Re: Bahrain protests
Shameful and disgusting attack by the Bahraini army. These two bits dictators think they can suppress the people by killing them. They can think again. People power will succeed in the end.
Re: Bahrain protests
with due respect Ehsan Bhai!
I guess u didn't seen those footage where these peoples cut-offed pplz hand, fingures, heads, eyes, stomach etc etc. The numbers of security pplz which hospitalized are more then 360. The security pplz only given stick :ASA: to stop these rioter and they didn't aware that they r in pocession of pistol, swards, molotove, kniefs, guns etc and cut-offed them like nothing.
They won't gonna win b'coz they don't stay on one demand every single minutes they change their demands.
In Bahrain's history, this is the first time army cam out to stop these rioters b'coz the mob blocked the main intercection in the capital of Bahrain and every single life was in danger due tot them. Still army and security using tear gas and rubber bullets b'coz no official authorities granted permission to use real bullets.
Re: Bahrain protests
Re: Bahrain protests
I was trying to upload a vide from my FB’s account but couldn’t. The above vido is fake 
here is the link and check how is it fake 
Re: Bahrain protests
LMAO!
Re: Bahrain protests
with due respect Ehsan Bhai!
I guess u didn't seen those footage where these peoples cut-offed pplz hand, fingures, heads, eyes, stomach etc etc. The numbers of security pplz which hospitalized are more then 360. The security pplz only given stick :ASA: to stop these rioter and they didn't aware that they r in pocession of pistol, swards, molotove, kniefs, guns etc and cut-offed them like nothing.
They won't gonna win b'coz they don't stay on one demand every single minutes they change their demands.
In Bahrain's history, this is the first time army cam out to stop these rioters b'coz the mob blocked the main intercection in the capital of Bahrain and every single life was in danger due tot them. Still army and security using tear gas and rubber bullets b'coz no official authorities granted permission to use real bullets.
The thugs of the army are there not to protect the innocent people but the brutal rulers like the one in Bahrain who is being egged on by saudis who see their brutal dictatorship will be challenged next. From what you tell me and that you also marched with the pro king mob they collected mostly foreginers and told them to march for the king. here is the litmus test, if this dictator thinks he is really popular hold free and fair elections and he will realise how popular he is. I have no sympathy for these kingships. sorry, people are supreme. You cannot rule through the barrel of gun. Next you will be telling us that the pictures of tanks were fake also that there is no army there killing innocent people.
Re: Bahrain protests
**Bahrain unrest: Simmering resentment boils over **
By Bill Law
In the wake of Thursday’s attack on peaceful demonstrators in the capital Manama’s Pearl Roundabout, which left at least four dead and hundreds injured, claims by Bahrain’s ruling family that the police acted to avert a “sectarian abyss” have a hollow ring.
The strategic Gulf island state had a brief taste of democracy on gaining independence from Britain in 1971.
But the then and still Prime Minister Sheikh Khalifa ibn Salman al-Khalifa - the longest-serving unelected prime minister in the world - presided over the ending of parliamentary democracy in the mid-70s.
The al-Khalifas - Sunni Muslims, in a country with a significant Shia majority - ruled with an iron hand for decades.
That shifted when the prime minister’s nephew, Hamad, took the throne in 1999. He promised democratic reform and a new constitution appeared in 2002.
Parliamentary elections were held in 2005 but gerrymandering ensured that Shia Muslims remained a minority.
Meanwhile Shia Muslims, roughly 65% of the indigenous population, were growing increasingly frustrated.
High unemployment, coupled with the fact the Shia were not employed in key government ministries or to top jobs in the country’s booming banking centre, stirred resentment.
‘Foreign police’
In poor Shia villages outside Manama, unemployed youths blocked roads and set tyres ablaze.
In my first visit to the island in 2007, I was caught up in one such riot in the village of Malkiya. Security forces were firing tear gas at roving bands of youths. The riots became an almost weekly occurrence and would spread from village to village.
In Malkiya, young Shia Muslims I spoke to said that they had no work and no hope of jobs. They were angry that a member of the ruling family had seized land that had been used for generations by the fishermen of the village.
And their parents complained of poor housing and long waiting lists in a country that was awash with wealth.
Human rights activists, mostly Shia, organised frequent demonstrations to protest against the slow pace of democratisation and what they saw as the suppression of human rights.
I was also told of how the government was hiring men from Syria, Yemen, Jordan and Pakistan - all Sunni - to serve in the police and security forces.
