Israeli official: hunger striker is a “terrorist”
20 February, 2012 – al-Akhkbar

An Israeli official has described 63-day Palestinian hunger striker Khader Adnan as an “Islamic Jihad terrorist” without producing any evidence to prove his claim.

Adnan, a 33-year-old baker, has been on hunger strike since shortly after he was detained in a late-night raid on December 17.

He is being held under what Israeli law calls administrative detention, meaning he can be held without trial or charges indefinitely.

The case has drawn widespread condemnation of the Israeli policy, with rights groups urging the Jewish state to release Adnan or charge him with an offense.

But Ofir Gendelman, the Israeli Prime Minister’s spokesman to the Arab media, provoked anger by calling Adnan an “Islamic Jihad terrorist” on Twitter.

He also said that Israel should not release Adnan as he would “kill our kids.”

Under Israel’s military law, prisoners can be held in administrative detention for up to six months without charge or trial. The detention can be renewed at the end of the period, effectively allowing Israel to hold Palestinians in jail indefinitely.

Israel claims that Adnan is a threat to public safety, but has yet to produce any evidence for the claim, while Adnan’s lawyers have been unable to view the evidence on which he is detained.

A local rights group, al-Haq, said 315 Palestinians were being held under the edict.

Amnesty International has condemned his continued detention, calling on Israel to either charge or release him.

Human Rights Watch has argued that withholding reasons for arrest constitute a violation of international law. …more

The PR Octopus & Its Incredibly Long Tentacles
20 February, 2012 – Marc Owen Jones

3 weeks ago, a British PR and Strategic Communication firm called Dragon Associates forced the Guardian to take down an article from their Comment is Free section. Today the Guardian have put it back up. The article in question stated that the head of security at the BIC (Bahrain International Circuit) had been involved in torturing employees on the racetrack premises. Dragon Associates claimed that the article contained ‘considerable inaccuracies’. Despite this, the article has gone back up exactly the same as before, albeit with a footnote tacked on at the end. This footnote reads

In its letter of complaint, the BIC makes the following points: while the BIC accepts that in April 2012 the police took some of its employees to the police station for interrogation, it denies the allegation that its security staff were involved in any repressive activities, or that its staff tortured, beat or mistreated BIC employees on BIC premises. The BIC says that if any of its employees were beaten or otherwise badly treated by BIC security staff – which it denies – it would have been without BIC’s knowledge, instructions or orders.

It is interesting to note that the Guardian were so quick to take down a piece that ended going back up unchanged. John Lubbock, the article’s co-author, also informed me that the piece was taken down prior to the Guardian actually receiving a formal complaint. Despite all these interesting oddities, Dragon Associates were obviously successful in stalling the incendiary article until Bahrain had more or less secured the hosting of the Grand Prix (tickets go on sale today). Furthermore, they also managed to get a footnote added to the article, which seems a bit unusual on ‘Comment is Free’. The footnote is also odd because it basically says that while the BIC deny that its security were involved in the mistreatment, it accepts that it could have happened without their knowledge. Essentially, this added paragraph does nothing to disprove the veracity of the preceding article, it merely serves to add an element of doubt to the story. Not quite sure how Dragon Associates managed to pull this off, maybe they used ‘Right of Reply’. All I know is, when these guys breathe fire, people get scared.

Tear Gas and Tyre Burning

For those who don’t see failure to reform as a good enough reason to not host the Formula One, the announcement that tickets would go on sale today was welcome. Unfortunately, however, the reporting of ‘good news’ in Bahrain is often accompanied by a concerted effort to marginalise any bad news. Indeed, I spent my morning being trolled for tweeting an article in Al-Wasat (a Bahrain newspaper) about how tear gas was harming domestic birds. This trolling included the suggestion that I carry out my own independent experiment into the potential long-term impact of tear gas on domestic avian species before tweeting the article. I suppose that’s not an unreasonable suggestion. I mean I could theoretically take a degree in biology, gain work experience in a laboratory, apply for funding to do the aforementioned project, and then, 6 years down the line, consider tweeting the Al-Wasat article again? …more

February 18: Another Death Caused by Excessive Use of Tear Gas by Security Forces
18 February, 2012 – Bahrain Center for Human Rights

