In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

BAHRAIN:
A Shameful Human Rights Record
By
Yasin T. al-Jibouri
INTRODUCTION
I wrote this essay when I was living in Falls Church, Virginia, and circulated it on
October 13, 1993 after it had already been published in Islamic Monitor magazine of
IRIC, Islamic Research and Information Center, which maintained an office at the
prestigious National Press Building near the White House in Washington, D.C. Since
its inception and till its closure, I was an active contributor to this fine magazine. This
is one of a number of articles which I wrote for it one of which could not be published
due to being too lengthy although it may have been the most important of all those
articles: It was my rebuttal to Samuel Huntingtons Clash of Civilization? article
published in the summer of 1993 in Foreign Affairs magazine. Huntington created a
huge storm with his article which I and many other Muslims in the U.S. and abroad
regarded as one of the most fierce deliberate attacks on Islam and Muslims.
LOCATION AND BRIEF HISTORY
Situated in a bay area on the southern coast of the Gulf between the northeastern
Saudi coast of al-Ahsa (or al-Hasa) to the west and the Qatar peninsula to the east,
Bahrain is comprised of a major island, al-Bahrain, and 30 small islands. Its total area
is about 256 square miles, and its population is estimated at less than a million. It
gained independence from the British in 1971 and became a member of the United
Nations. The British, however, seem to be the real rulers in Bahrain, maintaining a
total control over the countrys security, economy, and foreign policy, and keeping a
British army stationed in Bahrain always ready for action. It was the first Arab
country where oil was discovered as early as 1932, but oil experts reports predict that
in the year 2003, Bahrain will run out of oil. The capital city of Bahrain is Manama in
the northeast of the main Bahrain island, and its ruler Isa bin Sulman Al Khalifah
resides at ar-Rifa al-Gharbi, about six miles south of Manama. He rules the country on
hereditary basis assisted by his brother the Prime Minister. It was only in 1973 that
Bahrain had a written constitution which it suspended in 1975, including all articles
related to the National Council.

Bahrain has been inhabited as far back as three thousand years before Christ (as), and
its strategic geographical location made many nations vie for control over it. Those
who subjected it to their control vary a great deal: the Portuguese, the Persians, the
British, and even the Saudis (during the reign of the Qaramitah), due to its proximity
to al-Hasa, who turned it into a sea port.
ISLAM IN BAHRAIN
Islam was introduced to Bahrain as early as the first Islamic Hijri century when the
Prophet of Islam (pbuh) came to know twenty Bahrainis who were studying the
Islamic creed in Medina and whom he instructed to go back home, once their studies
reached a satisfactory level, to set up study circles like the ones that flourished in
Medina during his lifetime and are called hawzas. We honor those twenty Bahraini
ulema and particularly mention by name the following: al-Munthir ibn Aith, alJarood al-Abdi, al-Hakim ibn Jibla al-Abdi, Rashid ibn al-Hujri, Sasaah ibn
Sawhan al-Abdi (who is one of the most distinguished sahabis who narrated hadith
directly from the Messenger of Allah, pbuh), Shaikh Naseer al-Bahraini, Shaikh
Muhammad ibn Sahl al-Bahrani, Shaikh Allam al-Bahrani, and Masood alAbdi. It is said that when Bahrain became independent from the control of the
Abbasides central government, as many as four hundred alims were leading the
populace and carrying out the recommendations of a four-member majlis al shura,
advistory committee.
Most Bahrainis are Arabs belonging to three main tribes which have been there before
the advent of Islam in the mid-sixth century, and they all descended from Adnan; they
are: Tameem Banu Madar, Abdel-Qays Banu Rabia, and Bakr ibn Wail of Banu
Rabia. All these tribes were very well known for their allegiance to Imam Ali ibn
Abu Talib (as) since the first Islamic century, hence most Bahrainis (80% according
to the best estimates) follow the Shia Ithna-Asheri School of Muslim Law, yet they
have no say in ruling their country since Al Khalifah are all Sunnis. The second
largest denomination goes to the Dawasir tribe, which had migrated to Bahrain in
1845, and which follows the Sunni Maliki Muslim sect. The other is the Al Niaim
tribe which came from Qatar to defend the authority of the present ruling dynasty of
Al Khalifah.
AL KHALIFAH RULERS
Who are these Al Khalifah rulers, and how did they get to rule Bahrain? The last
invasion to which Bahrain was subjected was carried out by descendants of the Anza
tribe of central Najd (southern Saudi Arabia), and they are one of the Itub tribes to
which the ruling Al Sabah clan of Kuwait, the Jalhamites, and the Fadilis belong. In
1756, Al Khalifah, Al Sabah, and a number of Jalhamites (al jalahimah) took control
of Kuwait after having migrated from Najd. These three clans ruled Kuwait jointly.
Some historians say that Al Khalifah have descended from the Bu Flah tribe to which
the rulers of Abu Dhabi belong, whereas others, such as Shaikh Hafiz Wahbah who
published his research in a book titled The Arabian Peninsula in the Twentieth
Century, say that they came from an area near the Shatt al-Arab water estuary in Iraq
where they used to make a living as raiders and pirates. Al Khalifah left Kuwait and
headed towards Zibara in the Qatari peninsula due to the fact that Al Sabah had
arrested one of their prominent dignitaries whose release they were unable to secure.
In order to escape the stigma, they accompanied their cousins the Jalhamites and

