I applaud his majesty’s speech delivered on Bahrain TV on the night of September 5th in which he reiterated that all are equal under the law and that unity is of paramount importance, especially at these difficult times.
I emphasize my humble commitment to him that I shall continue to advocate peace and dissuade from violence at every opportunity which presents itself to me. There is no place for violence in this world as that would never resolve a conflict in the long term, what does, is understanding and a political solution in which a win-win strategy prevails.
I further say that I completely agree with his majesty in keeping only the appropriately trained and moderate preachers to lead and conduct prayers in places of worship and that they be bound to incite love and understanding rather than advocate violence and fuel sectarian hatreds and fires. In his speech, he particularly emphasized the following:
“I have directed the government authorities overseeing religious affairs to pay more attention to our mosques and religious forums to ensure that only those who are scientifically qualified, who are good citizens with good manners, and saturated with moderation and renouncing violence be allowed to speak in them,” the king said.
[BNA]
Therefore, I would like to remind the authorities of their duties as dictated by his majesty to remove ALL preachers who have and continue to spread sectarian hatred, chief amongst whom is Jassim Alsaidi, and bar them for life from ever affecting the minds of the simple and gullible through whom they perpetrate the fires of sectarian hatred.
You do us honour your majesty. I just hope that your assigned representatives in government do their job and lead this country into the calmer and more just waters it so deserves.
still above 40’000 feet!
Comments
كلام جميل وكلام معقول، ماقدرش أقول ØÂاجة عنه
لكنخيال ØÂبيبى المجهول مش لاقيه ÙÂيك ØÂاجه منه
I recalled the lovely voice of Layla Murad, as I read the above, singing her famous song from the film ‘Amber’ (1948).
All what His Majesty (HM) said is beautiful and reasonable, and no one could have said it better. But (the heaviest ‘but’ ever) HM’s ideas belong in the ideal world, which is not preferred by many with other agendas.
Implementation is key in HM’s efficient plan towards killing off rebellion and sectarian hatred in its cradle.
“I just hope that your assigned representatives in government do their job…â€Â
And here lies the cornerstone to the success of anything in this world.
When I read what you said, about Saidi, I laughed so hard, Mahmood 🙂 you really have it in for that guy, and I can’t disagree much with you there, but your feud towards him is almost vivid in this post 😀
Your dedication and love to your cause is as strong and fiery as they come! 😛
Keep up the good work 🙂
This is what was expected from His Majesty as always calling for tolerance, but I hope that others do not misuse these words and damage its image, and instead of solving the problem they’ll be fueling it all over again.
Every speech that might be considered as a call for sectarian hatred!
كلمة ØÂÙ‚ يراد بها باطل
A cynic at times and a disingenuous royal ass-kisser at other times. Mahmood, you are truly an ignorant fool.
The fact that your tongue is so high up the royal rectum that you lust over does justice to your shrek-like facade. Careful not to get too many hairs stuck between your teeth.
Naive imbeciles like you, is what’s wrong with Bahrain. A person cannot be objective? they either have to be pro-government or pro-opposition all the time.
You lack the courage to call a spade a spade. Both sides commit numerous errors and you can’t blame the other for all your mistakes.
Even Mansoor Al-Jamri is now considered a sellout just because he saw this coming, the opposition was warned many times to change their approach, and now he supports the government’s response.
This is the best overview I have seen of the current situation
A brutal crackdown on Shia Muslim civil right activists in the Persian Gulf nation of Bahrain is entering its third week. It not only threatens to undermine important upcoming parliamentary elections, but the widespread protests it has engendered may force the government to finally address the civic, political and human rights of the island’s long-oppressed Shia population.
To understand the root cause of the latest strife in the country’s long history of domestic unrest, one need only appreciate a simple, fundamental and incontrovertible demographic reality: the country’s overwhelming majority Shias are effectively subjected to the rule of an unelected Sunni monarchyâ€â€the Al-Khalifa family, led by the King of Bahrain, Sheikh Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa. Notably, and as will be discussed, the security services employed by the government and tasked with suppressing internal dissent are composed nearly entirely of non-Bahraini Sunnis.
Third-class citizens
As a consequence of this striking incongruity between monarchy and citizenry, and to ensure the continuity of dynastic ruleâ€â€aided in no small part by the United States Fifth Fleet headquartered in the capital Manamaâ€â€Bahraini Shias have been politically and socioeconomically disenfranchised, excluded from the security sector and treated as third-class citizens.