An elderly man, Mansoor Salman, 85 years old from Sitra passed away today morning due to deterioration of his health as a result of inhalation of toxic gases shot by security forces on 2 Feb 2012. He was transferred to SMC after suffocating with toxic gases and he stayed there until he died yesterday. Mansoor’s death due to toxic gases is the last of a series of similar incidents where people dies because of heavy shooting of tear (toxic) gas in residential areas. …source

Bahrain, facing Shi’ite unrest, considering federation with Saudis
19 February, 2012 – Grendel Report

ABU DHABI — A leading parliamentarian has urged Manama to propose a formal union between Bahrain and neighboring Saudi Arabia in an effort to deal with the threat of an Iranian-backed Shi’ite revolt.

Parliamentarian Adel Al Muawda said the proposal has been endorsed by the Saudi leadership.

“Bahrain should make the first move towards the union that will be joined by the other members of the GCC,” Al Muawda said.

Bahrain and Saudi Arabia are regarded as having the closest relations of any two GCC states. A 25-kilometer causeway links the two countries and Saudis flock to Bahrain for Western-style entertainment.

“We have the same identity and the same social, cultural and economic fabric,” Al Muawda said. “We can learn from the European Union, and as long as there is determination, there should be no obstacle.”

Both Bahrain and Saudi Arabia have been battling what they termed Iranian-sponsored Shi’ite unrest. On Feb. 10, Saudi police were said to have killed a Shi’ite gunmen in the Eastern Province while Bahraini security forces hurled tear gas and sound grenades in a clash with Shi’ite demonstrators in Manama. Two Americans were also said to have been arrested during the Manama protest.

In December, Saudi King Abdullah urged the other five GCC states to consider a formal union. Abdullah said such a move would bolster military and financial security amid threats from neighboring Iran.

“There are also impediments and divergences on the foreign policies of some GCC countries that may stall the move towards a Gulf confederation,” Al Muawda, who raised the issue with Bahrain Foreign Minister Khalid Bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, said.

The GCC has established a panel to examine the feasibility of a Gulf Arab union. Al Muawda, a strong supporter of Riyad, said Bahrain should be the first country to merge with Saudi Arabia.

“This is a crucial issue and cannot be procrastinated or delayed as the conditions in the region are becoming vitally sensitive and critically ominous,” Al Muawda said. “There are too many intricately dangerous layers in the region and no country can handle them without support from others. …source

Silence as Bahraini children are stabbed and gassed
19 February, 2012 – By Tighe B. – Witness Bahrain

Injuries sustained by protester courtesy of Bahraini security services.Injuries sustained by protester courtesy of Bahraini security services.

As part of an observer delegation in Bahrain with the peace group Code Pink, I visited the village of Bani Jamrah with local Bahraini human rights activists.

In one of the many horrific cases we heard, a 17-year-old boy Hasan, his friend and his 8-year-old brother left their home to go to the grocery store. As they were entering the store they noticed some other youngsters running. Fearing the police would be following them, they decided to wait in the store. The 8 year old hid behind a refrigerator. The police entered the store with face masks on. They grabbed the older boys, pulling them out of the store and into the street.

Once outside the shop the police began to beat them with their sticks and hit them on the head, shouting obscenities and accusations. The police were accusing them of having been involved with throwing Molotov cocktails, asking over and over “Where are the Molotov cocktails?”

The four policemen, all masked and wearing regulation police uniforms, took turns beating the boys while one was instructed to keep watch to make sure no one was video taping. They seemed to be very concerned that there be no witnesses. Quickly, they forced the boys into the waiting police car. Inside the police vehicle was another youth about 18 who appeared to be “Muhabharat,” or plain-clothes police thugs associated with many dictatorships in the Middle East.

As the car sped off, the boys were told to keep their heads down “or we will kill you.” Soon they arrived at an open lot away from possible onlookers. As the two boys were being pulled from the car, the policeman who seemed to be in the charge shouted, “Make them lie down.” Once they were face down on the ground, the policemen took out their knives and stabbed both boys in the left buttock, leaving a gaping wound. The police thugs continued their “questioning”, using profanity to scare their victims. They threatened the boys that they would go to jail for 45 days for “investigation” and that they would never go back to school or get work.

