The cartoon above appearing in today’s Al-Wasat Newspaper nicely sums up what the Islamist MPs in particular and the Islamists in society in general are doing to the country. The guy in the middle is the Islamist MP Jassim Al-Saidi, which is clearly indicated because he’s not wearing the “‘Iqal” – (affectionately known by various derogatory names like the “fan-belt” – compare the cartoon with his picture below) and he’s trying to pull down the pillars of society. Hence the Islamists are creating anarchy.
One honourable gentlemen in the parliament MP Jassim Al-Saidi has created a storm by trying to restrict religious freedoms, in particular the marches of the Hussaini commemorations (ma’atems) whereby he tabled a motion to restrict these activities to within ma’atems rather than go out in the streets as traditionally done for hundreds of years. He was forced to rescind that motion officially 3 days after he tabled it. What a waste of time.
The parliament held its first session after that event yesterday where 4 Shi’a MPs – Abdulla Al-A’ali, Ali Al-Samahiji, Essa bin Rajab and Mohammed Al-Shaikh Abbas threatened a walk-out and resigning from their seats if Al-Saidi didn’t publicly apologize for his purposely hurting the feelings such a large swathe of Bahraini population.
Parliament had to go into a 30 minute “cooling off” recess and some MPs put pressure on the Speaker to hold a closed session to discuss the text of the apology which Al-Saidi must make publicly. It seems that that session was heated too, but at the end of which Al-Saidi was forced to make the public apology in front of various media outlets from the Council’s chamber.
Tail between the legs? I sure hope so. Let these jerks know that they’re being watched and their diatribe will not be tolerated.
Yesterday’s session in pictures:
