Manama: Bahrain’s justice, Islamic affairs and endowments ministry on Monday filed a suit to dissolve the Islamic Scholars’ Council, saying that it was an illegal entity founded in violation of the provisions of the constitution and the law.
The ministry said that its quest to dissolve the council, shut down its office and liquidate its financial assets was based on the insistence of the entity on carrying on with its activities outside the law despite repeated warnings to its leaders that it was in violation of the constitution and the laws in the kingdom.
In its statement, the ministry said that the legal suit was in response to the recommendations endorsed by the bicameral parliament in July for the strict application of the law and to its own commitment to its responsibilities.
The ministry said that the council leaders had participated in the consultations on the law for the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs and approved it.
However, they later refused to become members and established their own illegal council that was exploited for political activities under a sectarian cover, the ministry said.
According to the ministry, the irregularities committed by the council included “the adoption of the call for the so-called ‘revolution’, the violation of the laws, support and assistance to a political society that had been dissolved by a court ruling for openly supporting violence, alliance and continuous coordination with a licensed political association and unlawful interference in the elections by supporting specific candidates”.
The ministry said that it would “continue all legal procedures against the council until it regularised its status and practice according to the applicable laws that ensured the freedom of religion as well as legitimate political action that promotes democracy in the Kingdom by setting aside sectarianism and the division of the community”.
