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Ali Salman Ahmed Salman () is a
Bahrain Bahrain, officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, is an island country in West Asia. Situated on the Persian Gulf, it comprises a small archipelago of 50 natural islands and an additional 33 artificial islands, centered on Bahrain Island, which mak ...
i
Twelver Twelver Shi'ism (), also known as Imamism () or Ithna Ashari, is the Islamic schools and branches, largest branch of Shia Islam, Shi'a Islam, comprising about 90% of all Shi'a Muslims. The term ''Twelver'' refers to its adherents' belief in twel ...
Shi'a Shia Islam is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that Muhammad designated Ali ibn Abi Talib () as both his political successor ( caliph) and as the spiritual leader of the Muslim community ( imam). However, his right is understoo ...
cleric and the Secretary-General of the Al-Wefaq political society. In January 1995, the Bahraini government forcibly exiled him to
Dubai Dubai (Help:IPA/English, /duːˈbaɪ/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''doo-BYE''; Modern Standard Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic: ; Emirati Arabic, Emirati Arabic: , Romanization of Arabic, romanized: Help:IPA/English, /diˈbej/) is the Lis ...
for leading a popular campaign demanding the reinstatement of the
constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these pri ...
and the restoration of parliament during the 1990s Uprising. From there he made his way to London and sought asylum. He continued opposition activities from London, where he was associated with the Bahrain Freedom Movement. Salman returned to Bahrain in March 2001 in a general amnesty as part of a set of political reforms announced by
King Hamad Hamad bin Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa (born 28 January 1950) is King of Bahrain since 1999. He is a member of the ruling Al Khalifa dynasty. Early life and education Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa was born on 28 January 1950 in Riffa, Bahrain. ...
. According to an unknown source close to his family, Sheikh Ali Salman was severely tortured by Al Khalifa regime in prisons. Numerous protests were held the detention of Sheikh Ali Salman and several people were injured after the Al Khalifa forces fired tear gas and birdshots to disperse the protesters. Within Al Wefaq he is considered a 'moderate' public face of the organization and has opposed the more confrontational approach with the authorities typical of the other leaders.


Religious Beliefs

Ali Salman originally studied in
Qom Qom (; ) is a city in the Central District of Qom County, Qom province, Iran, serving as capital of the province, the county, and the district. It is the seventh largest metropolis and also the seventh largest city in Iran. The city is ...
, a major centre of
Twelver Twelver Shi'ism (), also known as Imamism () or Ithna Ashari, is the Islamic schools and branches, largest branch of Shia Islam, Shi'a Islam, comprising about 90% of all Shi'a Muslims. The term ''Twelver'' refers to its adherents' belief in twel ...
Shi'a Shia Islam is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that Muhammad designated Ali ibn Abi Talib () as both his political successor ( caliph) and as the spiritual leader of the Muslim community ( imam). However, his right is understoo ...
theological thinking in
Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...
. He is a Twelver Shiite who originally followed the quietist teachings of
Grand Ayatollah Marja (; plural ''marājiʿ''; ) is a title given to the highest level of Twelver Shia religious cleric, with the authority given by a hawzah (a seminary where Shi'a Muslim scholars are educated) to make legal decisions within the confines of Sh ...
Sayyid ''Sayyid'' is an honorific title of Hasanid and Husaynid lineage, recognized as descendants of the Islamic prophet Muhammad through his daughter Fatima and Ali's sons Hasan ibn Ali, Hasan and Husayn ibn Ali, Husayn. The title may also refer ...
Abu al-Qasim al-Khoei Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Abu al-Qasim Musawi Khoei ( ; (; ; November 19, 1899 – August 8, 1992) was an Iranian Shia marja'. Khoei is considered one of the most influential twelver scholars. After the death of Muhsin al-Hakim in 1970, he became ...
, the spiritual leader of much of the Shia world until his death in 1992. Following death of his original Marja’, Salman has not felt compelled to speak publicly about his new Marja’. However, in a private interview he claimed that he now tended to rely on the rulings of Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Ali al-Husayni al-Sistani. This choice is significant as Salman does not rely on an external source of authority to justify his political positioning. This following of Sistani is on a purely individual basis that does not spill over into the public sphere; Sistani is a Marja’ known for avoiding interference in the political choices of his followers.