migrated to Qatar. There, the ruling Al Mislim noticed their rough nature and passion
for chaos and anarchy, so they banished them to a sparsely populated area of Zibara, a
small village inhabited by a few fishermen. Muhammad Al Khalifah was able through
a shrewd scheme to make a fortune by lending money to those fishermen on the
condition that the catch would be sold only to Al Khalifah. He was also able, due to
Zibaras proximity to Bahrain, to familiarize himself with the latter island and with its
wealth. In preparation for invading Bahrain, Al Khalifah were able to finance the
construction of fortified citadels along Zibaras coastline in order to repulse their
counter-offensives. In July 1783, Shaikh Nasr Al Mathkoor, then ruler of Bahrain, led
his naval forces to attack Zibara after coming to know of Al Khalifahs preparations
to seize his island, but he did not succeed in subduing Al Khalifah, so he retreated in
defeat. Using their own naval forces and enlisting the alliance of six other tribes, and
having received help from Al Sabah and the Jalhamites, Al Khalifah pursued the
retreating Bahraini ruler who surrendered to them on July 29, 1783. This is how Al
Khalifah came to rule Bahrain. Al Khalifah are divided into two smaller clans: Al
Abdullah and Al Sulman. The latter were able after bloody wars with their cousins,
the Al Abdullah, during the 1940s, to monopolize authority and control over the
government.
THE BRITISH IN BAHRAIN
How did the British get involved in Bahrains politics? Having lost to their cousins
the Al Sulmans, the Al Abdullahs made numerous attempts during 1874, 1880, 1892,
and 1894 to regain control, but their attempts failed. During the 19th century, the
British intervened in the governments of that region in order to suppress war and
piracy and to prevent the establishment of any Egyptian, Persian, German, or Russian
influence in it, and they were looking for those who could help them realize their
colonial objectives. In order to gain leverage over their cousins the Al Abdullah, the
Al Sulman found in the British a strong ally, and the first Bahraini-British treaty was
signed on January 23, 1820, a treaty which Bahraini nationals regard as a wholesale of
Bahrain, one whereby the sellers bartered their countrys sovereignty in exchange for
the protection of their authority. In 1861, Al Sulman signed another treaty with the
British whereby Bahrain became a British protectorate, and Bahrains amir was to
refrain from waging war or engaging in piracy. By 1865, the British had firmed their
control over several Arab countries in the Gulf area. In 1892, Shaikh Isa bin Ali
signed an agreement with the British according to which he would refrain from
exchanging diplomatic missions with any country besides the United Kingdom. In
1900, the British set up their first regency in Bahrain, and in 1909, Isa Al Sulman
expressed his desire that the British should take charge of dealing with non-Bahrainis
living on the island. It was then that Bahrain relinquished its sovereignty and
independence to the British who are now the de facto rulers of the small emirate of
Bahrain. In 1926, British Charles Belgrave was granted the post of Councillor to
wield his iron fist to quell riots that broke out in 1947, 1956, and 1965. In these riots,
some Bahrainis had an armed confrontation with Belgrave and his men, and many
Bahrainis were either killed or wounded.
The British made use of the authority vested upon them by Al Khalifah,
making sure to promote whoever they liked to authority and crush everyone else. In
early September of 1868, for example, the British unseated Shaikh Muhammad ibn
Khalifah and appointed his brother Ali ibn Isa Al Khalifah as amir of Bahrain. In May
1923, they interfered and unseated Ali ibn Isa and appointed his son Hamad as his
successor.

On the economic front, the British have always made sure that only those loyal
to the ruling Al Khalifahs should get the best jobs; in 1988, Bahrains oil industry,
which is totally controlled by the British, rejected the job applications of as many as
five hundred Bahrainis acting on the advice of their oil plant security agency that
alleged that those applicants were suspected of dissent. George Calder, a close friend
of Ian L. Henderson who oversees the operations of Bahrains Ministry of Interior,
oversees the said plant security agency. Employees suspected of dissent are also
subject to dismissal: from November 1988 to the end of June 1989, nineteen Bahraini
employees working at the oil refinery in the southern part of Bahrain were fired on
security grounds. In the late 1980s, Bahrains training and development office
remained under the direct management of two British men: Bud Miller and John
McKay who were working in coordination with U.S. Ambassador to Bahrain from
1986-1989 Sam Zakhem. Zakhem was accused in the U.S. of embezzling money
which he received from the Kuwaiti government to promote its cause in the U.S. to
win public support for a devestating U.S.-led attack on Iraq after the latters invasion
of August 2, 1990 and subsequent short-lived annexation of Kuwait in the same year.
Assisted by a couple of his friends, Zakhem had established two organizations:
COFAR (Coalition for America at Risk), and Freedom Task Force, receiving $7.7
million from Kuwait, of which he spent $2.2 and did not disclose the balance to U.S.
federal tax authorities. Another British officer who remained head of Bahrains police
force from 1965 till 1992 is Jim Bell who was succeeded by the more notorious and
ruthless British officer Ian L. Henderson. According to Bahraini opposition groups,
Henderson has been in charge of the intelligence service since 1966. Bahrains
intelligence community was established by the British in 1957. Henderson used to
work in his countrys foreign service in Kenya before being sent to Bahrain. The
Public Security Directorate includes riot police, special units, coast guards, prisons,
traffic police, civil defense, police stations, criminal investigation, and the State
Security Investigation which incorporates the Security and Intelligence Service (SIS),
the most hated government apparatus in Bahrain and the most ruthless. Voice of
Bahrain (London, U.K.) of March 1993 published a list of some Bahrainis who were
detained, interrogated and insulted by officers of the SIS. These citizens were given
the ultimatum to either work as informers for the SIS or face an unknown future. They
were: Abdullah Abdul-Rasool Saif, Habib Hussein, Hadi al-Moosawi, Mansoor
Hamadah, Hamza al-Hawwaj, and Baqir al-Mahroos. The SIS, however, subsequently
released them.
Literature published by Bahraini opposition groups reviewed for this essay
lists other British individuals whom the said opposition accuses of participating in
intelligent gathering for the West, encouraging sectarian strife and dissension,
harassing highly respected Bahraini religious personalities, and even indulging in
homosexuality. Among them, according to the Arabic magazine Al-Thawrah alIslamiyyah, are Keith Gardiner and Ken Foxhall.
Bahrains struggle for democracy and human rights goes back to 1954 when,
on October 13, a large public meeting at the Sanabis village in which one hundred
Bahrainis publicly elected from both Shia majority and Sunni minority set out to
form a 50-member legislative committee. That committee elected 18 from among its
members to form an executive subcommittee to work under the supervision of ulema,
highly respected dignitaries, and individuals who enjoyed an exceptionally excellent
reputation. Other successive meetings followed and a petition was presented to the
amir to establish a legislative majlis based on Islams sharia. Not only was the
petition ignored, government forces fired live ammunition at crowds assembling near

the municipality building on March 9, 1956 in support of the petition, killing a

number of them. The people of Bahrain, since then, went underground to organize
opposition to the regime and to demand an end to Britains domination of their
country.
At the close of 1981, the ruling Al Khalifah clan conducted an intensive
campaign to distort the goals and objectives of opposition groups organized by
Bahraini Islamists followed by arresting 3,500 citizens, accusing them of plotting to
undermine the regime and the countrys infrastructure. They were detained from a
few days to seven or eight years according to a 1974 state security law authorizing
the arrest and detainment of suspects for a maximum renewable period of three years.
After being tried, many of them were given various prison terms. The harshest
sentences were passed regarding 73 young Bahrainis who were accused of belonging
to the Al-Jabha al-Islamiyya li Tahreer al-Bahrain (the Islamic Front for the
Liberation of Bahrain) led by Sayyid Hadi al-Mudarrisi, a prominent Bahraini
theological scholar, writer, author, and public speaker, and of planning a plot to
overthrow the government. These 73 defendants are reported to have been tortured,
and some of them have become terminally ill. Defendant Ja`fer Kazim al-`Alawi, for
example, now has a broken leg because of the beating he received, so much so that he
is unable to walk or stand. All the teeth of defendant Mansoor Ali al-Ghasrah were
knocked down, while Radi Mahdi Zaynud-Deen al-Darazi died on August 30, 1986 as
a result of being tortured. In one of the letters which these defendants were somehow
able to smuggle outside their prison, they indicated that they were all exposed to
horrible torture: all their nails were pulled out, they were forced to stay awake for six
days to the extent of hallucinating, and that they were all sick. One defendant wrote
saying that one of the torture methods used was to suspend the defendant upside down
while police dogs were permitted to attack and maul his face and chest. Another
method was ironing with an electric iron. Other reports indicate that due to being
beaten severely, defendant Nadir al-Sayf, of Tarut, had to be hospitalized at
Dammams Central Hospital (Dammam, Saudi Arabia) where an operation had to be
performed on his back. The relatives of these defendants were not permitted all these
years to see them, nor was permission granted to any medical delegation or
independent human rights organization to visit them. There is only one doctor
assigned to visit all prisoners twice a month, and all he has to give them are
tranquilizers.
These 73 Bahrainis are yet to be released. This incident received wide
publicity in the U.K. and U.S. where al-Mudarrisi was described as terrorist and
those 73 youths as Islamic terrorists, a term the news media in the West is very
much fond of applying to anyone who in any way threatens the overseas interests of
the West. The Saudi government took advantage of the discovery of that plot by
instructing its Minister of Interior Prince Nayef ibn Abdel-Aziz Al Saud to point out
that that terrorist network did not seek to overthrow only the government of
Bahrain, but to undermine all Arab governments in the Gulf, and that its members are
present throughout the entire Gulf. Nayef ordered the officials of his Ministry to go
out on a witch hunt to arrest anyone suspected of dissent. The same had been
carried out by the Egyptian government in November 1979. After that, Prince Nayef
ibn Abdel-Aziz Al Saud called upon the government of Bahrain to sign a security and
cooperation treaty which was, indeed, signed in 1987. Under the pretext of looking for
affiliates or supporters of that terrorist network, security authorities in Bahrain
conducted a thorough combing of the small population of the country from December
14, 1981 to March 1, 1982, arresting more than three thousand men and women.

Reports of human rights violations in Bahrain are numerous and their sources vary
from nationalist Bahrainis, Arab human rights organizations, to Western human rights
advocates. The reports reviewed for this essay include the following: 1) Amnesty
International, 2) The Islamic Front for the Liberation of Bahrain, 3) the U.S. Congress
report on Bahrain, 4) the Arab Organization for Human Rights (Al Munazzamah alArabiyyah li Huqooqil Insan), 5) Lawyers and Human Rights in the Middle East, 6)
Organization for the Islamic Revolution in the Arabian Peninsula, 7) the Arabic AlJazeera al-Arabia (the Arabian Peninsula) of London, U.K., 8) the Arabic Sawt alBahrain (Bahrain Voice) newsletter of London, U.K., 9) Arabia Monitor of the
Washington-based International Committee for Human Rights in the Gulf and
Arabian Peninsula (ICHR-GAP), in addition to a number of secondary references.
The material collected from these sources would fill a handsome-size book, but since
this is not a book, we are restricted to acquaint the reader with the following samples
of human rights violations in that important part of our Muslim world:
Part One of the U.S. Congress report on Bahrain concedes that there is no
official democratic establishment in the country, in addition to the ban on all political
and leftist parties. It lists four underground opposition groups trying to change the
political system in Bahrain. These, according to the said report, are: 1) the Islamic
Front for the Liberation of Bahrain, 2) the Islamic Call Party, 3) the Popular Front for
the Liberation of Bahrain, and 4) the National Front for the Liberation of Bahrain.
Defense attorneys in Bahrain are not given access to the files relevant to their
defendants cases except one day before the trial, and they are not given more than a
few minutes to speak to their clients. Often, suspects are not tried at regular courts but
are, instead, interrogated at military barracks which are off-limit to the media and the
attorneys, and in complete secrecy. Relatives of the accused are not permitted to see
the defendants except on the day they are expected to be sentenced. Torture is often
used during interrogation and questioning.
Bahrainis suspected of dissent are often detained at Bahrains International
Airport then expelled outside the country and are seldom permitted to return home.
Reports have reached various human rights organizations detailing the harassment by
Bahrains security agents (who sometimes are not Bahrainis but are either British or
citizens of other countries hired by the British) of Bahrainis visiting country members
of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) due to the joint security pact (referred to
above) signed by such members whereby dissidents of any GCC country may be
detained by the other and later deported to be arrested and jailed. For example, 26year old Bahraini citizen Salah Abdullah Habil al-Khawaja was arrested on January 2,
1988 by security agents in Saudi Arabia which he visited for the rite of umra on his
way back home from Poona University, India. He was interrogated and tortured by
the Saudis before being handed over to the Bahraini authorities that tortured him on
December 26, 1988 till he became sick with epilepsy because of exposure to electric
shocks. Reports reaching the Committee for the Defense of Political Prisoners in
Bahrain on January 20, 1989 indicated that Salahs condition was deteriorating and
that he could easily die. His 75-year old father Abdullah al-Khawaja was mistreated
and insulted by Bahrains security officials when he tried three times to request a
doctor to be dispatched to examine his son. On March 18, 1989, the same Committee
received news that Salah was forced by his interrogators to agree to work as an
informer for them despite being thus tortured. Salah is yet to be tried. When the
Committee inquired about the reason why he was not allowed to receive a fair trial,
one security agent, namely Adil Flaifil, hinted that Salah could very well be detained
for three years according to the state security law.

