Ali Salman  Ali Salman Ahmed Salman () is a Bahraini Twelver Shi'a cleric and the Secretary-General of the Al-Wefaq political society. In January 1995, the Bahraini government forcibly exiled him to Dubai for leading a popular campaign demanding the reinstatement of the constitution 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. 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. Ali Salman originally studied in Qom, a major centre of Twelver Shi'a theological thinking in Iran. He is a Twelver Shiite who originally followed the quietist teachings of Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Abul-Qassim al-Khoei, 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. 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.