Role in 1990s Uprising in Bahrain

Ali Salman is widely perceived to have been one of the leaders of the 1990s uprising in Bahrain. The starting point of the uprising is described as having been a charity marathon organised in November 1994 by several foreign companies. As the marathon runners, both men and women dressed in shorts and T-shirts, entered some Shia villages, groups of villagers headed by activist clerics tried to stop them, considering that running among them in such light clothing was a direct insult to their religious and moral values. Events disintegrated into fist-fighting and stone throwing. The same night, security forces arrested several of the protesters, including Ali Salman. His arrest sparked a cycle of mass-demonstrations that led to the death of a dozen demonstrators and the incarceration of hundreds of others. Salman was the leader of several of these demonstrations. Following his arrest in 1994, Salman was exiled and made his way to
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
, where he associated with the Bahrain Freedom Movement, an opposition group led by Saeed al-Shehabi. Salman worked independently from the group but was in cooperation with them in order to achieve the political demands of the Bahrain uprising, mainly by releasing regular communiqués distributed in Bahrain in which they demanded the reinstatement of the Parliament.


Position in Al Wefaq

Salman is the current official leader of Al Wefaq. His legitimacy as leader is derived from elections that are held every four years in Al Wefaq's General Conference where at least 50%+1 of all members in Al Wefaq elect the Secretary-General, his deputy, the members of both Al Wefaq's Shura Council and Arbitration Board. Salman faces little competition as leader of the movement and is regarded as an inspirational figure. However, the General Conference is the supreme authority in Al Wefaq and is authorized to dismiss the Secretary-General and his deputy. Al Wefaq's organisational structure includes a Shura Council which is half-elected every two years, so that half of the Council members will keep their positions for a period of four years. The Shura Council is an advisory and monitoring board to the General-Secretariat which is formed by the Secretary-General. The spiritual Godfather for the Wefaqi party is Sheikh Isa Qassim, a senior Bahraini cleric. Sheikh Isa Qassim is the most prominent cleric in Bahrain with the biggest number of followers. This can be clearly seen by comparing the number of people who pray behind him with those who pray behind other clerics. He has proved his ability to contain the anger of the masses that pray behind him and listen to his sermon every Friday. He has been able to spread self-restraint among his followers even in the peak of regime-terror and brutality during the state of emergency in 2011 following the wide Arab-Spring-inspired pro-democracy protests. However, small groups of youth do clash with the police. Pro-regime groups believe that Ali Salman, the formal head of al-Wefaq and also a cleric, is “obeying the orders of Isa Qassim, his former teacher and superior in the clerical hierarchy”. The independence of ‘Ali Salman as the formally elected leader of al-Wefaq is believed to be limited by his obligation, as a cleric who has not yet reached the level of independent reasoning (
ijtihad ''Ijtihad'' ( ; ' , ) is an Islamic legal term referring to independent reasoning by an expert in Islamic law, or the thorough exertion of a jurist's mental faculty in finding a solution to a legal question. It is contrasted with '' taqlid'' ( ...
), to submit his decisions to the sanction of a higher-ranking scholar. Because its leadership is considered subservient to an external religious authority, and therefore, they argue al-Wefaq is considered as lacking the transparency for the normal exercise of internal
democracy Democracy (from , ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which political power is vested in the people or the population of a state. Under a minimalist definition of democracy, rulers are elected through competitiv ...
. However, this claim fails to stand accurate in face of Al Wefaq's public and open strategy. For instance, in 2002, when the parliament was restored after about 30 years of suspension, Sheikh Issa Qassim's publicly declared advise to Al Wefaq was to participate in the elections, but Al Wefaq took a joint-decision with other opposition groups to boycott the 2002 elections in protest of the King's unkept promise to separate the three powers and transit from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy.


Arrest and life imprisonment

Salman was arrested on 28 December 2014 on charges for spying and colluding with
Qatar Qatar, officially the State of Qatar, is a country in West Asia. It occupies the Geography of Qatar, Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it shares Qatar–Saudi Arabia border, its sole land b ...
to overthrow the government of Bahrain. On 4 November 2018, he was sentenced to life in prison for
treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state (polity), state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to Coup d'état, overthrow its government, spy ...
.


References


External links


Office of Ali SalmanGulf News: Exiled Bahrain opposition leader returnsThe Victory of Al Wefaq: the Rise of Shiite Politics in Bahrain
Mohammed Zahid Mahjoob Zweiri, Research Institute for European and American Studies, Research Paper 108, April 2007 (Athens)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Salman, Ali Bahraini Shia clerics Bahraini Islamists Bahraini Shia Muslims Shia Islamists 1965 births Living people Al Wefaq politicians People of the Bahraini uprising of 2011 Bahraini prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment