A pleasure Bin Kerishan! I though that you might like and appreciate it more than most!

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How very true Button. The very thing that we need to learn here is just to “let it go” rather than micro analysing everything that we see or hear. we need to give the benefit of the doubt sometimes, and if we don’t agree with something, either discuss it in a rational manner or just forget about it and stop wasting our time and making a national calamity out of it.

We do have a lot of problems, what we need to do is first prioritise them, then get them fixed. Rather than everyone shouting at the top of their lungs to force their pet issue to be the topmost thing that has to consume everything and everyone on the island.

Developing this kind of mentality takes a long time, but it has already started (I hope!)

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Dear Mahmoud,

There was a nice article in U.A.E.’s Al Ittihad about this cartoon…I just can’t find it now…thanks , at least I saw the cartoon!

Bin Kerishan

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I believe this flap is actually more about the process of developing ‘coping skills’ for living in an open society. In the U.S. people may not be aware of their training in these social skills, but we are often told to ‘change the channel’ if something upsets or offends you. And at a more advanced level of skills, people learn to selectively focus, tune some things out, or cultivate a studious disinterest in offensive material. Not all societies have developed the same level of such skills, which accounts for the extreme reaction to the cartoon with death threats. Some people still need to practice these skills.

–button

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[quote]I think “the Zionists”(whatever that means, Israelis, US you name it) are behind very little of what happens in the Middle East. [/quote]

Did Malik really write this? I daresay it’s the first time he’s blamed the problems in the middle-east on the middle-east and not the US.

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you are reading my mind mahmood

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“Have you read the original post? It was a cleric who issued the threat against the pro-government paper. ”
I read the original post. And in the West this would result in swift action. But we have tradition of free press, and this tradition does not give licence for death threats- we have a very bright line in this regard. Whereas Bahrain does not have a long history of free press [or any history] and in Bahrain a death threat might be seen as a line, but not clear and obvious to them as it would be in the West- where practically “anything goes” other than direct and clear death threat. Whereas in Bahrain something similar a “Piss Christ” could be a very bright line.
I’m not arguing that all values are relative, but they are different taboos in different cultures, e.g., a professor stating the evidence “seems to show” women on average do not make to top of their profession, as often as men- it’s rarer for women, is villified in US with demands of resignations or firing.
So, I think Bahrain should have a bright line in regards to death threats and obviously they aren’t there yet. I would predict that as the other bright lines are somewhat dimmed [more freedom of press] then this idea of a clear line in regards to death threats will become more visible. BUT there will always be differences- I wouldn’t want a world any other way.

Just to be clear; I condemn it. And Bahrain officals should have the courage to do something to curb it.

“As per usual the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights is silent when it comes to death threats from clerics. Any guesses as to how long it will be before they’re shamed into making a statement?”

Passive citizens are not going to get govt officals which act in their behalf. Doing nothing is the *natural* state of bureaucrats. And Bahrain citizens should not need the “Bahrain Centre for Human Rights” to resolve these problems, they could [and obviously Mahmood already has] enter into a dialogue directly with these clerics- privately and/or in public.

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Not much of an issue to Americans we have a better target. See the slide show at [url]http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/images/blbushpictures.htm[/url] or [url]http://www.cagle.com/2000/candidate/gwbush/[/url]

billT

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Whereas Bahrain does not have a long history of free press [or any history]

We do actually, on both counts. You might want to read up a bit on our recorded history that extends beyond 3000 BC. As for the freedom of the press history, that has been on-again off-again since the begining of the 1900s when the first papers were printed, we’ve seen that particularly in the 50s through to the present day. Not as free as those in the West of course, but free enough to get the idea across.

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Sound like Leaders with thin skins that can’t take the heat. Making fun of our leadership is a national past time and is as source of great entertaiment. Ultimately, the sign of a true leader is one who can is one who can listen and learn from the criticism and still bounce back to serve.

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