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I knew Mahdi. My brother was also very close to him, them having worked together at Reuters. I have sold and bought cars from him in the past and he was a regular here at the Bank in his reuters technician hat, installing software and hardware for our treasury. I can say with absolute certainty, that he wa one of the gentlest fellows I have met in my life. He was generous, accomodating and never too busy to help. He had absolutely no hang ups whatsoever in respect of Sunni/Shia/Jordanian/Yemeni or any of that bollocks. He was what all Bahrainis should aspire to be, Bahraini and proud of it.
We have lost out big time. If you did not know him, it really is your loss, you guys on here would have loved him.
The Murderer should have the rest of his miserable life in a cage to think about it. I recommend a picture of Mahdi be painted on the 4 walls of his cage, with another of Mahdis children and wife on the ceiling. these faces should stare at him for the rest of his life.
Mahdi is at peace now, but the hell is just begining for his family. May God bless them with peace, everywhere they go and in everything they do or try to do. They have paid the ultimate price.

Nader and Omar Shaheen

There’s less than six degrees of separation in this small
town and this is one of the times when I’m feeling it.
Jeez, I hope his family manage ok in the future. Gentlemen,
please accept the condolences of myself and many others
who didn’t know Mahdi. I wish I could say something less
weak.

Scott

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I was saying that the sign was there, whether he had his glasses
on or not. I was saying that Americans have not built their society
upon freedom of speech and in that I’m quite correct. I could have
cited a better example, perhaps. Perhaps I should make it clear
that there are times when you shouldn’t be able to say just
anything. I was concentrating on the idea of freedom of
expression not being a foundation of American society but a
varnish :^)

[petulant griping mode on]
I’m well aware that freedom brings responsibility, and that it’s not
OK to cry “Fire!” in a crowded theatre when there isn’t a fire, for
example. Nonetheless, the sign shows a mindset. E.g, we’ve
managed in Heathrow for years without a sign like that. I’m
writing this without knowing if such signs are up in UK airports
by now. Maybe I’m behind the times. Oh, and if the sign is informing
us of a legal issue, a civilised legal system should at least ensure
that a definition of “innapropriate” in context is properly explicated.
Otherwise people can be detained on the flimsiest pretexts. And
that just ain’t right.
[petulant griping mode off]

Anyway, thank you for keeping me on my toes. Time to be
a little more rigorous in my posting …

Scott

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“There is a sign anEnglish author saw over there in an airport that says Innapropriate comments are illegal.” Americans may value freedom of expression, but they certainly haven’t built their society upon it.”

He didn’t have his glasses on. Making jokes about bombs will get the joker booted out of the terminal. Signs warning people not to make bomb jokes have good reasons behind them and have nothing to do with the curtailment of free expression. People may use their freedom of expresson to make bomb jokes someplace else.

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Nader and Omar Shaheen

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I cant comment on whether they are loyal politically. But I will tell you that no country can withstand the amount of immigration that we have had without having to deal with the problem of subcultures.

I am not sure why the post above has not received many comments. Perhaps people are still in shock? Over the past month, we have read about gay murders, the brother killing his sister, and the cook murdering the employer. We have heard about drugs, violence and we are coming to grips with the realization that the Bahrain of old, the tolerant, safe, open minded Bahrain is not what it was. When the village goes to the city, the city takes over.

So, we will need to rethink what our police forces can and can not do given these new threats that we are facing from a society that is becoming ‘globalzied’. Crime, violence, rape are all part of the ills that every society faces.

Our Ministry of Interior needs to do a better job patrolling the areas and controling guns.

Our Ministry of Health needs to do much more Aids and Drugs awareness. Perhaps even push for it to start in public schools. (Maybe even with the involvement of Ministry of Education?)

Our Ministry of Justice needs to look at our crminal courts and amend it for the crimes that are being committed today. Public hearrings, witnessess, and public awareness.

And our beloved religious figureheads should stop yelling in the mosques every Friday about god knows what and should focus on spiritual leadership in our own comunities and address the hard core social issues that we face but no-one wants to talk about like rape, incest, abuse (both sexual and age abuse), and safe sex ..

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i feel angry at mahmood’s reaction. it surprises me to see him take this position. and it surprises me even more that people posting have not commented on it.

to start with:

The question now must be: what is the screening process does the Ministry of Information or the Ministry of Defence for that matter adopt to actually hire their personnel who are allowed to carry arms?
Do they actually conduct psychological tests on those people?
Or does it suffice that the “officer” has no real affinity and affiliation to Bahrain?
To be absolutely plain here: do these ministries reserve their trust only to foreigners brought in to “protect” us? A bunch of mercenaries who have been brought up in completely foreign environments and cultures?

i just don’t understand the logic. are we asking for psychological tests to see if they are mentally stable enough to be carrying a gun? or to test their loyalties and affinity??
the mind boggles.
are you really suggesting that the reason this crime was committed was because of treason, or disloyalty? and if so, why?

secondly, i have to point out that the mercenaries cultures’, and in fact even other, seemingly ‘opposite’ cultures are not ‘completely foreign’.

i think it would be fair and rational to argue that different cultures have had profound impact on each other and particularly in this region are not so alien to each other as you are suggesting.

(polyculturalism anyone? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyculturalism)

And you say:
“Look for instance at all incidents of armed crimes over the last few years; every single one of them was perpetrated by “new” Bahrainis who have been brought in to be inducted into the police and military forces!”

Do you really think the facts that these crimes are committed are because these ‘new bahrainis’ are from foreign cultures and therefore disloyal?

Doesn’t it make more sense that these crimes (and others, such as their attacks on protestors) stem from the military and police culture of violence and unquestioning obedience to authority? And even more the lack of transparency and justice in dealing with cases related to the interior ministry/ army? That people can just get away with these things?

Again, i’m not entirely sure what you are suggesting but I feel uncomfortable with what you’ve said.

And then there was this:

“Moreover, the Ministry of Interior MUST re-look at its employment policies. No one looks after their country better than a countryman, as no matter how much mercenaries get paid or no matter how much you try to integrate them into the community by force by granting them haphazzard citizenship that they do not value, at the end of the day they will just say “to hell with it” and they’re on the first place back to where they came from.”

I think that’s a little unfair. I agree with your critique of the government policy to naturalise large numbers of sunnis to protect their own interests, i just think your post is a slightly skewed way of looking at it.

I mean if it’s all about a question of loyalty then how different are you really from the sunnis who think shia’s are all loyal to ‘foreigners’. Because in essence are you not saying the same thing – these ‘foreigners’ are disloyal?

I think your anger is misdirected at a large population, who in rank and file have basically come here to work and earn a better standard of living than they would at home. Higher up the ranks, i’m sure they have it all worked out in their policies of population control and oppression but from my own experience I wouldnt care to characterise all of them that way at all.
And at the end of the day, isn’t that what any army does? Protect the state’s monopoly and power of the resources of the country?

Finally, i really take issue with your whole ‘loyalty’ question.
I don’t know if the horrible incident aroused some fatherly/patriarchal feelings in you but my question is:
shouldn’t people be loyal to the other PEOPLE they are living in community and society with, rather than some “national” concept of being loyal to the geographical boundaries (which we did not draw up) and we are confined to, or the flag it has been given to wear?
Because unless its about loyalty to the people you’re living with then its just partiotism based on a very selective and exclusive idea of nationality – ie that you can only be bahraini if you are an arab, or a muslim etcetc…

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