Bahrain police fired tear gas at several dozen people protesting the execution by Saudi Arabia on Saturday of a prominent Saudi Shi'ite cleric, an eyewitness said.
Demonstrators carrying pictures of the cleric, Nimr al-Nimr, faced security forces in a standoff in the Shi'ite Muslim village of Abu-Saiba, west of the capital Manama.
Activists have called for protests in the Sunni-ruled island kingdom, a sign that Nimr's death may inflame already raging sectarian tensions in the Middle East.
In other reactions, the brother of prominent Saudi Shi'ite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr said on Saturday the family was shocked by news of his brother's execution but hoped that any reaction would be peaceful.
"Sheikh Nimr enjoyed high esteem in his community and within Muslim society in general and no doubt there will be reaction," Mohammed al-Nimr told Reuters by telephone. "We hope that any reactions would be confined to a peaceful framework. No one should have any reaction outside this peaceful framework. Enough bloodshed"
Meanwhile, Iran's foreign ministry spokesman accused Saudi Arabia on Saturday of supporting terrorism and executing its opponents, after Saudi Arabia executed a prominent Shi'ite cleric.
"The Saudi government supports terrorists and takfiri (radical Sunni) extremists, while executing and suppressing critics inside the country," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari was quoted as saying by state news agency IRNA.
For his part, a prominent cleric with close links to Iran's ruling establishment denounced the execution on Saturday of a Saudi Shi'ite cleric and predicted the repercussions would bring down the Saudi ruling family.
"I have no doubt that this pure blood will stain the collar of the House of Saud and wipe them from the pages of history," Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, a member of the Assembly of Experts and a Friday prayer leader, was quoted as saying by the Mehr news agency.
"The crime of executing Sheikh Nimr is part of a criminal pattern by this treacherous family ... the Islamic world is expected to cry out and denounce this infamous regime as much as it can," he added.
In turn, Lebanon's Supreme Islamic Shi'ite Council condemned the execution of a prominent Shi'ite cleric in Saudi Arabia on Saturday, saying it was a "grave mistake".
"The execution of Sheikh Nimr was an execution of reason, moderation and dialogue," the council's Vice President Sheikh Abdel Amir Qabalan said in a statement.
This as Lebanon's Hezbollah condemned the execution of al-Nimr in Saudi Arabia, calling it an "assassination" and blaming it on the United States and its allies' support for Riyadh.
The "real reason" for the execution was "that Sheikh Nimr... demanded the squandered rights of an oppressed people," Hezbollah said in a statement, apparently referring to Saudi Arabia's Shi'ite minority.
"The Saudi authorities ... put them (the Shi'ites executed) together with terrorist bands and groups which had committed crimes against civilians. Sheikh Nimr resisted oppression with words," the Hezbollah statement said.
It said it held the United States and its allies directly responsible through their support for the Saudi government, and urged the international community and rights groups to condemn the execution.
Saudi Arabia's execution of prominent Shi'ite cleric Nimr al-Nimr was intended to fuel Sunni-Shi'ite strife and "set the region on fire", a lawmaker from Iraq's ruling Shi'ite coalition told al-Sumaria TV on Saturday.
"This measure taken by the ruling family (of Saudi Arabia) aims at re-igniting the region, provoking sectarian fighting between Sunnis and Shi'ites," Mohammed al-Sayhud said, according to the TV station's website.
Similarly, Yemen's Houthi movement mourned a Shi'ite cleric executed by Saudi Arabia on Saturday as a "holy warrior", in a strong rebuke of the Sunni-dominated kingdom by the Arabian Peninsula's most powerful armed Shi'ite group, a major Saudi foe.
"The Al Saudi family executed today the holy warrior, the grand cleric Nimr Baqr al-Nimr after a mock trial ... a flagrant violation of human rights," an obituary on the Houthis' official Al Maseera website said.
REUTERS
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