The Betrayal of Bahrain

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

Many Arab peoples grew enthusiastic about the Arab revolutions that began in Tunisia, and so did many media outlets, particularly those Arab channels that stand outside the ranks of the Arab regimes, or that possess some degree of editorial independence. The Arab revolutions received good coverage and wide popular enthusiasm — with the exception of the revolution in Bahrain. People took an initial interest in Bahrain’s revolution, and some channels tried to cover events with a certain hesitancy, but Bahrain has now largely vanished from the media surface, as though no injustice had ever befallen, or continues to befall, the people of Bahrain. This, even as Bahrain is now being violated by foreign states using Arab tools.

Why do the masses and the media grow enthusiastic over Arab revolutions, while we find no such enthusiasm for Bahrain? Is Bahrain some anomaly among the other Arab states, its regime distinguished by freedom, scientific method, and the cultivation of independent character? Does Bahrain enjoy a modern, exceptional leadership capable of spreading justice and equality, and fostering an atmosphere of freedom, construction, and progress? Did the people of Bahrain err when they stood up defying the regime and demanding change, just as other peoples are demanding? It is clear that the people of Bahrain suffer not only from the injustice of their rulers, but also from the injustice of media outlets that have sided with the forces who see in Bahrain’s freedom a fetter on their own freedom to plunder the nation’s wealth and dominate the Gulf region.

The wretched pretext for the oppression of the people of Bahrain is that Iran is inciting the Shia to revolt, and that the rebels in Bahrain are Shia — even though the Bahraini government makes no distinction between Shia and Sunni. This is a stale line, repeated in Arab ears since 1979, aimed at manufacturing an Iranian enemy against whom the Arabs must mobilize their energies to destroy. The implication is that the Shia and the Sunnis in Bahrain live lives of honor, dignity, and freedom, and that the problem is Iran.

Let us be clear: this is a nation suffering from sectarian bigotry. The Shia were oppressed in Lebanon, and are oppressed now in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia; a war was waged against the Zaydis in Yemen, just as Sunnis are oppressed in Iran. The persecution of religious, sectarian, and ethnic minorities is a general feature of the region, practiced by the various regimes in power, in clear and gross violation of Islamic law, and the masses of the nation in various countries have come out to put an end to this repugnant bigotry, which does harm to everyone and serves the Islamic idea in neither its Sunni nor its Shia form.

The Shia in Bahrain may be loyal to Iran — this we have not yet verified — but we are entirely certain of the loyalty of the ruling tribes of the Gulf to the United States of America, and of these tribes’ normalization of relations with the Zionist entity. Whoever is loyal to the foreigner who plunders the nation’s wealth has no right to condemn others for their loyalty to some other foreign power. Yesterday, the tribes of the Gulf were loyal to the Shah of Iran and took his orders, even though he was a Shia; but the trouble was never his Shiism — it was that he was the faithful guardian of America’s and Israel’s interests in the region.

I ask that no one use the Sunni-Shia formula to justify his own disgraces. If the Arab rulers were truly Sunni, they would have supported the Sunni resistance in Lebanon and Palestine; if they were truly Sunni, they would not have allowed the occupation of Iraq; and if they were truly Muslim, they would not have allowed the violation of Arab land, Arab wealth, and Arab sanctities. This formula is meant for nothing but tearing the nation apart and justifying Western domination over the Arab nation, Shia and Sunni alike. We are not the ones who lay out the road to paradise, and neither a Shia nor a Sunni has any right to send someone to paradise, or to bar him from it, or to send him to hell — that is a matter for the Lord of the Worlds, glory be to Him, and let every individual act according to what he sees fit for winning the hereafter, for the ultimate outcome belongs to the God-fearing. What matters is that policies of division are rejected, as are policies of persecution. And if the Arabs are afraid of Iran, then they must rely on themselves and build up the defensive strength they need, rather than cling to American domination.

It is clear that the Arab regimes fear a change of whoever rides them, or, more precisely, that the Americans fear Iran’s influence, which threatens their domination over Arab wealth.

What matters now is that the people of Bahrain have every right to revolt for their freedom, and that we have an obligation to stand with them. This is a message to Al Jazeera, which I feel has shown deference to the ruling Arab tribes at the expense of principle. We stand with the principle of freedom for the Arab human being, and for every non-Arab and non-Muslim citizen as well, and we are not aligned with a despotic regime against its own people. The rule in Bahrain is a backward, repressive rule that belongs to the Stone Age, and the people of Bahrain have every right to live in the twenty-first century like other peoples.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “خذلان البحرين” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.