In 2009, Nabeel Rajab, president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR), released results of the organization’s second report on institutionalized sectarian discrimination in Bahrain. Despite forming more than two-thirds of the population, the BCHR found that Bahrain’s Shia:
* Fill only 13 percent of senior positions in the country. Most of these posts are based in service or non-prevailing institutions.
* Fill none of the senior posts in the following institutions:
1. Ministry of Defense
2. National Guard
3. Ministry of Interior Affairs
4. Ministry of Cabinet Affairs
5. The General Organization for Youth and Sports
6. The Royal Court
7. The Crown Prince Court
8. The Central Informatics Organization
9. Survey and Land Registration Bureau
10. The Supreme Defense Council
* Form five percent of the judiciary corps, 16 percent of the diplomatic corps, seven percent of the Ministry of Transportation, 18 percent of the Constitutional Court, 10 percent of the Ministry of Finance and six percent of the Ministry of Information.
The religious schism is itself not the primary issue, of course. Rather, the complete marginalization of the Shia and their lack of meaningful representation in the government are at the heart of all problems. Add to this the attempts by the Al-Khalifa regime to deliberately alter the sectarian balance of the country in their favorâ€â€sectarian gerrymandering if you willâ€â€and you have the recipe for political and social volatility.
In January 2009, thousands of Bahrainis peacefully protested against the Kingdom’s citizenship laws, the Arab world’s equivalent of Israel’s infamous Citizenship Law. The laws permit Sunnis from other parts of the Muslim world to become expedited, naturalized Bahraini citizens in order to manipulate the confessional makeup of the populace in favor of Sunnisâ€â€the Al Khalifas’ only real constituency. The New York Times, in a very fair Aug. 26 piece titled “Crackdown in Bahrain Hints of End to Reforms,†cites Shia opposition groups’ estimate that 65,000-100,000 Sunnis were added to voter rolls over the last decade.
This is not an insignificant figure; although the total population in Bahrain is approximately 800,000, only 530,000 are nationals and able to vote.
The BCHR has long documented the country’s human and civil rights abuses. It determined that of the 1,000 employees working for the National Security Apparatus (NSA), more than two-thirds are non-Bahraini (Jordanians, Egyptians, other Arabs, Pakistanis) and overwhelmingly Sunni. Bahraini Shia citizens constitute less than five percent of the NSA and occupy only low-level positions or serve as paid informants. The paramilitary Special Security Forces (SSF) acts under the supervision of the NSA and numbers 20,000â€â€90 percent of whom are non-Bahraini. Indeed, the SSF does not include a single Bahraini Shia member.
By royal decree, the NSA and SSF may arrest and interrogate anyone they wish, are immune from prosecution and not subject to oversight from a monitoring body. According to the BCHR, they are responsible for arresting hundreds of activists, torturing citizens and running smear campaigns that result in the detention and imprisonment of anyone suspected of opposing Al-Khalifa family rule. Adding insult to injury, NSA and SSF forces are housed in upscale Manama neighborhoods while Bahraini Shias remain largely impoverished and face a chronic housing shortage.
The arrest and torture of Dr. Abdul Jalil al-Singace
With the above in mind, we return to the present crisis. On Aug. 13, after returning from a London conference where he criticized Bahrain’s human rights record, Dr. Abdul Jalil al-Singace, spokesperson and director of the human rights bureau of the opposition Haq Movement for Liberty and Democracy, was arrested at the Manama airport for “inciting acts of violence†and “destabilizing the country.â€Â
Three more activists were arrested the following day, including two clerics. An unidentified NSA official told the state-run Bahrain News Agency that the four were being held for attempting to form a network “created to undermine security and stability of the country†and carrying out “illegal practices and other acts that would harm the stability of the Kingdom of Bahrain and its civil peace … â€Â
Four more high-profile figures were apprehended in the following days, bringing the total to eight and stoking tensions even further. Both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW) condemned the arrests.
The arrests immediately instigated sectarian riots. The subsequent security crackdown has led to the detention of more than 200 people, mostly human rights workers but also non-activist young men. All are being held with charge in unknown whereabouts and have had no access to legal counsel.
Human Rights Watch has called on Bahrain’s government to either formally charge or release those detained. Jon Stork, deputy Middle East director of HRW, said in a statement, “If the government of Bahrain can show these activists are engaged in criminal behavior, why is it resorting to vague and anonymous allegations?â€Â
In early 2010, Stork’s organization came out with a landmark report on the use torture in Bahrain: Torture Redux: The Revival of Physical Coercion during Interrogations in Bahrain.
Unfortunately the practice continues.