Fast-tracked to citizenship, they were able to jump the queue for housing and also had voting rights that skewed the demographic in favour of candidates supported by the al-Khalifas.
A slow simmering resentment was significantly racheted up in August of last year when the National Security Apparatus - the country’s security service - swooped on 23 Shia academics, businessmen, religious figures and human rights activists.
The men were arrested in the middle of the night and held incommunicado for several weeks.
At the same time hundreds of other Shia men and boys were arrested.
Laywers for the 23 - accused of setting up and funding a terror organisation - said that when they were finally able to see their clients, it was clear they had been tortured. It is a charge the government denies.
However, at their first court appearance in October, the men claimed that they had confessed only under torture.
Lawyers and family members told me of bruises on wrists and ankles that are the tell-tale mark of falaqa - a torture that involves victims being tightly trussed, hoisted into the air and beaten.
Joining forces
The raids on Shia happened ahead of a general election. As in 2005, gerrymandering ensured that the Shia were kept in a minority.
However it was not until the events in Tahrir Square that Bahraini pro-democracy activists, this time both Sunni and Shia, joined forces.
Protesters claim the police response was brutal and unprovoked What had been a Shia movement was drawing young Sunnis into the protest.
Waving Bahraini flags they chanted: “We are neither Sunni nor Shia. We are Bahrainis.”
These protesters were faced by police and security forces who were largely foreign recruits.
That may explain the ferocity of the attacks on peaceful demonstrators both on Monday and Tuesday when two people were killed, and again in the early hours of Thursday morning.
Unencumbered with either local connections or tribal loyalties, and green-lighted by the government to use whatever means necessary to break up the demonstration, video evidence shows them charging into sleeping men, women and children with tear gas, rubber bullets, batons and shotguns.
At least four of the dead were shot at close range. A doctor trying to help the wounded told of how he was severely beaten by men speaking Urdu - they were Pakistanis.
The government allege that the protesters were armed and the security forces had no option but to use force.
All of the eyewitnesses I have spoken with painted a completely different picture. The protesters had no arms; women and children had come; young Shia mingled with their Sunni counterparts.
Democracy call
Video footage shot at the time of the attack supports their claim that the attack was unprovoked, unexpected, and brutal.
Protesters insist they will continue to push for democratic change but it is hard to see how they can achieve their goals in the short term.
Although further protests have been called for tomorrow, a massive police and military presence stands in their way.
The al-Khalifas are presenting themselves as a bulwark against a Shia revolt that would benefit Iran and threaten western interests in the region.
Indeed one Shia house I visited had posters of Hezbollah’s Nasrallah and Iran’s Khomeini on the wall.
However, all the Shia I have spoken to over the years insist they are loyal Bahrainis.
They point to a UN organised plebiscite in 1970 in which the Shia majority voted overwhelmingly for an independent Bahrain. At the time Iran was claiming ownership.
Shia say they want only one thing: democracy. And now for the first time, young Sunni Bahrainis in significant numbers are joining them in that call.
The image of Bahrain as a model of how democracy can evolve in the middle east, carefully nurtured by the ruling al-Khalifa family, has been severely dented.
My Comments: This news article outlines the fact that the movement in Bahrain is made up of Shia and Sunni Muslims standing together and peacefully protesting for democracy, human rights and end to royal dictatorship.
Re: Bahrain protests
In that rally 97% pplz were real arab Bahrainis and rest were mixed of those pplz who naturalized and foreingners living in Bahrain from ages or own a mutual business. They don't have anything against king's dictatorship thats why they marched to support its Government and if they had any problem they would surely demand for it whether it is free and fair elections or anything else. With due respect i live in Bahrain i know better, this is my place.
My sympathy who lost there beloved. The tank were real, not denying of it. The King since 1990 till today, Every year on National day forgiven many of those guilties who murder or were involved in murders cases of foreignes, after some terms of years in prison. Although if foreigner kills a bahraini he/she gets death penalty. Moreover, they r given many options to jobless to register themselve in M/o Labours and get 400US$ every month till he/her gets job. They can benefit themselve by getting Govt scheme houses or flat simply registering them under concern dept. + free medical services etc etc Is this called brutal ruling than i guess i hav nothing to discuss further more.
Re: Bahrain protests
Apparently most of these foreign military personnel, providing services to the royals, are from remote areas of Balochistan, Pakistan. Pepe Escober wrote that in an article on Asia Times.
