Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s spokesperson on Foreign Affairs, Se\u00e1n Crowe TD, has expressed his shock and alarm at the Bahraini Government\u2019s decision to strip the country\u2019s leading Shia cleric of his citizenship.<\/p>\n
Deputy Crowe said:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe oppressive, undemocratic, and sectarian regime in Bahrain has continually crushed democratic protests and jailed human rights defenders since mass and popular protests calling for democracy in Bahrain began in 2011.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe autocratic Bahraini Government has previously jailed key human rights and democracy activists, including Nabeel Rajab, who was imprisoned for sending a tweet critical of the Bahrain regime.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow this same regime has stripped the country\u2019s most prominent Shia cleric, Sheikh Isa Qassim, of his citizenship. His passport is to be revoked and he will then be considered stateless.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights says everyone has the right to a nationality. Over 250 people have been stripped of their basic right to citizenship in Bahrain in recent years according to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis move comes days after the regime suspended the leading Shia opposition grouping, Wefaq National Islamic Society, and will seriously inflame religious and political tensions in the region.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe move has been rightly condemned by many, with even the US State Department claiming that it was alarmed and unaware of any credible evidence to support the removal his citizenship.<\/p>\n
\u201cHuman Rights Watch has said that this decision risks leading Bahrain into its darkest of days and that the action should be met with serious consequences, not just expressions of concern.<\/p>\n
\u201cI echo these claims and I intend to directly raise this with the Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs, Charlie Flanagan.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
ENDS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s spokesperson on Foreign Affairs, Se\u00e1n Crowe TD, has expressed his shock and alarm at the Bahraini Government\u2019s decision to strip the country\u2019s leading Shia cleric of his citizenship. Deputy Crowe said: \u201cThe oppressive, undemocratic, and sectarian regime in Bahrain has continually crushed democratic protests and jailed human rights defenders since mass and popular […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100,36,50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bahrain","category-department-of-foreign-affairs-and-trade","category-human-rights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2652"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2652\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2653,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2652\/revisions\/2653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}