nations have arrested activists and bloggers in an effort to put down unrest in a region that holds the world’s largest proven oil reserves. Saudi Arabia, a member of the Group of 20 leading economies, has detained more than 160 dissidents since February as part of the government’s crackdown on protests, Human Rights Watch said April 20. “The government’s policies over the mid-term and long-term will be very dangerous for Bahrain’s stability,” Nabeel Rajab, the head of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, said in a telephone interview from Manama. “The government has made the crisis more complicated and the gap has grown between the people and the regime.” He concluded