When the thugs realized that they had no choice but to leave these victims, since they had no knowledge of the Molotovs, they searched them to see what they could steal. They took the boys’ mobile phones and asked them to hand over whatever money they had. When they discovered that the boys only had 500fils (about $1.50US), they kicked one of them in the raw wound, laughing as they left them bleeding. …more

To the American Government,

Due to the aforementioned circumstances, and due to the request of the regional director, Benghazi, for the prisoners to choose where they wish to be transferred. We see that your prison in Guantanamo is much more merciful than your prisons in the Kingdom of Morocco. And based on what we have learned from our acquaintances who have relatives in Guantanamo, we wish to confirm we have decided, with our full intellectual faculties, to request that you transfer your prisoner, who is our husband, Moulay Umar Amrani Hadi, from your prisons Toulal 2 and Sale’ 2 to your prison in Guantanamo in Cuba. We request that this is seen to as soon as possible, so that he may have his full rights as a prisoner and be treated humanely.

An Open Letter to the American Government: Transfer Our Husband to Guantanamo…
12 February, 2012 – aseerun

Peace upon those who follow the guidance:

We the undersigned Nouzha Amrani and Fatiha Hassani (Um Adam El-Mejjati), the lawful wives of Moulay Umar Amrani Hadi who is sentenced to 10 years imprisonment unjustly. He is constantly being transferred to and from Toulal 2 prison and Sale’ 2 prison. We appeal to the American government to transfer its prisoner from its previously mentioned prisons to its detention centre in Guantanamo, Cuba.

This is for the following reasons:

Your prisoner suffers from various chronic illnesses, he is 47 years old, yet he is always subjected to torture. Bearing in mind he was sentenced to prison only not prison and torture.

Types of torture:

Psychological torture: Subjecting him to constant psychological pressure by, Provocation, humiliation, Insults and threats. He is held in a wing with the general prison population where cigarette smoke fills the air, abusive language is the norm and there is constant noise that prevents him from sleeping. For nine months he has been held in solitary confinement, in a very small cell that lacks the conditions for human residence. He was put in a punishment cell twice within three months. He is prevented from direct visits (without barriers), and being with his wife Nouzha Amrani. They suffice with a barrier visit, even his kids, Abdulrahman, 7, and Zainab, 5. Since three weeks ago his son visited him without a barrier for 15 minutes only in an office. They had a desk in-between them and were surrounded by guards. Zainab refused to go to the visit because of what she experienced before. She would remember the barriers and small windows and the fact she couldn’t sit with her father nor kiss him. He is prevented from seeing his second wife Um Adam, since the 4th of July 2011, even if the visit is a barrier visit. This continues although she has legal permission from the general prosecutor of the King in Meknes. The prison administration and all those behind it, have sought to hinder the process of completing a legal (marriage) contract, bearing in mind we have completed all the necessary procedures on our part from the date of the 28th of February 2011.

Physical torture: Beating, starvation, poor food in quality and quantity, stripping. Prevention from a change of clothes, bathing, and the use of hygiene products for 47 days.

Bathing once a week, sometimes with cold water. Being subjected to extremely high temperature with no ventilation. Being intentionally subjected to the freezing cold, while they know very well he suffers from arthritis. Lack of hot water to be used for ablution considering he suffers from an anal fistula. Being tortured by his chronic illnesses, this is done by medical neglect and the prevention of medication which we have provided him with. Being blindfolded and shackled…..

As for us then we are being put into a despicable, systematic war of attrition on the psychological, physical and financial level. It reminds us of how our families in occupied Palestine live.

The administration of Ibn Hashim devised new methods of torturing us. In addition to preventing Um Adam from seeing her husband now for 32 times, although she has suffered the difficulties of travel until Toulal. On the 12th of January 2012 she had an appointment, which became more of a marathon and one of much pain. She reached Toulal 2 at 8:45 after spending the night in Fez coming from Casablanca, in order to be close to the city of Meknes. The employees in the prison informed us that our husband is in Sale’ 2. She (Um Adam) boarded a high-speed train to Sale’. She arrived at Sale’ 2 prison at 11:30. The employee there told her that our husband has been transferred to Toulal 2 a few minutes ago!
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The Intelligence Factory: How America Makes its Enemies Disappear
14 February, 2012 – aseerun

When I first read the U.S. government’s complaint against Aafia Siddiqui, who is awaiting trial in a Brooklyn detention center on charges of attempting to murder a group of U.S. Army officers and FBI agents in Afghanistan, the case it described was so impossibly convoluted—and yet so absurdly incriminating—that I simply assumed she was innocent.

