Pars Today

The Persian Gulf island state of Bahrain is in the throes of a popular uprising, which the repressive Aal-e Khalifa minority regime is trying to quell with the help of Saudi Arabia, the US, Britain and the illegal Zionist entity. The people, however, are determined to materialize their denied rights despite the sordid human rights record of the regime. Stay with us for an analysis in this regard by Catherine Shakdam.

The human rights black hole no one wants to talk about for fear of exposing imperialism fingerprints, Bahrain has died a thousand oppressions under the unrepentant gaze of western capitalism – the regime to be sustained so that a region could be tamed. Bahrain has officially gone backwards in its reform process. In a last-ditch attempt to crackdown on the opposition, the Aal-e Khalifa regime has now chosen to tighten its grip on the sheikhdom by giving its security apparatus exceptional powers against all dissidents. The term 'dissident' here applies to whoever imagines oneself free.

On January 5, Bahrain's public prosecutor, Ahmed ad-Dosari, announced in a decree that officers, non-commissioned officers and members of the tiny Persian Gulf island state's domestic spy service, the National Security Agency, were granted arrest powers "limited" to terrorism cases, the state-run Bahrain News Agency reported.

While it is likely Bahrain’s run-in with brutal oppression and unpalatable barbarism has escaped your news feed, that is, unfortunate because for five long years the island state has burnt under the fire of savagery, failing to manifest into political reality a people’s democratic dream. Bahrain is simply too much of a geopolitical pressure point for our western capitals to consider losing it to political self-determination. The reason is that Bahrain offers an invaluable military vantage point against the rising might of the Axis of Resistance, this grand monster western imperialism fears more than the plague itself since it speaks of liberation and socio-political empowerment. And then of course there is this little thing we call the 'World Oil Route'.

The Islamic Republic of Iran is not trying to export its revolutionary model to the rest of the world; it only stands in support of nations’ right to choose for themselves what future will be theirs. Once upon a time, the United States was also erected under such premise.

For all the grand standing and moral misnomers Washington and London have spewed into our airways over the years - speaking about 'counter-terrorism' and 'pro-democracy building' as one would distribute candies on Halloween - it is painfully evident that profits, combined with an imperious will to militarize the Middle East, have driven the proverbial realpolitik bus. Allow me to clarify one important point: Bahrain’s democracy movement was thrown to the sharks in exchange for territorial access and lucrative military contracts… What a shocker! If anything, western powers are consistent in their methodology and drive. I’d like to think that by now reading through the thick gloss which is western media manipulation has become a simple intellectual exercise. And yet Bahrain appears to have slipped under the crack of our outrage – its oppression unacknowledged, its fight misunderstood and its revolutionary mislabeled.

Bottom line: Bahrain’s democratic awakening was painted with the brush of misapprehension so that nations would fail to read in the rise of a people, the coming demise of a wannabe theocratic empire, that of Wahhabist Saudi Arabia.

Do not let Bahrain’s size fool you. This one revolution stands to explode Riyadh’s monarchical hold over the Persian Gulf and make disappear the western capitals’ ambitions in the region altogether; hence the West thinks it is necessary to crush Bahrainis’ cries for independence and freedom.

Now that I have clarified this point allow me to deconstruct Saudi Arabia’s very own repressive narrative. May I dare say that Bahrain’s fate could befall any nation falling prey to the dogmatic political construct that is Wahhabism. So thank you London and Washington for playing maestro to monarchical supremacism! Bahrain, it needs to be said, was not always a democratic wasteland. Back in 1973, some of Bahrain’s religious and intellectual elite, among which Ayatollah Sheikh Isa Qassim, successfully laid out the premise of democratic change by enshrining political representation within the tenets of the constitution.

Saudi Arabia was not exactly keen, and thus began a long draw-out thaw in between the ambition of one Riyadh-sponsored Aal-e Khalifa monarchy versus an aspiring free folk. Fast forward a few decades and Bahrain’s once parliamentary sheikhdom has been transformed into a violent Wahhabist Saudi client state.

But the crazy train did not stop there. Since Bahrainis committed the great offense of being Shia Muslims - a crime punishable by death in Saudi Arabia’s perverted worldview - Bahrainis would have to be reformed, and in blood and tears redacted from the fabric of society.

To the tune of a denaturalization campaign and en masse naturalization of foreign nationals, Aal-e Khalifa has worked to reinvent Bahrain’s ethno-religious make-up – a crime the United Nations only meekly mumbled against. May I dare say religious genocide?

Of course, Bahrain’s adherence to Shia Islam was used as both a catalyst and a rationale to portray a people’s democratic ambitions as an elaborate Iranian plot. When all fails why not call sectarianism hell-hounds right?

But here is where Riyadh’s narrative fails: how can we talk about a Shia takeover, or an Iranian imperial plot, when point number 1. Bahrain has always been majority Shia, and point number 2. Bahrainis are calling for fair political representation away from foreign diktat?

Truth be told, protests in Bahrain are genuinely societal in seeking reformations, and objecting Aal-e Khalifa political and economic corruption led by the authorities. Like all Persian Gulf regimes, Aal-e Khalifa have enshrined their power in nepotism and pandemic abuses. I would say that Aal-e Khalifa’s descent into the abyss of repression has been compounded in its hatred for Ayatollah Sheikh Isa Qassim – Bahrain’s most revered cleric and pro-democracy champion. If not for his supporters’ determination to stand guard before his residence it is likely Ayatollah Sheikh Qassim could have suffered a fate similar to that of Ayatollah Sheikh Nimr an-Nimr, who, in January 2016, was beheaded by Saudi Arabia on account of his activism.

Under military lock and key, courtesy of Aal-e Saud, Bahrain was transformed into a grand penitentiary complex under the watchful eye of both Washington and London – theo-fascism’s most loyal handmaidens. For all the fury Riyadh has thrown at Bahrain and the lead western capitals have volunteered by way of military contracts, Bahrain has yet to waiver in its democratic determination. When will nations learn that oppression has a way of crystallizing absolute resistance?

In conclusion, I will say this: Just like Yemen stands to make disappear the military ambitions of Riyadh, Bahrain has the potential of exploding Aal-e Saud’s monarchical complex and in resistance give rise to a new political paradigm. It's only a matter of time.

AS/MG