Bahrain jails 3 Shia Muslima for YouTube debates on Islam

Three members of Al-Tajdeed, a Bahraini religious and cultural society that supports an open discourse on Islamic topics, have received prison sentences. Although Bahrain’s royal family is Sunni Muslim, the majority of the country’s population follows Shia Islam. Due to their ‘deliberately undermining the fundamentals of the Islamic religion on which all Muslims and sects agree,’ the persecution submitted the three defendants to a criminal court last month. They alleged the institution made blog posts and YouTube videos ‘about the lives of the messengers and prophets, which included a denial of what was mentioned in the Quran regarding them and a mockery of what was mentioned.’ Al-Tajdeed responded, “Thoughts are to be challenged with thoughts, and words are not to be suppressed by the authority of the law,” in the court. The group has referred to the court case as ‘malicious’ and contended that all it had been doing was ‘exercising its natural and legal right to conduct research, engage in analysis, study, and enlighten.’ The group’s detractors remark that the group, which promotes an open dialogue about religion, undermines the tenets of Islam and dismisses reported miracles as urban legends.