It is never easy to read accounts of torture, let alone one experienced by a handicapped man. Dr. al-Singace’s statement to the public prosecutor of what the security service did to him can be read here.
The threat of October’s elections
The proximity of the arrests to next month’s parliamentary elections, scheduled for Oct. 23, is no coincidence. The Shia still hope to win representation in districts that have been gerrymandered to give Sunni candidates a decided advantage.
Bahrain’s main Shia political party, Al-Wefaq, holds 17 of 40 seats in the Council of Representatives. They form its largest bloc and are the only Shia party not boycotting the elections. Bahrain may have the trappings of a constitutional monarchy, but the parliament’s powers remain severely curtailed; legislation passed must first be approved by an upper house Shura Council whose members are appointed by the King.
As parliamentary elections near, Bahrain’s public prosecutor has banned all media outlets from reporting, publishing or broadcasting any news related to the unrest. Local websites documenting the violence have been blocked or heavily censored.
Ironically, the nation’s parliament was created eight years ago under a new constitution in a “reform project†meant to placate longstanding Shia complaints of discrimination and marginalization. Despite the protection provided by the Shura Council and a concerted, deliberate effort at sectarian engineering, it is clear that the current campaign against civil and human right advocates, opposition figures, clerics, and ordinary citizens belie how threatened the al-Khalifas feel by the upcoming ballot.
There are now daily clashes between Bahraini Shia protestors and the non-indigenous, Sunni-led security forces. The media is fully censored and the number of detainees continues to rise. Whether the country will be able to hold the October parliamentary contests remains to be seen.
Sectarian engineering and gerrymandering has polarized Bahrain and destroyed the very fabric of society. The political and social turmoil it now faces only be described as monarchy vs. democracy.
Sheik Mohammad Ali al-Mahfoodh, a Shia cleric and opposition leader, came to a very straightforward conclusion:
“The King said 10 years ago we would have freedom. The experiment is now over.â€Â
Is there any video of the speech?
gengis I hope that in some sphere of your life you are more than an anonymous troll. it’s too easy to spit out insults while hiding your name and basically saying nothing. respect yourself, at least.
Pointing out the obvious isn’t trolling. I have been following this blog for a couple of weeks and am amazed at the schizophrenic nature of Shrek’s posts. The man is an intellectual mess.
And by the way, next time I see you: I DO WANT FRIES WITH THAT!
We love you Mahmood. If this guy is a real man he should post using his real name. Otherwise he should be more polite in his criticism.
Dude, shut it. I’m not even sure what’s your point anymore.
Firstly, even though I might disagree with Mahmoud’s views occasionally, he’s still a reasonable man and is fully entitled to his opinions.
Secondly, each and every one of us has his or her own understanding of the situation, some choose to believe that the entire government is corrupt and the entire opposition is infallible (probably you), some choose to believe that each side is human and thus can be right or wrong (probably most people who visit this site and Mahmoud himself), if you can’t possibly see the reason behind this view, I suggest you take your leave.
Thirdly, you ARE a troll, in fact, probably a perfect example of a troll on the internet who posts insults and accusations to others under an anonymous name. You probably even look like this while posting your comments:
http://u.snelhest.org/i/2010/09/09_2262.png
You can’t even admit to being a troll. Sad. Oh, and you’re not so funny – flaming is soooo 90’s. Why not try shutting up until you’ve got something useful to say? You know, something more than cheap insults aimed at the guy whose blog you can’t stop yourself from posting on, or cheap jokes aimed at those who have low-income retail jobs.
“I DO WANT FRIES WITH THAT!” Wow, what a flame, such wit, gosh we’re all so impressed down here. American junk-food cliche, wow. Gosh, we shouldn’t bandy words with you, should we? You might compare us to a poorly paid burger-server or something. That would really hurt. Or maybe you’d compare us to an ugly cartoon character. Hell, that’s so smart it’s intimidating.
Damn, maybe you’d even grow a pair and present us with a cogent and courageous take on the topic … or is that asking way too much of you?
I agree that the US military gave aid on this crackdown as many of my US marine friends tell me several times that they were warned by their superior officers about the shia.
and this happened shortly after the visit of the saudi king whos country completely opresses the shia populace they have no mosques no rights nothing, also saudi has been plagued with the hauthy shias of yemens rebellion , they cant see the shia of bahrain prospering, it causes unrest in other places.
as for the saidi charachter i didnt know his backgroud or who he was until i started reading his articles in al belad newspaper and then i started poking around, its obvious to all who WANT to see this guy is a sectarian he emphasizes in almost all of his speeches his resentment for the jafari awqaf and shia.
and i agree with people who posted that HM the king says one thing but making it into a reality HM the king is powerless against the thousands who work “under” him, right now effectively bahrain is devoid from any kind of freedome that means something u can drink and party and drive and right articles against religion but you cant ask for anything legitimate which is question the authority.
