Harsh crackdown on Shia worshippers in Bahrain
5:30 AM Thursday Apr 21, 2011

Bahraini Government forces backed by Saudi Arabian troops are destroying mosques and places of worship of the Shia majority in the island kingdom in a move likely to exacerbate religious hatred across the Muslim world.

“So far they have destroyed seven Shia mosques and about 50 religious meeting houses,” said Ali al-Aswad, an MP in the Bahraini Parliament.

He said Saudi soldiers, part of the 1000-strong contingent that entered Bahrain last month, had been seen by witnesses helping demolish Shia mosques and shrines in the Sunni-ruled kingdom.

Mohammed Sadiq, of the Justice for Bahrain organisation, said the most famous of the Shia shrines destroyed was that of a revered Bahraini Shia spiritual leader, Sheikh Abdul Amir al-Jamri, who died in 2006.

A photograph taken by activists shows the golden dome of the shrine lying on the ground and later being taken away on the back of a truck. On the walls of desecrated Shia mosques, graffiti has been scrawled praising the Sunni King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa and insulting the Shia. …source

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List of Demolished Mosques in Bahrain | pictures – videos – resources
May 1, 2011 by occupiedpalestine 0 Comments
Below an overview of some reported demolished or vandalized mosques, for actual updates go to
MAP | Demolished mosques in Bahrain – Google Maps
Amir Barbaghy Mosque

Bahrain opposition group calls for civil state with elected government
14:57, June 18, 2011

Protesters attend a demonstration called by Al Wefaq National Islamic Society[one of many political societies in Bahrain] in Sitra, near Manama, capital of Bahrain, June 17, 2011. Thousands of Shiites took part in a gathering organized by Bahrain’s largest opposition group on Friday to raise their demands for a civil state with elected government. (Xinhua/Mahmood Alsaleh)

Thousands of Shiites took part in a gathering organized by Bahrain’s largest opposition group on Friday to raise their demands for a civil state with elected government.

“We want a civil state with an elected government,” said Shaikh Ali Salman, leader of the group Al Wefaq National Islamic Society.

“Sacking staff from companies and students from universities is unacceptable. National unity is important at this stage despite media attacks. Security personnel who committed crime should also be held accountable,” he said in a speech during the gathering, which was held in Sitra under the theme of “A country for all”.

The speech called for more rights and mentioned the role of Crown Prince in the national dialogue which is scheduled to begin on July 1. …more

Spare us Bahrain’s sudden ‘concern’ for its Asian expat working-class Bahrainis against each other to justify its brutality
by Fahad Desmukh – guardian.co.uk, Saturday 18 June 2011 08.00 BST

The regime is trying to pit abused foreign workers and working-class Bahrainis against each other to justify its brutality

Since the Bahraini regime launched its crackdown on protesters in March, the government and its apologists have tried to justify state brutality by pointing to violence inflicted upon expatriate labourers – supposedly at the hands of protesters.

“Poor, innocent, Asian expats” is how they are now described. But just a few months ago there was little concern at a national level about the abuse of migrant workers. They represent 54% of Bahrain’s resident population, and as in the neighbouring Gulf monarchies, they constitute the bulk of the workforce. Most are from south Asia, and they are arguably the most marginalised community in the country.

Now their welfare has suddenly become a matter of concern for the regime and its apologists. After the start of the crackdown, the foreign minister scurried between the different expatriate community clubs and embassies, hailing the “strong relations bonding” them to the kingdom of Bahrain. Local state-run television suddenly started broadcasting news bulletins in Hindi, Urdu and Tagalog.

It all seems rather disingenuous. As a long-time “expat” myself, my initial reaction is to ask why there has never been this level of outrage from those same quarters when Asian workers have been brutally abused by their Bahraini employers or have been killed in the workplace due to criminal negligence. And why is it that when I tried to air my political views about Bahrain several years ago, I was put on a blacklist and banned from entering the country again? …more

HRC Action Alert: UNESCO / Bahrain – Bahrain to Chair UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee whilst destroying its own heritage
15 JUNE 2011 – BCHR

IHRC urges all campaigners to wirte to the Director-General of UNESCO calling for the removal of Bahrain from the committee’s list.

