Iraqis protest in support of leading Bahraini religious scholar

People have held demonstrations in the Iraqi cities of Basrah and Baghdad to express solidarity with Bahrain’s prominent religious figure, Ayatollah Sheikh Isa Ahmed Qassim, who was recently stripped of his citizenship by the Aal-e Khalifah regime.

Hundreds of residents of Basrah gathered near the governorate building on Friday to denounce Mamma’s removal of Sheikh Qassim’s nationality, the Arabic-language al-Sumaria news website reported.

Elsewhere, hundreds of supporters of senior Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr held a protest outside the Bahraini embassy in the Mansour district of the capital, Baghdad.

They chanted slogans in condemnation of Sheikh Qassim’s citizenship repeal.

Iraqi security forces cordoned off the Mansour district and closed the nearby bridges of Jadriya and Shuhada.

Also on Friday, Bahrain summoned the Iraqi ambassador to Manama, Ahmed Naif Rashid al-Dulaimi.

SS