What was the nature of their aid?
Provide satellite imagery of Sitra graveyard; the storage location of the secondhand tires used for burning.
the king is powerless? LOOL!!
it is he how appoint prime minster /minster ,
judge,shwra members pretty much everything is at hand.
and had he desire he could codified it overnight government elected by poplar/most(parliamentary ) vote
think again.
end.
The king has to satisfy many constituencies. It’s not that easy. He has taken some positive steps but keeps on getting pushed in the wrong direction. We want democracy. But when democracy comes so does violence. The transition is not easy. Should he do more yes. I’d say more financial transparency would be a good move at this time to show he is serious about reform. Believe me he has done much more then others. He needs support to move in the right direction not more problems.
What would solve the problem if scientific criteria are being defined and boundaries are set. We don’t want what is going on in Kuwait to be transferred here, were you have someone called Al Hayef, an MP, wants to have the lectures in the “matams” to be watched by the government and may be censored! All that under the term “sectarian hatred”.
Do extremists like Al Saidi know the difference between someone’s belief from someone expressing sectarian thoughts? The Shia do have huge Historical and theological differences with the Sunnis. And extremists like Al Qaeda and Al Zarqawi do kill people for such differences as in Iraq. I don’t say that Al Saidi and people of the same thinking would start to kill, but are those people able to tolerate and handle such differences when expressed by the shia and in their own house of worship? Or will they make a new disaster, and use His Majesty’s words to oppress freedoms of belief in Bahrain.
People in the ministry of Islamic affairs need to be very careful in handling such issues! And we don’t want to see a crack down on the Shia’s “matams” in Ashura which is only three months away!!! An see lecturers being prevented to come to Bahrain or prevented from addressing their lectures based on “lame” reasons, because until now all what is being happening are people oppressed from expressing their beliefs because of the very general term “sectarian speeches”
i find my self wondering how an islamic figure like al saidi complains in newspaper about prayers being heard from outside the matams and that the ministry of interior should interfere , what the hell is he on, all this hate for what ? arnt we worshiping the same god? didnt the prophet say and this is qouted in bukhari what means ” the best of sounds is those of my people praying and reeding the quran when they sound like a groups of bees” and this guy who claims to be representing islam is being against it
^ alright but than again , not sure what it is ‘called’ but i am sure as hell it is not the holy quran the recite in mic
Hi, Mahmood,
Do you think the latest crack downs on the Shia are the way to go?
Given the verses quoted from the Quran in this text?
Cheers Rich
Ajax, its called praying you dont have to read the quran there are many prayers and Dua’s asking god for forgiveness and blessings and peace, and i happen to enjoy listening to it from home it makes me feel i am in a muslim country after all.
Richard, Islam Embraces diversity humans are not the same and you will always have groups believing in different things even within one religion and in true Islam this is a good thing diversity is what pushes human kind forward if we learn to accept it and not force others to what we believe or hate them for believing something els
This is a very sensitive issue. However if there is maybe more transparency on what is read and assurances that curse words are not used it may help mitigate some problems.
There will be a day of recononing for us all, curse words or not, my apologies to those who I may have or not offended. I have never met a bad bahraini only those in power, every day I follow the plight of not just the Shia but that of the Sunnis in Bahrain. We have seen in recent history how despotic families eventually come to grief. I hope that I am around to see the Al-Klalifas leave power as all tyrantic rulers will as dictated by history. I have made and will always keep in heart, those individuals who have no voice or power but yet live in hope. What makes a good blogger, a, a person who walks a fine line or b, a person who walks a fine line?
Richard I know you’ve suffered here and sympathise with your plight. But let me tell you that as far as I can see, there aren’t many people who look for the removal of the ruling family in Bahrain. They are much liked in this country. Yes there are transgressions and there might have been a few over-zealous experiences, but for the most part, they are liked and respected. In fact, their rule has been affirmed by popular referendum administered by the UN in 1971. The last thing we want in this country is chaos.
We dont have anyone fit for rule at the moment besides the Al Khalifa anyway
I’ll do it 😉
I got spare time to rule on the side 😛
Others would think that you would be looking for a full time job !
Becareful !
They are doing fine. They just need to increase transparency to placate the public and calm the opposition down. There is a perception that they are hogging up more then their fair share of resources.