International Shia Day marked on 12th June to highlight oppression against Shia Muslims

On the International Shia Day marked on the 12th of June, Shia Rights Watch (SRW) has reaffirmed the need to intensify all International efforts to combat and restrict all forms of oppression, official and popular abuse inflicted on Shia Muslims based on sectarianism.

The SRW organization said in a statement received by Shia Waves Agency that, “The International Shia Day was first instituted in 2015 in commemoration of the massacre that occurred at Camp Speicher in 2014 in which ISIS militants killed more than 1,700 Iraqi Shia soldiers, in addition to the mass grave that contained the bodies of thousands of Iraqi children, women and elderly people, who were executed by the Saddam’s sectarian regime.”

The Organization added that, “Shia Muslims are subjected to discrimination, imprisonment, and even execution for practicing their beliefs by not just terror groups, but also by governments who have systematized anti-Shiism within their domestic and foreign policies.”

SRW elaborated that, “Violence against Shia Muslims does not differentiate victims by age, gender, location, or socioeconomic status”, noting that, “In some Islamic, Arab and non-Arab countries, many Shia communities still suffer atrocities, hatred-filled attacks and violations as is the case in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and some other African countries.”

This International Shia Day, Shia Rights Watch has renewed its calls to all individuals to stand proud in support of individual rights to exist, and to use their right to express their identities without the fear of being targeted. 

The Shia organization concluded its statement by reiterating its commitment to intensify efforts to closely monitor all violations and attacks that target Shia Muslims and deprive them of their rights protected by divine and human-made laws.