Bahrain Admission: OK, We Destroyed the Mosques (Gutman)

Roy Gutman of McClatchy updates on a story from Bahrain:

Bahrain's Sunni Muslim government demolished or seriously damaged 43 Shiite Muslim mosques or religious structures during its crackdown on anti-government demonstrations, according to an official tally compiled by the state-supported endowment that oversees Shiite sacred buildings.

Twenty-eight mosques were completely leveled, of which 10 had been historic structures, according to the list, which the Awaqf endowment posted last week on its website. Another seven were seriously damaged, of which two were historic, according to the list.

The endowment, which the government helps fund and which reports directly to Bahrain's minister of justice and Islamic affairs, also said that two Shiite cemeteries had been vandalized and that eight "ma'atems" - multi-purpose structures that often function as funeral parlors - had been damaged. One of those was historic, the endowment said.

All of the religious structures had been properly registered with the government, according to the list.

That assertion directly contradicts Bahraini government claims that any religious buildings destroyed in the crackdown had been built illegally in recent years.

"These are not mosques. These are illegal buildings," Bahrain's minister of justice and Islamic affairs, Sheikh Khalid bin Ali bin Abdulla al-Khalifa, told McClatchy Newspapers in a May 2 interview. "You cannot build a place of worship on land taken by force or illegally."

There was no official explanation for why the endowment had posted the list. One Bahraini familiar with the issue said it may have been in response to a request for details of the destruction from Bahrain's monarch, King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, after President Barack Obama criticized Bahraini actions in a speech earlier this month.

Sheikh Khalid did not respond to requests for comment, and Awaqf officials also declined to speak to McClatchy.

Among the structures listed as damaged was the Sasa'a bin Sawhan Mosque in the city of Askar, a mosque dating back to shortly after the death of the Prophet Mohammad.

The Awaqf list did not specify the damage at the Sasa'a bin Sawhan mosque, but a Bahrain resident, at McClatchy's request, visited the mosque and reported that the windows were broken, posters of Bahrain's royal family now plaster the front entrance, and the air conditioning system had been vandalized.

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