SRW releases its monthly report on anti-Shia violations

In a new report published on December 3, 2023, Shia Rights Watch (SRW) documented more than 30 violations against Shia Muslims in five Arab and Islamic countries throughout November 2023.

The report, viewd by Shia Waves Agency, reviewed several terrorist operations carried out by extremist groups against Shia Muslims, in addition to the repression and persecution practiced against them by some dictatorial regimes and governments.

The organization added that “the report covered five countries: Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bahrain, Egypt, and Iraq, adding that it had based its report on its own sources and other public sources in the countries mentioned.”

The organization explained that it “documented three blatant violations against Shias in Afghanistan during the past month.” Amongst these incidents was “the assassination of the Shia scholars Khadem Hussein Hedayati and Rajab Akhlaki by in Gabriel Mosque in the predominantly Shia city of Herat.”

In Pakistan, the report documented “the martyrdom of two siblings and the injury of three others in a bomb placed by terrorists in a field in Ojaki.” It also recorded that “the explosion of a landmine which resulted in the martyrdom of three children and the injury of four others.”
In Bahrain, the report documented “a wide-ranging campaign of arrests and raids in a number of Bahraini cities, targeting the Shia followers of Ahlulbayt, peace be upon them.”

It added that “these campaigns also targeted women, young people and children, attempting to undermine freedom of expression.”

In Egypt, the SRWI’s report confirmed that “the Egyptian authorities carried out arbitrary measures against Iraqi students and other Iraqis, based on sectarian motives,” adding that “authorities refused to facilitate residence procedures for students, in addition to collecting large sums of money from them, refusing to open a cultural attaché in the Iraqi embassy to facilitate their tasks, in an attempt to prevent the spread of Shia belief in the country as was stated by Egyptian officials.”

As for Iraq, the report documented “a number of martyrs and wounded in attacks and bombings carried out by the Daesh terrorist organization in Diyala and a region north of Baghdad, as well as the discovery of a mass grave in Mosul containing the remains of (75) Shias executed by Daesh terrorist after taking control of the city in 2014.”