Security agents in Bahrain sometimes resort to kidnapping suspected

dissidents. Yaoob Yousuf al-Jafiri disappeared in early February 1988, and when his
family informed officials of the special investigation section at the Ministry of
Interior, they were told that they had no knowledge of his whereabouts. The truth is
that these same officials had actually kidnapped Yaqoob and detained him for
interrogation. One year after his disappearance, the health of Yaqoobs parents
deteriorated. It was then that al-Manama prison authorities ordered these parents to be
present at the said prison which is located at the Qala (citadel) in the center of the
capital where they were informed that the Ministry of Interior had agreed they could
visit their son.
Those deported outside Bahrain are sometimes not the dissidents themselves
but members of their families and/or relatives. According to Amnesty Internationals
1990 report, Bahraini authorities wanted to implement the 1974 state security law
referred to above in the case of 60-year old Abdullah Fakhru who was arrested in
1990 without being charged or tried. He was kept in prison for more than four months
for being suspected of opposing Bahrains participation in the so-called Gulf War.
In March of the same year, two Shi`a clergymen, Sayyid Alawi al-Baladi and Shaikh
Ali `Ashoor, were briefly detained following their participation in a peaceful
demonstration in Manama to protest the Iraqi governments mistreatment of the great
scholar and theologian Grand Ayatullah Abul-Qasim al-Khoei, and it is believed that
they were not released till the end of the year. `Atiqa Ali Ibrahim, wife of a prisoner
of conscience who received a 15-year sentence, was arrested together with two of her
children at Bahrains International Airport as she returned from a trip to Syria. She
was detained for one week before being forced to return to Syria, and it was only in
September 1990 that she was permitted to go back home. On December 14, Dr.
Abdul-Latif Mahmood al-Mahmood was arrested at the same airport upon returning
from Kuwait where he had delivered a lecture sponsored by Kuwait University about
the prospects for a unification among Gulf Cooperation Council member states. Dr.
al-Mahmood, a highly recognized Sunni jurist (faqih) and an associate professor of
Islamic studies at Bahrain University, remained in jail till he was bailed out on
December 28. Those receiving the harshest sentences are, of course, suspected
members or supporters of banned Bahraini religious groups such as Al-Jabha alIslamiyya li Tahreer al-Bahrain (Islamic Front for the Liberation of Bahrain),
Jam`iyyat al-Taw`iya al-Islamiyya (Islamic Awakening Society), and Hizb-Allah, the
Party of God (Bahrain branch), scores of whom have already received death sentences
after being falsely accused of attempting to overthrow the government in 1981,
according to Amnesty Internationals reports covering the period from 1989-1991.
Fifteen prisoners of conscience who were arrested in June 1990 were reported
to have been tortured in order to force them to admit committing crimes of which
the Bahraini government falsely accused them. With the exception of one, they were
all released on bail in October 1990. In its 1990 report, Amnesty International
demanded an end to the practice of torture at Bahrains prisons, an end to the solitary
confinement, and the improvement of prison conditions especially those related to the
prisoners' health and to the prisons sanitary conditions. In April of the same year,
Amnesty International (AI) submitted its report on Bahrain to the United Nations for
its review according to U.N. Resolutions 728 and 1503 regarding human rights
violations. In May 1990, AI published its report on human rights violations in
Bahrain, expressing alarm at its findings. Bahrains Minister of the Interior wrote AI
in June telling it that its report was full of deliberate rumors and misinformation,

