I was discussing the Islamists death-grip on Bahraini society in general with a friend yesterday, and what she said struck me deeply as I haven’t really thought of what she suggested and am still evaluating her thought provoking comments.
The situation is this: the whole society is polarised and divided. The two traditional sects in Bahrain are at each others’ throats. The sunnis are against the shi’a and vice versa.
You go to the university and you find the young generation, the generation that is going to build this country in 20 years time, the generation that we’re hanging our hopes on are walking around like a covered amoeba.
All you see are beards (both kinds, shi’a and sunni) and abayas (girls covered from head to foot) and they have been rallying against even the student functions. A bit hubbub happened last year when they found a beer can in the area they held the National Day celebrations. A few weeks ago a student on the student council defied the university’s rules by participating in ‘aza commemorating the death of Hussain or another religious shi’a figure. He was expelled from the council and then suddenly we have the papers harping on about “freedom of expression” and the subjugation of shi’as in our society. I do not agree with the university summarily dismissing this person from the student council because of his belief. It was bad form. I just want to illustrate that the Bahraini society has become really religious over the last 30 or so years.
Here’s the kicker. My friend suggested that what we see today in these extremist events and attitudes in Bahrain, even in the current young generation is a direct result of the iron-fist that the society endured for 30 years.
She could be right. And she got me thinking… what if what she says is indeed true, what were the effects of subjugation for the last 30 years when there were no freedoms of expression? Summary courts, imprisonment, torture, absence of human rights and the rest of it? What did parents turn to and in effect affected this generation?
The thought that is going through my mind is that it must be religion! They have turned to religion in droves because no one could stop them from praying, going to places of worship like mosques and ma’atems, where they were under direct influence of extremist, close-minded, blinkered mullahs and imams.
They return home filled to the brim with hatred. With encouraged thoughts of “black†or “whiteâ€Â. No middle ground. No thinking for oneself because the imam said that it has to be this way or direct to hell.
If this is the case, then we’re in for it. That is, every moderate (I’d like to think of myself as one) will be labeled simply as a “kafir†unbeliever, atheist, anti-Islam and anti-… and I have already!
What do we need to correct this situation? What do we do so that we can show our fellow Bahraini citizens that there is no clear black and white and they must think for themselves, accept and respect differing views, live and let live?
No easy way, but if we leave it like that we are surely doomed. It has taken 30 years of horrendous rule which beggared the country. 30 years ago Dubai didn’t even exist. Now it’s light years ahead. 30 years ago Doha was a mud-hut in the dessert, today it a huge metropolis becoming the centre of the Middle East for education, oil and gas industries and various other streams of industry. Bahrain 30 years ago was arguably the most advanced country in the Middle East bar none. We had proper infrastructure, we had over 70 years of regular education, we had good health care, we had leading banks, we had art, we had culture, we had heritage, we had thinkers. Now we’re just a shell of what we were. A minnow waiting for death. Rather than working together to resuscitate this minnow and bring it back to be the falcon it once was, we’re at each others throats.
So what’s the solution? We know that the world is passing is by. We know that there are huge projects all around us which directly contribute to the better way of life of our neighbours. We know that banks and other institutions are leaving Bahrain in droves to go to Dubai and other places that welcome them with open arms.
What should we do to reverse the tide? Continue to attach our thoughts to “black†and “whiteâ€Â, “right†and “wrongâ€Â, “halal†and “haram†ideologies or start interpreting Islam as it should be? The religion of tolerance and democracy? The religion of the current times, a living religion rather than one that is 1,400 years old and out of touch with the current and future worlds?
If that is not possible, shouldn’t we as thinking human beings recognise our failing and do something about it? The answer must clearly be the separation of religion and state. Then we still will have the objections of Al-Moawdah, Saidi and their ilk, but they won’t matter much as they will not be in parliament. Maybe then we can start healing the last 30 years and look to the future, work diligently to bring this country to the place it deserves.
Comments
The strangling of Bahrain
Mahmood, you know what? I don’t know enough about Bahrain’s political history. I’m going to go learn. If you ever really feel you need to leave and come here, let me know. Believe it or not, we’re friends with some of the people who helped relocate Alexander Solzhhenitsyn from the Soviet Union.
here”s my email: grayp6354@earthlink.net
I’ll be back. grayp
Re: The strangling of Bahrain
Wow! That’s a very decent thing of you to offer, even for trying. However, I hope that eventuality never occurs as there is just far too much to do here, and I feel that my contributions, however small, are material to the development of Bahrain and hope to continue to constructively criticise, sometimes just rant and rave in the hope that I will be a catalyst for some change for the better.
Thank you again gryp
Re: The strangling of Bahrain
You could well be right I’m afraid grayp. Mob mentality is a dangerous animal and they only understand response in kind, ie, force to subjugate them. However, if Mansour Al-Nogaidan‘s is anything to go by, then they could be brought out of their stupor and made to see reason. Mansour was a confessed wahabi who terrorised his community because of his belief, however with the help of his sister (who should be given a medal for her forethought) brought him alternative books, they help persuade him that his path is not the right one. Maybe his incarceration helped as he might have had a lot of reflection time.