1. Summary

On 19 June 2011 Bahrain will be chairing the 35th Session of The World Heritage Committee at UNESCO in Paris, France.

IHRC urges all campaigners to write letters to Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO calling for the removal of Bahrain from the committee’s list. Furthermore, condemning the decision to give Bahrain the chairing position while destroying its own heritage, including demolishing mosques, destroying traditional jobs and its social natives.

2. Background

The World Heritage Committee consists of 21 States who examine the proposals made by State Parties, in order to identify cultural and natural properties of outstanding universal value to be protected under itsConvention and further added to the World Heritage List.

The Committee members are:

Australia, Bahrain, Barbados, Brazil, Cambodia, China, Egypt, Estonia, Ethiopia, France, Iraq, Jordan, Mali, Mexico, Nigeria, Russian Federation, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, United Arab Emirates.

Bahrain is currently undertaking brutal crackdown on protests with the support of GCC troops from Saudi Arabia. It will be chairing UNESCO’s 35th Session of the World Heritage Committee in Paris.

Bahrain has been carrying out a systematic destruction of heritage and culture over the past 50 years, where old buildings, palm tree huts, were demolished as well as a group of 21 ancient and licensed mosques, including one that is more than 640 years old. Furthermore many traditional industries such as carpentry have been destroyed.

Bahrain is a chain of islands where residents in the past used to rely on fishing as their main source of income. Bahraini residents feel that their history is being stamped out due to the demolition of their heritage and culture by the Bahraini government and feel that it is hypocritical for that same government to be chairing this event. …source

Bahrain: Authorities targeting anyone who talks to the media with arrest and prosecution
18 Jun 2011 -BCHR

Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) expresses its extreme concern over the continuous violation of the right to freedom of speech and expression by the Bahraini regime towards all those who are speaking out their opinions and beliefs to the media and exposing the human rights violations committed by the security forces in Bahrain.

Foreign media and journalists have been interested since February 14 in the Bahraini uprising, many have been to the pearl roundabout, been present in protests and rallies and have interviewed protestors, to report later on to the whole world the peacefulness and civilized nature of the uprising, their legitimate demands and calls for political reform.

On March 18, Bahraini government imposed the Martial Law and has started a campaign to conceal the facts about the on ground situation and hide its ongoing brutality and crimes. In its attempt to silence and intimidate whoever would speak out and contact the media, Bahrain regime started targeting those who have appeared on television or talked to journalists about the uprising and exposed the violations.

“They are going to Target us one by one, whoever appeared on a camera”, said Sayed Ahmed Al Wadae, (Photo on top) an engineer graduated from the UK, on AlJazeera Bahrain: Fighting for Change documentary [1], as if he was foreseeing what was going to happen, however, it did not hold him form expressing his opinion and his demands for reform, as he spoke of discrimination against shia citizens and explained how he was attacked and beaten on the first crackdown on the pearl roundabout on February 20. On March 16, right after the crackdown on the protesters at the pearl roundabout, Sayed Ahmed’s house was raided late at night and he got arrested and held incommunicado for a month before getting released on 11 April to be arrested again weeks later and presented before the military court on May 23, to be sentenced to one year imprisonment for “taking part in illegal protests and disrupting public order” [2]. The sentence was later reduced to 6 month imprisonment by the court of appeals. …source

US Government Will Review AFL-CIO Complaint Against Bahrain
by James Parks, Jun 16, 2011

The AFL-CIO today applauded the U.S. Department of Labor’s decision to accept its complaint regarding the government of Bahrain’s failure to live up to its trade agreement commitments with respect to workers’ rights.