According to the complaint, on the evening of July 17, 2008, several local policemen discovered Siddiqui and a young boy loitering about a public square in Ghazni. She was carrying instructions for creating “weapons involving biological material,” descriptions of U.S. “military assets,” and numerous unnamed “chemical substances in gel and liquid form that were sealed in bottles and glass jars.”

Siddiqui, an MIT-trained neuroscientist who lived in the United States for eleven years, had vanished from her hometown in Pakistan in 2003, along with all three of her children, two of whom were U.S. citizens. The complaint does not address where she was those five years or why she suddenly decided to emerge into a public square outside Pakistan and far from the United States, nor does it address why she would do so in the company of her American son.

Various reports had her married to a high-level Al Qaeda operative, running diamonds out of Liberia for Osama bin Laden, and abetting the entry of terrorists into the United States. But those reports were countered by rumors that Siddiqui actually had spent the previous five years in the maw of the U.S. intelligence system—that she was a ghost prisoner, kidnapped by Pakistani spies, held in secret detention at a U.S. military prison, interrogated until she could provide no further intelligence, then spat back into the world in the manner most likely to render her story implausible.
[Read more →]

Iran: Oil Exports Cut To Britain, France
by The Associated Press – 19 February, 2012

Iran has halted oil shipments to Britain and France, the Oil Ministry said Sunday, in an apparent pre-emptive blow against the European Union after the bloc imposed sanctions on Iran’s crucial fuel exports.

The EU imposed tough sanctions against Iran last month, which included a freeze of the country’s central bank assets and an oil embargo set to begin in July. Iran’s Oil Minister Rostam Qassemi had warned earlier this month that Tehran could cut off oil exports to “hostile” European nations. The 27-nation EU accounts for about 18 percent of Iran’s oil exports.

However, the Iranian action was not likely to have any significant direct impact on European supplies because both Britain and France had already moved last year to sharply curtail oil purchases from Tehran to less than 3 percent of their daily needs.

The EU sanctions, along with other punitive measures imposed by the U.S., are part of Western efforts to derail Iran’s disputed nuclear program, which the West fears is aimed at developing atomic weapons. Iran denies the charges, and says its program is for peaceful purposes.

The spokesman for Iran’s Oil Ministry, Ali Reza Nikzad-Rahbar, said on the ministry’s website Sunday that “crude oil exports to British and French companies have been halted.”

“We have our own customers and have no problem to sell and export our crude oil to new customers,” he said.

Britain’s Foreign Office declined comment, and there was no immediate response from French officials.

The semiofficial Mehr news agency said exports were suspended to the two countries Sunday. It also said the National Iranian Oil Company has sent letters to some European refineries with an ultimatum to either sign long-term contracts of two to five years or be cut off.

Mehr did not specify which countries were sent the ultimatum, but Spain, Italy and Greece are among Europe’s biggest buyers of Iranian oil.

Iran’s targeting of Britain and France appeared to be a political decision to punish the two countries for supporting tougher sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program.

Sunday’s announcement follows a flurry of contradictory signals by Iran about backlash against the EU for imposing a boycott on Iranian oil.

Last week, state media said Iran was planning to cut off oil exports to six EU nations, including France, but later reports said the nations were only told that Iran has no problem finding replacement customers for the European shipments.

The EU sanctions, imposed last month, were part of Western efforts to target Iran’s critical oil sector in attempts to rein in Tehran’s nuclear program.

Also on Sunday , the secretary general of Iran’s central bank said a decision by SWIFT, an international banking clearinghouse used by nearly every country and major corporation in the world, to shut Iran out from its respected network will not harm the country.

“The country will not face any problems as a result of the SWIFT measures,” Mahmoud Ahmadi was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency. He added that Iran has been “pursuing alternative solutions” since Western nations imposed sanctions on Tehran. He did not elaborate.

