Ali Salman - Position in Al Wefaq

Position in Al Wefaq

Salman is the current official leader of Al Wefaq. His legitimacy as leader is derived from his leadership in the 1990s uprising and his subsequent activities in exile. He faces little competition as leader of the movement and is regarded as an inspirational figure.

However, Al Wefaq’s organisational structure is such that its leader is in reality Sheikh Isa Qassim, a senior Bahraini cleric. Some believe that Ali Salman, the formal head of al-Wefaq and also a cleric, is a “puppet 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), to submit his decisions to the sanction of a higher-ranking scholar. Because its leadership is considered subservient to an external religious authority, al-Wefaq is considered as lacking the transparency for the normal exercise of internal democracy.