Re: Bahrain protests
Footage shown by Russia Today
Re: Bahrain protests
Despots can only subjugate for so long. Sooner or later it will bite them on their back sides.
Re: Bahrain protests
Pagluu Bhai! do u how its started and what weapons were in those camp? read this Click
Re: Bahrain protests
would just like to clear some facts (yes, facts which the biased media will never bring to you)....
1: shiaa are not a majority in Bahrain
2: not all shiaas are protesting (just a certain political group)
3: most of what BBC, AlJazeerah, CNN shows is a lie
4: maybe this shud have been number 1--> those are by no means peaceful protesters, the international media shows them shouting out that we were carrying out peaceful protests lekin bhai kabhi chor ne bhee kaha hai keh woh chor hai????
and yes I was born in Bahrain, hold Bahraini nationality, and have lived through previous "protests" by the same groups that have claimed lives of many innocent civillians at the hands of these 'peaceful' protesters....
Re: Bahrain protests
Bahrain is run by dictator who thinks the country is his and his family’s personal property, like most dictators in the Arab World, but sadly for most these despots the internet has changed everything. These despots kept people under their thumbs by using fear, but once you start killing people the fear evaporates. I expect in near future most of the Arab dictators will be thrown out.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2011/02/19/world/middleeast/AP-ML-Bahrain-Identity.html?ref=world
Bahrain’s Sunni Outreach Fuels Protests
**By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS**
**Published: February 19, 2011**
MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) — Among the marchers pledging loyalty to Bahrain's embattled king were many from afar: other Sunni Arabs and South Asians granted citizenship and jobs in the tiny Gulf nation.
But here also lies one of the most deep-seated grievances by the nation’s Shiite majority, who strongly object to the royal policies to boost Sunni ranks and offer jobs-for-life posts that include the security forces that have opened fired on protesters.
It’s not known whether any nonnative soldiers were among the units that turned their guns on demonstrators Thursday, injuring more than 50 people and bringing some hospital workers to tears. But it matters little within the Shiite-led uprising that is calling to sweep away the entire dynasty that had ruled for more than 200 years.
The generous outreach to Sunnis is widely viewed as a profound betrayal by Bahrain’s rulers and feeds Shiite perceptions of second-class status and being under siege from what they call a “mercenary” security force.
It also underscores a fundamental challenge for any attempts to settle the first major political unrest in the Gulf since the revolts in Tunisia and Egypt.
Bahrain’s leadership is strongly backed by Saudi Arabia and other Sunni regimes across the Gulf, which all share major concerns about the growing military and political ambitions of Shiite powerhouse Iran. Bahrain — with the only Shiite majority in the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council — is viewed by many Sunni rulers as a bulwark against Iranian influence even though Bahrain’s Shiites and Tehran have no history of strong political bonds.
“They see us as Iranian agents. This is totally wrong and is only a justification for discrimination,” Sheik Ali Salman, the leader of the largest Shiite party, Al Wefaq, said after parliament elections in October. “We have nothing to do with Iranians, but it’s an easy excuse for the government.”
Few policies anger Bahrain’s Shiites more than bestowing citizenship to outside Sunnis, mostly Arabs but also from Pakistan and other South Asian countries.
On the broadest level, it’s a clear attempt to offset the lopsided demographics with Shiites comprising 70 percent of the country’s 525,000 citizens. But to many Shiites, it also reflects a cynical view by Bahrain’s leaders that it’s possible to buy loyalty and use that to strengthen their grip over the country.
“The problem is that this army is not a national one,” said Sheik Hassain al-Dahi. “It is made up of people who do not share our traditions or culture, and do not have the best interest of the people at heart. They are foreigners who have been brought in to be loyal to protect a certain number of people. They are merely civil servants who are slaves to their orders.”
Al-Dahi said the end to “political naturalizations” would be a key demand in any negotiations with rulers. Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al-Khalifa offered to open talks after Thursday’s bloodshed in central Manama.
Bahrain has not released figures on the number of Sunnis granted citizenship, but an opposition activist who studies the issue, Hamad Mohammad, estimates tens of thousands of people have been granted passports in recent years.
Bahrain’s citizenship laws were created in the early 1960s, but it was “nearly impossible” to meet the criteria until a wave of Shiite-led protests in the 1990s to demand greater political rights.
“The government started to use the king’s power to hand out nationalities using an exception clause. The exception now has become the rule,” Mohammad said.
The influence was clear at Friday prayers at Manama’s Grand Mosque. Many South Asians were among the worshippers draped in Bahraini flags and carrying portraits of King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.
