The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) has appealed to the head of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Francis, to take a stand for real freedom of religion during his visit to Bahrain, which begins tomorrow: “Although Christian believers are not persecuted in Bahrain, they do not have real religious freedom there – as this would mean that all people have the right to change their faith. However, Muslims do not have this right in Bahrain, nor in most of the other Islamic countries. Changing one’s faith is considered as apostasy from Islam and is punishable by death,” stated Dr. Kamal Sido, the STP’s Middle East Consultant. “In addition, Bahrain’s Sunni Al Khalifa dynasty is trying to distract from the persecution of the country’s Shiite majority.”

Almost two thirds of the local population are Shiite Muslims. They are suffering from massive discrimination and persecution, while the Sunni minority is iin complete control of the state. “Time and again, the Sunni dynasty tries to stifle the protests of the Shiite population – even with the use of tanks from Saudi Arabia. Many opposition members are in prison. There, torture and mistreatment are commonplace,” Sido criticized. “The pope should set an example and call on the rulers to enter a real dialogue with the majority of the population and release all the approximately 3,000 Shiite prisoners from jail.” Contrary to what the rulers claim, this is not an intra-Islamic dispute; it is about straightforward repression as a means to rule. An outreach by the pope in the interest of the persecuted Shiites in Bahrain – thus advocating for religious freedom as a universal right – could improve the Vatican’s credibility.

In Bahrain, out of a population of about 1.4 million, about 80,000 people are Catholics, most of them migrant workers from Southeast Asia or the Philippines. There are two Christian churches in Bahrain, one built in 1939 and the other in 2021.