SWIFT said in a statement on its web site Friday that it will comply with expected instructions from the EU to cut off Iranian banks. SWIFT has previously brushed off international efforts to use its network to target countries or companies, telling enforcers that it does not judge the merits of the transactions passing through the portal.
…more

Witnessing human rights violations in Bahrain
By davidswanson – 19 February 2012 – War is a Crime

On the long flight to the Gulf Kingdom of Bahrain on February 10, I had been studying the Lonely Planet guide to the region in order to be able to explain at the airport, if needed, that I had come as a tourist. As it happened, while most passengers on our plane sailed through passport control, my travel companion Linda Sartor and I were pulled from the line and subjected to a closer examination. My sketchy knowledge of the historic and cultural sights that I had come to see was good enough to satisfy official scrutiny. We were granted tourist visas and sent on our way.

That we had come as tourists was true. We had intentionally neglected to mention, though, that we had been invited to Bahrain along with a few other international activists to monitor the government’s response to demonstrations marking the one year anniversary of Bahrain’s “Arab Spring” pro-democracy uprising on February 14. This demand for basic rights was brutally suppressed by Bahrain’s police and military backed by the army of Saudi Arabia.

We certainly would have been barred entry to the country had our full intent been told—but, as Daniel Berrigan once mused, “How much truth do we owe them?” In fact, our invitation from Nabeel Rajav, president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, came because the government had made it known that observers from established human rights organizations would not be granted visas until the next month and that access to the country by the international media was to be severely limited during that period. The regime’s resolve that there be no witnesses to the events surrounding the anniversary made our presence for those days all the more crucial.

The morning after our arrival, we met with local activists and the small group of U.S. citizens who had come before us. Before long we were in the streets of Manama, the capital city, accompanying a march to the Pearl Roundabout, the focal point of last year’s demonstration. This peaceful march of men, women and children was quickly set upon by police in full riot gear and dispersed with tear gas and percussion grenades. Our first encounter with the Bahraini police appeared to be vicious, but our local friends assured us that our presence was a restraining factor. Two of the Americans we had just met, Huwaida Arraf and Radhika Sainath, were taken into custody at this march and later that evening deported, the government said, for activities not consistent with their status as tourists. …more

Alkhawaja: “The hungerstrike allows me to shed light on human rights violations
BYSHR – 20 February, 2012

The Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights (BYSHR) has learnt that Human Rights Defender Mr.Abdulhadi Alkhawaja (51 years) is determined to continue in his hungerstrike until he secures his release. Family members have informed the BYSHR that although Mr. Alkhawaja was in high spirits, he looked thin and weak and had obvious problems concentrating.

Mr.Alkhawaja also confirmed that he had collapsed last Wednesday and was transferred to the Bahrain Defense Force Hospital after a sharp drop in his sugar and blood pressure. He was first transferred to the Jaw Prison clinic but when medics saw his condition they quickly called for an ambulance. He was semi unconscious when he was transported via an ambulance to the hospital where he suffered from muscle spasms. He received treatment but refused to end his hungerstrike.

It is important to note that this is the second hungerstrike the activists engages in with only 2 days in between, the first which was with the other 13 detained activists in protest to the ongoing human rights violations and which lasted for 1 week. The activist is currently in his 10th day of his second hungerstrike. This has contributed to the deterioration in is health condition.

Mr.Alkhawaja stated that he was on hungerstrike because as a human rights activist he needs to play a role in exposing human rights violations, whether he be on the inside or the outside of a prison cell. The hungerstrike aims to secure his release, but more importantly allow him the opportunity to do something inside prison to shed light on the deteriorating human rights situation in the country. He said that those who claim to defend human rights need to be prepared to make sacrifices, and that he was prepared for all possible consequences of this hungerstrike. He also wanted to highlight the plight of those prisoners of conscience still detained and shed light on their cause.

The BYSHR supports and respects Human Rights Defender Mr.Abdulhadi Alkhawaja’s decision to continue his hungerstrike and calls on the international community to stand behind him in order to secure his release and support his plight in highlighting the human rights violations happening in the Kingdom of Bahrain. …more

cb editor: bizarre thinking by the author of this article about attack a “nuclear program”, as if it were not the same thing as attacking a Sovereign Nation. When a Nation launches an attack with weapons of mass destruction within the sovereign borders of another nation, it is an attack attack that Nation and its Sovereignty.