Ironically, the cleric giving the sermon denounced the protests as opening the way for “foreign influences” — interpreted as a reference to Iran. The worshippers chanted: “Long live the king!”
Abdelrahman Ahmed, a 21-year-old student of Pakistani origin, was born in Bahrain while his father was working for the interior ministry, which oversees police forces.
“We always support the government and they are always on our side,” said Ahmed, who has Bahraini citizenship.
Osman Adel, a 20-year-old Pakistani waiting for his Bahraini passport, added: “Bahrain does so much for us and we feel equal to the Bahrainis in the country.”
Offering Bahraini citizenship goes beyond politics, however. It’s also used for instant access to talent and international prestige.
Bahrain has recruited top athletes for decades to compete under its flag. At the Beijing Olympics, Moroccan-born Rashid Ramzi stood on the podium as Bahrain’s first Olympic track and field gold medal after winning the 1,500 meters, but he was later stripped of the medal after testing positive for a blood-boosting drug. Ramzi was given Bahraini citizenship after moving to the island kingdom in 2002 to take up a post in the armed forces.
A popular Syrian-born singer, Asala Nasri, was reportedly given Bahraini citizenship after the king enjoyed one of her performances.
Re: Bahrain protests
First the crown prince orders the killing of the innocent protesters and than comes on the TV and announces mourning for those killed. Hypocrite. if the king is as 2popular" as soem are saying here why doesnt he hold free and fair elections to show the world how popular he is. Why won't he do that, because he knows in a free and fair as opposed to rig elections he and his cronies would lose their deposit. They should pay for their crimes of murder of innocent civilians. Day of judgement for all these two bits dictators is close at hand. Getting paid people to stage pro rallies won't work. It didn't work in Egypt it wont work elsewhere.
Re: Bahrain protests
^ in the previous elections, the opposition pary won all 18 seats it contested ni the parliament and 17/18 in the muncipal council.... and even that last seat in the muncipal council was won by them in the second round...
if the opposition party did not even lose a single seat what makes u say that the election was rigged?????
just baseless bigotry????
Re: Bahrain protests
Bahrain has only had one Prime Minister continuously since 1971 - Prince Khalifa bin Salman, the uncle of the King. Can anyone elaborate how he was elected or been appointed to this position throughout this entire 40 year period?
Re: Bahrain protests
http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MB18Ak01.html
All about Pearl roundabout
By Pepe Escobar
The historic, Great 2011 Arab revolt is relentless - those initial jasmine winds from the Maghreb turning into sandstorms east and west and now blanketing all latitudes across Northern Africa and the Middle East all the way to Southwest Asia, in Iran.
This Thursday, the key focus is Libya - check out this cracking rap, where “send the devil back to hell” is directed at the eternal Gaddafi. Sunday the focus is Morocco - check out this video of what young - and old - Moroccans want for their lives.
One doesn’t need to be a weatherman to see which way the wind, swirling with Gandhiesque civil disobedience, blows across the whole Umma al Arabiya (the Arab nation). And that includes hugely strategic Bahrain.
This king is speechless
Bahrain is a tiny archipelago of 1.2 million people separated from Saudi Arabia by a causeway - 65% of Bahrain is Shi’ite. But the al-Khalifa dynasty in power is Sunni. Most Shi‘ites are poor, marginalized and discriminated against - a rural proletariat. And they have been squeezed further as a mass of “imported” Sunnis - upwards of 50,000 from southern Pakistan, Balochistan, Jordan and Yemen - have been naturalized. Add to it a classic divide and rule strategy - local workforce pitted against foreign workforce; 54% of the population are guest workers, nearly half of these from southwest India.
King Hamad, in power since 2002 and a graduate of Cambridge University, is a wily ruler. There’s an elected parliament, women do vote, and some political prisoners have been released. That’s what Washington calls “stability”. But the king is terrified to death of the Shi’ite majority; no wonder virtually everyone in the Ministry of Defense and the police is an “imported” Sunni.
Bahrain does not float in oil like Abu Dhabi, or gas like Qatar. But the development model was definitely demented neo-liberal Dubai - oil fueling real estate speculation. Winners: the al-Khalifa family and selected cronies. Losers: first and foremost, Shi’ites. Then there were the aftershocks of the 2008 financial crisis. The government cut subsidies of food and fuel - while the agents and minions of global elites continued to enrich themselves. People were further enraged. To top it off, the US 5th Fleet - a self-described cop on the beat - is berthed in Bahrain.