claiming that there were no prisoners of conscience in Bahrain at all. He also invited
AI to visit Bahrain, but till this moment, such a visit is yet to be arranged.
Some incidents of arbitrary arrests have already been reported. On September
14, 1992, after the celebration at Al-Mumin mosque in Manama of the auspicious
anniversary of the birth of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), security agents arrested
Muhsin Abdel-Karim al-Shihabi, Abdel-Qadir Abdel-Karim al-Shihabi, Muhammad
Muhsin Abdel-Karim, and Abdel-Ghaffar Muhammad al-Ghirbal who all reside in the
Draz village. They were summarily tortured and insulted then released. No charge
was filed against them, nor were they given any reason why they were arrested in the
first place. On September 3, 1992, Saudi authorities arrested a Bahraini citizen named
Muhammad al-Ali, 30, and charged him with possessing a book banned in Saudi
Arabia. He was released after twelve hours of interrogation. Majeed Meelad of Ras alRumman was arrested after being charged of participating in the funeral ceremony of
the late Grand Ayatullah Abul-Qasim al-Khoei who died on August 8, 1992 in Najaf,
Iraq, of heart failure. He was released after being tortured. Zaki Abdel-Majid, of alHoora, was arrested on August 22, 1992 and released on September 3, 1993 after
being tortured.
The second issue (August 1992) of Al-Dameer (the conscience), an Arabic
publication of the Arab Organization for Human Rights, indicated that it delivered a
memorandum to Bahrains Ambassador in London regarding the mistreatment of
prisoners and dissidents in Bahrain, citing the example of what happened to Abdullah
Ali Jasim Fakhru who was harassed and mistreated by Bahraini authorities for merely
writing the amir petitioning him to fulfill his promise regarding introducing
democratic reforms in the country, and also the example of Dr. Abdel-Latif alMahmood. It detailed in the said report the numerous human rights violations in
Bahrain such as the lack of personal freedom and security, the mistreatment of
prisoners of conscience, the absence of fair trials, the restrictions on individuals
freedom of movement and travel, and discrimination among the citizens in running
the general affairs of their country.
Issue 117 (of October 1992) of the Arabic newsletter Sawt al-Bahrain (Voice
of Bahrain) reported the Bahraini government granting citizenship to Baluchi,
Pakistani, and non-Bahraini bedouins serving in its defense force, while denying it
for many Bahrainis. This, according to the newsletter, proves the Bahraini
governments mistrust and apprehension of its own citizens.
On March 3, 1993, the chief American delegate at the United Nations Human
Rights Commission (UNHRC) made a motion to lift the international monitoring of
human rights situation in Bahrain, and his motion was seconded by the government of
Bahrain, thus the Al Khalifah were given a clean bill of health and are more free now
than ever before to trample on all human rights. This action comes despite the full
knowledge of the U.S. of the fact that Al Khalifahs record of human rights is quite
shameful indeed. This also falls within the double standard U.S. policy in as far as
human rights are concerned: when human rights are ignored in countries the U.S. does
not like, hell breaks loose, but when they are trampled upon in countries where
American or British lackeys rule, it is perfectly alright. Hundreds of Bahrainis now
live in exile and are banned from seeing their families and relatives; there are many
Bahrainis in prison being denied the most basic of human rights; there are large
numbers of Bahrainis who and whose ancestors have lived in Bahrain and yet are
deprived of the Bahraini citizenship; the families of those who have been fatally
tortured at Bahraini prisons have not been compensated and most likely they will
never be; the SIS is still interrogating and abusing the citizens and confiscating their

rights of speech and expression. Democracy seems to be protected not by merit but by
favor. Indeed, those who are often heard talking about democracy are guilty of sheer
political hypocrisy. Only simple-minded people take their claims to defend
democracy seriously. Nobody should.
BAHRAIN AT PRESENT:

An eerie silence and a paralyzing sense of fear currently grip Bahrain.

Since mid-March, when tens of thousands of protesters last took to the
streets demanding political reform, Bahraini security and military forces
have engaged in an ongoing, systematic, and brutal campaign to crush the
countrys pro-democracy forces. The crackdown has been sweeping and
shocking. Dozens of human rights and political reform activists have
been killed. Hundreds more have been imprisoned and tortured. Bahrains
leading independent newspapear, Al- Wasat, was closed down on May
10. Provocative government actions belie claims that all the monarchy
seeks is to re-establish law and order. It is apparent, instead, that the
government is using martial law to carry out a vendetta against those who
challenged the authority of the ruling al-Khalifa. Checkpoints have been
set up to harass the countrys Shii citizens, who make up the majority of
Bahrains native population and of its political opposition. Security forces
have laid siege to the islands hospitals and arrested scores of medical
personnel, in what appears to be an especially inhumane and spiteful kind
of intimidation. For weeks police and pro-regime supporters roamed the
streets of Shii villages destroying cars and other property. Those who
supported the protests now fear leaving their homes, lest they be publicly
accosted or, worse, arrested and disappeared.
The Al Khalifa regime is also taking dramatic steps to quiet critics.
Authorities have targeted newspapers, journalists, and Internet bloggers
in order to stymie public criticism, to control reporting about the scale of
the crackdown, and to frighten into silence those who might speak out. In
the last few weeks Bahraini blogs and twitter feeds that are normally
vibrant have gone quiet, stunned into submission by the brutality of what
is happening around them. And they have reason to fear. Those who have
spoken out or who have attempted to report events going on around them
are paying a high price.
In early April of this year (2011), government officials took aim at
Bahrains largest independent newspaper, al-Wasat, and accused it of
deliberate news fabrication and falsification. Al-Wasats
editor Mansoor al-Jamri resigned in an effort to deflect criticism from the
newspaper. Instead, al-Jamri and two of his staff members will likely face
a politically motivated trial. Al-Jamri was replaced with the pro-

