Bahraini rulers play sectarian card in bid to trump pro-democracy movement By Finian Cunningham

by Finian Cunningham
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
April 18, 2011
Manama, Bahrain

Increasing attacks on Shia mosques in the Bahraini state’s withering crackdown against the pro-democracy movement is a deliberate attempt to isolate the political opposition and amounts to a campaign of “sectarian cleansing”, say human rights groups.

Over the past four weeks since the Saudi-led Gulf Peninsula Shield military intervention in Bahrain, there appears to be a concerted drive by pro-state Sunni forces to target repression at the Shia population and in particular Shia mosques and other religious sites, such as cemeteries and meeting places known as Mattams.

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