Just came across this explanation which seems to be correct in an article in ArabicNews.com:
The four societies are:
The first I knew, the second onwards I didn’t completely. Now I know for instance that the Islamic Work society as they are followers of Sherazi, are Shia extremists, some would call this branch of Shi’ism as the Wahabis of the Shia! Please someone shed some light on this.
The fourth are Ba’athists? Do they still exist?
I guess if I were to join any of the above I’ll just start my own political party.. The Mahmood’s Den Political Party (MDPP) sounds good!!
Comments
Who do the boycotters represent?
Sir
It was my understanding that the Ba’athists still exist in the nation of Syria. However, not being a resident of that part of the world, I could be entirely mistaken.
[i]Adieu, monsieur[/i]
They do exist in Syria
Yes, the Ba’ath party does exist in Syria. This is the same party who purposefully pretty much nuked one of their own cities in 1982, killing 30,000 of its own residents. The only question now is, why have they been allowed to stay in power for THRITY FUCKING YEARS!!?
Who do the boycotters represent?
Mahmoud,
I am sad to see that, for a guy who blabbers on everyday about knowing the political situation in bahrain so well, you seem to have no grasp of the political situation at all. It seems to me to be highly laughable for someone to try and analyze the situation in bahrain without knowing anything about the national democratic action society (2. above) and the democratic national coalition society (4.). If you have ever bothered to read or learn anything about the political events that bahrain went through in the first parliament (in the 1970s), you’d realize that these were the two most prominent societies back then. True, most of them were socialists, nasserites, baathists, and communists, but so was 90% of bahrain! (I’m sure you’ll disagree on this point, so i please ask you to try to read something on the topic before blogging off again, since I am sure your knowledge on this area is thin at the best.) More importantly, however, the agenda of those two societies (especially 2.) is not mainly leftist now as in communist and socialists but leftist as in liberal and moderate. I urge you to check out http://www.aldemokrati.org and http://www.aldemokrati.com before passing on such naive and baseless judgements on the national democratic action society (unfortunately the second website is undergoing rennovations at the moment). Their main idoelogy that they try to further is simple: no segregation and giving free and equal oppurtunity to both women and men, sunni and shia. That is it. Since I took you for a liberal, I thought that this society would represent your viewpoint more than any other. In a political atmosphere dominated by al-asalah and al-wefaq, they, I think provide a breath of fresh air and an oppurtunity for sunnis and shias to come closer together (which unfortunately since the 90’s they have been further apart) and for women to have a greater voice. If you take a look at the members of the group, they are mainly made up of middle class bankers, lawyers, doctors, and engineers who are both sunni and shia, both women and men. Abdulrahman al-nuaimi (president), ali rabeia (businessman), jalila al-sayed (lawyer), mahmood sharif (banker), abdulmunem al shirawi (journalist), hisham al shehabi (engineer) are just some of the many names that come to mind. I urge to visit their website and check them out, and also to look at their monthly magazing al-demokrati, as I think you might agree with a lot of what they say. Also, if you do read ( and maybe agree) with what they say, I think you would be on of the best people to comment on their issues as I do really like your style of writing. Please don’t take this comment as offensive in anyway, and I hope you do check out their website!
Re: Who do the boycotters represent?
Thank you for the links and the information. Much appreciated. I’m glad you have taken offense at what I wrote – even if it’s tongue-in-cheek – for ANOTHER liberal to speek up! The quote I put above is not from me, but from a press release by arabnews.com.
I’ll check out their website for sure, add a link to theirs here, and if their views coencide with mine, I will support them.
I do actually get their articles emailed to me from time to time, especially by Mr. Al-Noaimi whom I hold in high respect.
Thanks for the heads up!
Re: They do exist in Syria
You have to understand the Arab mentality in order to know the answer to that. Or even African or any third-world mentality, and I’m sure books have been written on the subject and many more will be too.
If you see an Iraqi on the street, just WHISPER “Saddam” to him and see the reaction, probably a nervous breakdown because of the fear that that name still evokes in most Iraqis.
Sad, but true.
Who do the boycotters represent?
What did the NDA get out of its alliance with Al-Wefaq? Besides coming to a deal to divide up the seats on the General Union of Bahraini Workers between them, this doesn’t seem clear at all to me. Al-Wefaq on the other hand gain a lot from their alliance with the NDA: its given them a veneer of leftism, which even now is useful when it comes to reassuring working class people that they’re not anti their interests.
I’ve got to agree with the criticism of the Arab News article. There’s no justification for describing Al-Wefaq as the “main trend among the Shias” since they didn’t put themselves before the people so that anyone could judge, and its pretty clear that people are tiring of their antics and patronising platitudes. As a definition simply “Islamofascist” would have sufficed.
Who do the boycotters represent?
I have nothing against the arabnews.com description or “criticism”. The thing I was a bit dubious about was mahmoud’s comment on it, as I’m sure the “the first I knew….” part was not in arabnews.com
Who do the boycotters represent?
Where can I get my MDPP membership card? Sign me up!
Re: Who do the boycotters represent?
Ok then, you’re a founder member! How about that?! 😉
Who do the boycotters represent?
here is a link to a national democratic action asoociation website (unfortunately under rennovation and not updated for a while, but it does have a lot of interesting articles!)
http://www.aldemokrati.com/index.php