The three are members of Tajdeed, a local Shiite cultural society that advocates open discussion of religion, and whose members have questioned Islamic jurisprudence and scholarly opinions. Such questioning is taboo in many parts of the Moslem world, where religious and political authorities enforce orthodoxy.
Prosecutors specializing in cybercrimes referred three individuals to a criminal court, accusing them of "deliberately undermining the basics of the Islamic religion on which all Moslems and sects agree," the state-run Bahrain News Agency reported.
Jalal al-Qassab and Redha Rajab were summoned to appear in court, tweeted Nader Rajab, a founding member of Tajdeed. They face up to a year in prison if convicted. The third suspect has not been publicly identified.
Tajdeed has produced a series of YouTube programs that have angered prominent Shiite holy mans in Bahrain, who have portrayed the group's work as an attack on Islam and called on people to ostracize its members.
Tajdeed says it does not question the Koran or the teachings of the Prophet Mohammad, which are at the heart of Islam, but rather the opinions of religious scholars and others who came later, including modern-day holy mans.
Nabeel Rajab, a prominent pro-democracy
Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try!
in the past for his political views, has weighed in on the controversy, saying the "systematic incitement" against Tajdeed is a "flagrant violation of human rights
...which are usually entirely different from personal
liberty...
"Human rights are legislated for all, and we cannot highlight them in one place and overlook them in another," he tweeted.
Bahrain was rocked by pro-democracy protests led by the Shiite majority against the Sunni monarchy in 2011. Authorities quashed the protests by force with aid from Saudi Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Fifteen of the nineteen WTC hijackers were Saudis, and most major jihadi commanders were Saudis, to include Osama bin Laden. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman quietly folded that tent in 2016, doing terrible things to the guys running it, and has since been dragging the kingdom into the current century...and the United Arab Emirates, but Bahrain has continued to see low-level unrest over the years.