US, Britain urge Israel not to attack Iran
19 February, 2012 – By Josef Federman – Associated Press

JERUSALEM: The U.S. and Britain on Sunday urged Israel not to attack Iran’s nuclear program as the White House’s national security adviser arrived in the region, reflecting growing international jitters that the Israelis are poised to strike.

In their warnings, both the U.S. joint chiefs of staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, and British Foreign Minister William Hague said an Israeli attack on Iran would have grave consequences for the entire region and urged Israel to give international sanctions against Iran more time to work. Dempsey said an Israeli attack is “not prudent,” and Hague said it would not be “a wise thing.”

Both Israel and the West believe Iran is trying to develop a nuclear bomb – a charge Tehran denies. But differences have emerged in how to respond to the perceived threat.

The U.S. and the European Union have both imposed harsh new sanctions targeting Iran’s oil sector, the lifeline of the Iranian economy. With the sanctions just beginning to bite, they have expressed optimism that Iran can be persuaded to curb its nuclear ambitions.

On Sunday, Iran’s Oil Ministry said it has halted oil shipments to Britain and France in an apparent pre-emptive blow against the European Union. The semiofficial Mehr news agency said the National Iranian Oil Company has sent letters to some European refineries with an ultimatum to either sign long-term contracts of two to five years or be cut off. The 27-nation EU accounts for about 18 percent of Iran’s oil exports.

Israel has welcomed the sanctions. But it has pointedly refused to rule out military action and in recent weeks sent signals that its patience is running thin.

Israel believes a nuclear-armed Iran would be a threat to its very existence, citing Iran’s support for Arab militant groups, its sophisticated arsenal of missiles capable of reaching Israel and its leaders’ calls for the destruction of the Jewish state.

Last week, Israel accused Iran of being behind a string of attempted attacks on Israeli diplomats in India, Georgia and Thailand. …more

Iran, Russia naval presence in Syrian waters message to US: MP
20 February, 2012 – Shia Post

A senior Iranian lawmaker says the presence of Iranian and Russian naval forces in Syria’s coastal waters is a clear warning to the US to refrain from any possible military adventurism.

“The United States should take Iran’s warning about [refraining from any possible] military intervention in Syria seriously,” Hossein Ebrahimi, deputy chairman of Iran Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, said Sunday.

He added that in the event of a US strategic mistake in Syria, Washington may receive a crushing response from Iran, Syria and a few other countries.

On Sunday, January 8, a large Russian navy flotilla led by an aircraft carrier arrived at the Syrian port of Tartus in the Mediterranean Sea for a six-day port call, to show Moscow’s solidarity with Damascus.

“The port call is aimed at bringing the two countries closer together and strengthening their ties of friendship,” the official SANA news agency quoted a Russian naval officer Yakushin Vladimir Anatolievich as saying.

Two Iranian Navy ships also docked in the Syrian port of Tartus on Friday, February 17, to train Syrian naval forces under an agreement signed between Tehran and Damascus one year ago.

“Syrians are against any form of foreign intervention in their country, but the United States by arming opposition groups is trying to harm the [anti-Israeli] axis of resistance in the region [in order to] affect Islamic Awakening in regional countries,” Ebrahimi added.

The lawmaker went on to say that the recent dispatch of a number of unmanned military and intelligence drones for operations in Syrian skies by the US military will only result in more solidarity among the Syrians.

NBC News quoted unnamed US defense officials as saying on February 18 that US drones are monitoring “the Syrian military attacks against opposition forces and civilians.”

Syria has been the scene of unrest since mid-March, 2011, with demonstrations being held both against and in support of President Bashar al-Assad’s government.

The West and the Syrian opposition accuse the government of killing protesters. But Damascus blames ”outlaws, saboteurs and armed terrorist groups” for the unrest, insisting that it is being orchestrated from abroad. …more

Hundreds in Dearborn mark anniversary of protests in Bahrain
19 February, 2012 – Dearborn Free Press – By Niraj Warikoo

Marking the first year anniversary of the protests in Bahrain, about 500 gathered in a Dearborn mosque Friday night to call for freedom and democracy in the Gulf country.