And that’s the key, education.
My contention that the oppression suffered for 30 years contributed to the extremism’s rise has a lot of measure of truth. I’m living in its aftermath. When you corner a rat, it will retaliate in any manner it could to get out of the predicament. People on the other hand have a choice, go underground and fight, or just give up and go the easy route.
A couple of days ago we celebrated our National Day. What did the majority of Bahrainis do? Cower in their houses. Quite a number have gone to watch and marvel at the fireworks, but immediately after the fireworks finished, our house was shook by the nearby explosion of a gas cylinder. The weapon of choice (because of their prevalence) of these “insurgents”.
Do they hide behind their religion? Some undoubtedly do, in fact the majority would. No one is going to accuse them of being an “ultra Muslim”. That would be their medal. The government can’t shut their mosques. Can’t ban them from practicing their religion. And they go to these mosques to listen to extremist views not only from the preachers, but from their own friends. As most of these people are young, unemployed, and feel prejudiced against they realise that they have nothing to lose.
We haven’t achieved equilibrium in Bahrain simply because of the government’s refusal to accept another point of view. They too are extremists in my view. You watch the news and you get 45 minutes of exalting the King and his entourage, then 5 minutes of seeing people killed in Iraq and Israel, then onto the financial news. No acknowledgment of the events on the ground on this little rock.
The government is also refusing to apply itself seriously to the major problem of reconciliation. The Bahraini is a perpetual optimist, a good word and deed would have him as your loyal friend for ever. Yet the government cannot grasp that concept.
I personally think that our new King and his Crown Prince would love to start serious reconciliation. They would love to appease the people. But what is barring them is the “old guard” that has ruled this country for over 30 years with an iron fist and humiliation. They are maybe waiting for those people to die of natural causes before the real reconciliation happens. This is certainly the view held by most Bahrainis. We live in hope!
Obstinance and face-offs are a way of life here as well now. The people just don’t want to give anything back by recognising the ruling family. I have not seen one single Bahraini flag raised in any of the demonstrations I have watched, they would rather raise flags of other organizations like Hezb-Allah (being Shi’a) or any other they feel affinity to.
The government is obstinate because they don’t want to sincerely find a middle ground either. So we reach a catch 22 situation where no end is in sight.
Unlike fundamentalists in the States however, we do not have a single person who you can blame. It is an organised mob led by several figures known to the people. On both sides. So it’s hard to pin one entity you can blame for the degeneration of ways of life. These groups are empowered, funded and organised and they’re making moderates life hell. We have not been labeled traitors yet, but I’m sure that should this situation continue unabated, we soon will be and we’ll probably be forced to drastic action like just giving up and emigrating. I hope it doesn’t get to that stage.
It is bleak. When you get the government celebrating the National Day, and the people commemorating Martyrs Day, when you get your embassy in the UK celebrating National Day, and the opposition demonstrating outside the very hotel against the government and its human rights record.
It is getting worse. And will continue to get worst still unless a serious effort at reconciling the differing views is undertaken, and only the government and leaders of this country can take the first step. Creating a parliament and a new constitution is not, what the government did is simply give back what was taken in 1975, therefore the people still feel aggrieved.
Only when reconciliation happens will the demonstrators, opposition, terrorist lose their cause and have no more reason to wreak havoc. Only then will these people themselves be shunned by their own community should they dare restart the troubles.
I’ll have a look at what I can do to increase the visibility of the comment window. Thanks for bringing it up.
update: The strangling of Bahrain
unlike any other demonstration in Bahrain, in this one the demonstrators made a point (thank you!) in raising Bahraini flags rather than the usual Hizb-Allah’s and others.
The strangling of Bahrain
oh, man, Mahmood, this is scary stuff. Some things I’ve noticed about fundamentalists of all persuasions: they are comfortable only with a black and white certainty; in order to validate and widen that comfort zone, they will impose their views on the larger community by force if necessary. Your plea for people to think for themselves and use their own judgement is EXACTLY what they cannot do. They have abdicated that ability, that right, in a faustian trade-off for the comfort that lack of ambiguity provides. Don’t ask them to examine their premises in the cool light of reason. The fear provoked is beyond their ability to manage. Did an oppressive society cause this? I’d have to give that more thought. Certainly here in the U.S., we have fundamentalists, but the militants among them almost always operate alone (Eric Rudolph is an example. He bombed the Atlantic Olympics and an abortion clinic. And there’s the Unabomber, who is a technophobe luddite terrorist by the name of Ted Kyzinski (I don’t know if I spelled that correctly). So, I’m not sure it’s the no-free-thought dynamic that’s worrisome as much as the reinforcement provided by group think. I mean, imagine one person confronting someone over a beer can. Then think about the psycological security provided by a group. This is the dynamic of the street gang. Come to think of it – that might go some way in explaining the behavior of the anti-globalists, etc. Sorry for the long post. By the way, is there any way to enlarge this window? Even with my glasses, the print is a bit small for my dottardly eyesight. Oh, and from one non-Christian to another, may the blessings of the season be known to us and to ours.