government Obaidly al-Obaidly. On April 5 authorities arrested Karim

Fakhrawi, one of the newspapers founders and a member of the
opposition political society al-Wefaq; on April 12 Fakhrawi died
mysteriously while in police custody. On April 22 police extended their
assault on al-Wasat by beating and arresting the columnist Haidar
Muhammad al-Naimi, whose whereabouts and fate remain unknown. In
light of these pressures, members of al-Wasats board of directors and
the papers investors have reportedly decided to cease publication as of
May 10. Those associated with opposition political groups have been hit
the hardest, but they are not the only ones to have felt the brunt of the
regimes assault on speech. Two of Bahrains most prominent bloggers,
Mahmood al-Yousef and Muhammad al-Maskati, were arrested in early
April for bearing witness to developments in the country. Although
both have been critical of the violence deployed by state security, neither
belongs to the countrys opposition. For weeks they routinely appealed
for calm and encouraged the government and protesters to avoid
provocation and escalation. Their detentions sent a clear signal that the
regimes tolerance for being off message was very low.
Bahrain government mobilizing State-controlled media
In addition to serving as a form of punishment, the regimes crackdown
on public and social media reflects its struggle to control the narrative.
Alongside the silencing of critical voices, authorities have also mobilized
state-controlled media to assert their dominance and to offer an lternative
view of the countrys domestic conflict. Bahrains national TV station led
the way in detailing the public case again satl-Wasat on April 2 when it
broadcast a program outlining charges that the paper had published fake
news. The station has launched similar campaigns against prominent
activists as well, including the human rights advocate Nabeel Rajab.
Bahrain TVs most important role has been to frame the countrys
domestic struggle not as a contest of democracy versus autocracy, but as
a sectarian clash. The state media has used the specters of Iranian
meddling and the potential empowerment of the countrys Shii
population to frighten the smaller Sunni community into supporting the
political status quo and the current crackdown.
Bahraini state media have also, however, served to expose the regimes
extreme tactics. On April 28 authorities revealed that four activists had
been sentenced to death and three others to life imprisonment for their
alleged roles in the deaths of two Bahraini policemen. The seven men
were tried in closed military courts. Sensitive to claims that the
government had not given the men a fair trial, Bahraini officials released
a video of the men allegedly confessing to the murders. More damning

than the purported confessions, which were likely extracted under

pressure, was the appearance of an eighth man, Ali Isa Saqer, on the
video. Saqer died in police custody on April 9. After announcing his
death, authorities claimed that he had created chaos in the detention
center. An unruly prisoner or not, the images of Saqers body showed
signs of devastating physical abuse. Whether Saqers presence on the
video was intended or not, the message of his treatment was nmistakable.
And it is the same message that the regime has been sending through its
abuse of the media.
The Al Khalifa regime has few powerful challengers when it comes to the
media. The domestic independent media has been cowed. The regional
media, most notably the two most widely-watched satellite news stations,
Qatar-based al-Jazeera and Dubai-based al-Arabiya, have kept their
distance from Bahrain, apparently due to Qatari and Saudi support
for the crackdown. Although the Bahraini government has allowed a
handful of Western journalists into the country, many others have been
forbidden entry. And journalists who maintain contacts with Bahrainis
report that they are increasingly unwilling to go public with their stories
out of fear of retribution. Despite Bahraini rulers claims to be exposing
the true nature of the uprising as an Iranian plot to destabilize the
kingdom, it is clear that they are solely concerned with protecting
themselves and punishing their rivalsand that they will use any means
necessary to accomplish both. For the present, Bahraini citizens are left to
with little to do other than ponder their fate and do so in silence. The
current quiet is misleading, however: the conflict between a monarchy
determined to preserve authoritarian rule and a majority population keen
to secure a voice for itself is far from over.