“What’s happening in Bahrain is a crime,” said Imam Husham Al-Husainy, head of the Karbalaa Islamic Education Center, where the event was held. “The world is not recognizing what is going on.”

Inspired by uprisings in other Arab countries, protests started in Bahrain on Feb. 14 last year, primarily by its Shia-majority population. The country’s Sunni rulers have squashed down on protests with help from security forces from Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. The protesters are asking for democracy, no religious discrimination, and freedom of expression in a country of 1.2 million people currently ruled by a monarchy.

The crowd in Dearborn consisted of Bahraini-Americans and supporters in the local Iraqi Shia community. Posters of people killed by security forces in Bahrain were on the walls of the mosque as speakers criticized the government of Bahrain.

Imam Hassan Qazwini, head of the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn, the biggest mosque in Michigan, was at the event to show his support. In his talk, he compared the rulers of Bahrain to Saddam Hussein, the late ruler of Iraq who often mistreated Iraqi Shias. After Saddam Hussein’s downfall, some of his security forces went to Bahrain to work in security and are helping in the crackdown, said speakers at the event.

Qazwini is a native of Iraq who is Shia and the Karbalaa center is an Iraqi Shia mosque.

The U.S. government has criticized at times Bahrain’s actions against protesters, but considers Bahrain’s King Hamad as an ally. The U.S. military has a naval base in Bahrain. The government of Saudi Arabia also supports Bahrain’s government.

Local Bahrainis want the U.S. to support the democratic aspirations of people inside their native country.

“During the past year, there has been brutality and aggression against peaceful protesters asking for their rights,” said Dr. Osama Alaradi, of Canton, a native of Bahrain.

Bahrain has set up a commission to deal with the concerns of protesters, but Alaradi said “the government is not trying to solve the problem.”
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have criticized the government for its crackdown. Last month, the U.S. State Department said it “is deeply concerned by continuing incidents of violence in Bahrain between police and demonstrators. Some US Embassy officials have met with human rights activist Nabeel Rajab, who was injured during a demonstration in Bahrain last month. …more

A fatal tweet
Young Saudi man faces execution for Muhammad comments
17 February, 2012 – Washington Times

In America, sending the wrong tweet can mean embarrassment, ostracism or losing your seat in Congress. In Saudi Arabia, it can cost you your head.

Hamza Kashgari is a 23-year-old journalist who wrote for the daily al-Bilad in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. On Feb. 4, the observance of Muhammad’s birthday, Mr. Kashgari sent out three tweets expressing what he would say if he met Islam’s founder. “On your birthday, I will say that I have loved the rebel in you, that you’ve always been a source of inspiration to me, and that I do not like the halos of divinity around you. I shall not pray for you,” the first read. “On your birthday, I find you wherever I turn. I will say that I have loved aspects of you, hated others, and could not understand many more,” went the second. The third tweet said, “On your birthday, I shall not bow to you. I shall not kiss your hand. Rather, I shall shake it as equals do, and smile at you as you smile at me. I shall speak to you as a friend, no more.”

The messages immediately caused controversy. Some welcomed and retweeted them, but thousands more angry Saudis called for Mr. Kashgari’s head for supposedly insulting Muhammad. He deleted the offending messages but soon lost his job. Last week, he attempted to flee to safety in New Zealand but was intercepted as he tried to pass through the Muslim country of Malaysia and whisked back to Saudi Arabia in a private jet. He is being held incommunicado in Jeddah while a prosecutor collects evidence to bring a case against him for “disrespecting God” and “insulting the prophet.” A conviction on either charge could bring the death penalty.

Freedom of thought is a capital crime in the Saudi kingdom. On Monday, Sheikh Saleh bin Fowzan Al Fowzan of the supreme committee of scholars in Saudi Arabia said, “We should first verify that this man did insult … Muhammad in his article on Twitter … if verified, then he must be killed.” There are reports that those who expressed public support for Mr. Kashgari’s message also could face the same charges; even a retweet could lead to the chopping block.

This is not merely a Saudi internal affair. When an Islamic theocracy may execute someone for a tweet, it’s an affront to humanity. “I view my actions as part of a process toward freedom,” Mr. Kashgari said shortly before his arrest. “I was demanding my right to practice the most basic human rights – the freedom of expression and thought – so nothing was done in vain.” These words may be his epitaph. …more