The complaint, filed April 21 with the Office of Trade and Labor Affairs, documents the Bahrain government’s repression of peaceful protests and attacks on the General Federation of Bahraini Trade Unions (GFBTU). Click here to read the complaint.

For two months, the union movement around the world and in the United States has called on the government of Bahrain to halt its all-out attack against workers. In retaliation for peaceful protests and as part of the Bahraini government’s overall crack down on dissent, more than 1,700 workers have been summarily dismissed from their jobs, frequently in contravention of Bahrain’s labor laws.

“The egregious attacks on workers must end, and the Bahraini government’s systematic discrimination against and dismantling of unions must be reversed. These actions directly violate the letter and the spirit of the trade agreement,” AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said in a statement.

Workers must be reinstated to their jobs and the elected union leadership must be allowed to function without fear of reprisals. Failure by the United States to intervene to support workers and their democratic institutions would make a mockery of the labor protections included in the free trade agreement. …more

Rhetoric Versus Reality: US Involvement in Bahrain
by grtv

While NATO continues bombarding Libya, they have quite a different approach with other countries–take for instance Bahrain. The country’s crown prince was in Washington DC last week and made a statement at a briefing with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. “We are committed to changes and to find out ways to closer work with the US. We are a very important ally to the US,” said the prince.

Clinton expressed support for Bahrain, stressing it was a very important for the US. While they were talking about reforms, however, dialogue out of Bahrain shows that that is very far from the case overseas.

Michel Chossudovsky, the director of the Center for Research on Globalization, joins RT to talk about the matter. …source

Bahrain to lift ban on major opposition party
Government “taking steps” to reinstate Waad party, but opposition officials remain sceptical of talks with Manama. – Last Modified: 18 Jun 2011 17:53

Bahrain’s government is preparing to lift a ban on the country’s second largest opposition party, ahead of a national dialogue to ease the Gulf island kingdom’s political crisis.

Radhi al-Mousawi, a spokesman for the National Democratic Action Society, or Waad, said on Saturday that the government would lift the ban on its headquarters in the capital, Manama, and later at its office in Muharraq.

The state news agency BNA confirmed the news, citing the justice ministry as saying steps were being taken to lift the ban.

Authorities shut down Waad in April amid a crackdown by security forces on pro-democracy protests.

Welcoming political dialogue

Mousawi said the group had sent a statement to the government welcoming the political dialogue, set by King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa to begin on July 1, and asked for the king to look into the case of Waad’s detained leader.

Ibrahim Sharif is in prison along with several other opposition leaders, including Hassan Mushaimaa, the president of the Shia Islamist party al-Haq.

Both are among 21 people facing trial on charges of plotting a coup with backing from “foreign terrorist groups”.

Bahrain’s Sunni rulers have accused the protesters, backed mostly by Shia groups but also by the secular Waad party, of being backed by Iran. Opposition groups deny the charges.

Bahraini opposition activists said that Waad had been under pressure to welcome the national dialogue in return for an end to the ban.

Both Waad and Wefaq, the largest Shia opposition group, have stopped short of saying they will join the talks. Some Wefaq members have said they are wary of taking part because of reports that dozens of groups will be invited.

Diluting the opposition

Government supporters say groups that are not political parties should attend to represent Bahrainis who are not politicised.

The opposition argues it will dilute their voice in negotiations.

Sheikh Ali Salman, head of Wefaq, told crowds in a rally of more than 10,000 people on Friday that too many groups would “be a social gathering, not a political dialogue”.

Sheikh Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa, Bahrain’s crown prince, who led an earlier round of talks that failed just as the government began its crackdown, called on all citizens to work for dialogue.

Seen as a moderate in the ruling family, Sheikh Salman is the preferred choice of the opposition to lead talks.

The opposition has criticised the king’s choice of the speaker of the state’s lower parliament, who is seen as conservative on political reform. …more