Best,
grayp
The strangling of Bahrain
The rise of Islamists in Bahrain is not at all surprising seeing that it is a phenomenon experienced by all other post-Colonial muslim countries. The country has gone through rapid growth, benefitting from oil and gas income. Previously, all graduates were alost guaranteed a nice cushy job with the government. The last few years has seen this situation change again. The youth now form a huge part of the population. They got an education with the belief that as soon as they would graduate they would get a nice cushy job also, but the new liberalizing economy can no longer handle such a burden — unemployment is on the rise.
As a result, these disenfranchised sections of the population find refuge in Islamism, claiming that it wil be the solution to all their problems (as Islamism claims to have a social agenda of its own).The difference between Bahrain and other countries that have experienced this phenomenon is that it has come rather late (Islamism is a very old movement in Egypt, Pakistan, Algeria, for example). For the past 30 years, there have been no outlets of political expression for the Islamists, so it has festered (possibly radicalized to a certain extent) underground. Only now is this coming to the fore.
The solution is to recognize that Islamism is not all about people’s religious aspirations. Rather, the community leaders are “riding a wave of socio-economic discontent” and have managed to translate this motion into Islamism by waving the banners of Islam. Yes, much will be achieved when the royal family and the leaders heal the wounds between the community in the form of rhetoric. However the real stability will arise when the government and the community leaders stop worrying about petty issues and start focusing on improving the education system, on improving the state of the economy so that everyone has jobs, etc. This will defuse the problem, and will undermine the power that the radical Islamist leaders now hold in their respective communities.
Let’s hope that this happens soon.
Great site Mahmood, I’ll be visiting often.
-f
The strangling of Bahrain
I very much hope you’re right about people waking up to the agenda of the Islamist extremists in parliament. It would be interesting if this were the case, particularly as there’s a theory that the best way to discredit the Islamists is to give them a taste of power so that their policies can be thoroughly scrutinised. Once they have power no longer will they be able to shout from the sidelines, but instead have to take responsibility for their actions. The examples of Iran and Sudan (although not necessarily Afghanistan) show that if you want a crash course on secularising the political discourse and clearing out the mosques then give these guys the run of the place. The big downside is that you have to live under the Islamists for some years with all the backwardness, human rights abuses, cretinism and reliance on western food aid that this involves.
Re: The strangling of Bahrain
I hope it doesn’t come to that in order to show people that living by theocraticians is a bad idea. I for one will not accept living under such a regime.
It is a dark picture and I don’t think (hope) that it will get to that stage here in Bahrain for a couple of reasons:
1] people have already seen the effects of such a regime in a few places and Bahrainis generally are opposed to such rule, vis-a-vis Iran and Saudi Arabia.
2] the ruling family will never allow it, as their sources of revenue will dry up. Plain and simple.
I know that we have problems here and I also recognize the stranglehold that these islamists (both sects: Shi’a and Sunna) have on their “constituents”, but I think that the number of moderates we have in Bahrain is a sizeable minority with a voice which is listened to by the powers that be.
Even more important we are currently seeing a major divide happening in the largest Islamic political society: Al-Wefaq, who led the boycot of parliamentary elections and I think it will disintegrate or splinter. There are some reports saying that various powers within that society want to pull and push it into various directions and now has strong opposing views within the society. Some it appears want to continue the policy of direct rebelion against the ruling family, others are more cautious and don’t want to sever the ties while yet another group is pushing for moderation and inclusion in the next elections.
What Al-Wefaq has been doing for years is blindly supporting any issue – wrong or right – as long as it is Shi’a. This has created a lot of dissent within it and it will lead to its downfall.
What the Shi’a street needs is several of these societies rather than a single one with its public infighting.
What is needed from my point of view especially now that the parliament will start discussing laws of political parties (rather than societies) is to insist that it is absolutely illegal to start a political party based on religion, sect, ethnic origin or any of the many discriminatory traits which they are based on at the moment. If political parties are formed along these lines, and the people of Bahrain choose to join a party because of their published political rather than religious agendas, we’ll be in a much better shape.
It comes as no surprise that the islamists in parliament are actually opposing the creation of political parties!
Re: The strangling of Bahrain
Yes I agree with your interpretation f. The easiest thing to do when you’re desperate is to give up your responsibility and start praying to Allah to save you, or start buying lottery tickets! It seems that the Islamists here have provided both by riding the wave…
There are real signs of a backlash against these islamists as well now, voices of reason have started writing letters to the editors of the various papers in Bahrain, and some very respected journalists have started writing some very scathing columns attacking these islamists’ ideas – not personalities, however in return the islamists are using the Friday sermons etc to castigate all of their opponents. The cracks in their armour are starting to appear.
I have very high hopes that some the next electsions, people will have realised that these people are better suited to the places of worship rather than parliament.