I was gutted that I could participate in this year’s RCA Pink Walkathon as I was still working in Kuala Lumpur at the time, and I couldn’t support this charity this year as much as I wanted to other than to do the easiest thing and donate a bit of money, which I know will help them get closer to their goal of purchasing the life saving machinery which they will be donating to Salmaniya Medical Complex to help the whole of Bahrain. Women of all ages, creeds and races would benefit from their efforts without distinction whatsoever.
However, what pained me even more than not being able to participate in the activities this year, is an article by Maryam Al-Sherougi in Al-Wasat in which she shocked me by stating that this year the foundation found it much harder to raise funds not because of the unavailability of funds, but because of people refusing to donate without knowing first whether their donations would benefit Shi’a or Sunna!
Here’s an excerpt and you can read the full article here:
إلا أنالأØÂداث الأخيرة جعلت الناس تتشكك ÙÂيريع البيع، وما إذا كانيذهب الى ÙÂئات لا تتواÙÂÙ‚ معهم ÙÂكريا أو أيديولوجيا، وبات الجميع يسأل، أينمصدر القناني؟ ومنهو المستÙÂيد منالمال؟ وهل هو منهذه الÙÂئة أم تلك؟! وتراجع التنوير شيئا ÙÂشيئا بسبب مزجه مع الÙÂتنالتيتØÂدث ÙÂيمجتمعنا، ما أثر تأثيرا سلبيا على هذه الØÂملة.
Translation:
However, recent events have made ​​people skeptical about the proceeds of the sale, and whether it would go to groups which do not correspond with them intellectually or ideologically, and now everyone is asking, where is the source of the water bottles? And who is the beneficiary of the money? Whether it is from this sect or that?! And the enlightenment regressed gradually due to the various misdeeds that occur in our society which had a negative impact on this campaign.
How utterly disgusting is this? Is this really the Bahrain which we know and love? What happened to the hundreds of years of living side-by-side in harmony? Is being one sect or another really that relevant? Is it reason enough to withhold donations which should always be given with the only thought that it might benefit someone less fortunate than us based on the eventual beneficiary’s sect?
What a shame…
Comments
“What happened to the hundreds of years of living side-by-side in harmony?”
utterly destroyed by extremist in 14th Feb beyond repair for the foreseeable future
Trust me!
I wasn’t sure to post in this or your previous article, but as it relates more to sectarianism I thought it may be more on topic here.
The BBC has been very quiet on Bahrain during this whole period and it makes one wonder why, but that’s another matter. Now I only heard this in the background and may have missed some points but to paraphrase and précis the report it described the current situation in Bahrain as follows…
The current King, an affable Anglophile with a Sandhurst education, is having difficulty understanding the turmoil in his Kingdom. The people were portrayed as being split upon sectarian lines with the Shi’a majority being pro Iran and a Sunni minority wanting to maintain the status quo.
There, thanks to he BBC it’s all been cleared up for me.