To the roundabout
The center of the action, the theater of dreams, Bahrain’s Tahrir Square is the Pearl roundabout in Manama, smack in the middle of the main shopping malls, next to the main highway, and close to the financial center.
Here one can watch mobile phone footage of this week’s protests. Since Tuesday thousands of people had been spending the night in a new Tahrir Square-style tent city, already calling the roundabout “martyr’s square”, and multiplying to thousands during the day. Every weekend in the Muslim world - Thursday and Friday - Saudis abandon Wahhabi suffocation in droves to relax in the malls of Manama. So Saudi Shi’ites are supposed to be increasing the number of protesters.
Although there’s the odd Sunni, the protesters in Bahrain are overwhelmingly Shi’ite. And they are extremely well organized; they even have a media center, and there are first aid tents everywhere. The monarchy and the government still don’t know what hit them. This is no Oscar-nominated King’s Speech; this king is actually speechless. They even went pre-emptive, with the government last week giving US$2,660 to every family after earlier increasing food subsidies, and hiring Western public relations firms to advise on damage control.
Then came the usual. Riot police using the proverbial tear gas and rubber bullets. Internet slowing to a crawl - with government employees openly admitting they are following official orders.
Compare it to the Pearl roundabout, where protesters set up a projector and a screen to follow the global media coverage, and a canteen to distribute food. Tweets from Manama extol “the level of civility and self-organization”. A coalition of secular, leftist protesters is being formed. It was all going the Tahrir way.
Then came this Thursday, in the dead of night, a few hours after the Pearl roundabout - affectionately called Lulu by locals - was still packed with thousands, chanting their lungs out, even through the Egyptian national anthem. By 3 am, with no warning, hundreds of riot police staged a crackdown, firing rubber bullets and tear gas, beating a lot of people up, and totally clearing Lulu by 4am. Many were asleep in the tent city, including women and children. At least two protesters - perhaps three - were killed.
What will that accomplish? The protests won’t go away. Essentially, the people of Bahrain want a constitutional monarchy; fair elections; the release of all political prisoners; and the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman al-Khalifa (the king’s uncle, in power for no less then 39 years since independence from Britain), as well as the entire parliament.
Up to now the concept that the king should go was a second thought; now it’s coming to the forefront. How could it not; after all, the king only distributed his largesse to Sunnis. And after this crackdown people will be even more energized. Tweets from Bahrainis have been insisting this is a movement by the people for the people, no matter their sect. And they have refused to call it a Shi’ite uprising, claiming this is about Bahrainis fighting for a new constitution and respect for human rights, not revolution or regime change. But that may change in a minute, especially after this vicious crackdown; see Egypt three weeks ago and Iran early this week.
The main Shi’ite party, al-Wifaq, had already lost any belief in the current democratic facade, withdrawing from the elected lower house of parliament (18 seats from a total of 40) in protest against the previous crackdown (at least two people were killed, and dozens injured).
Anyway, real power in Bahrain rests with the appointed upper house and King Hamad. So much for the “stability” hailed by the US ambassador in a 2008 WikiLeaks cable. As for US President Barack Obama, he skipped the previous crackdown in Bahrain, preferring to dwell on the success of Egypt’s uprising compared to crackdowns in Iran.
It’s Iran vs Saudi Arabia
Bahrain is the privileged scenario of a proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia. Shi’ite Iran is right across the Gulf. And Saudi Arabia is on the other side of the causeway, boasting a Shi’ite majority population in its eastern provinces - where the oil is. No wonder Saudi Arabia props up the al-Khalifa with tons of cash and security.
For decades, even before the Islamic Revolution, Iran has insisted that the Shi’ites in Bahrain are Iranians because the Safavid dynasty used to occupy both margins of the Persian Gulf. Tehran basically still considers Bahrain as an Iranian province.
Women in Bahrain are closer to women in Tehran than to Saudi. They wear traditional clothes and in many cases not a full black chador; they drive their own sports utility vehicles; nobody stops them or questions them; they meet boys and men in restaurants, shops and cinemas.
There are plenty of schools and a good national university - although most women prefer to study in the US or in Lebanon. At the same time, both Iraq’s Grand Ayatollah Sistani and Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei are very popular in Bahrain.
So we have a tiny Gulf kingdom where the majority, 65% Shi’ites, do not even enjoy minority rights, with a king who can veto what he wants and cancel parliament at whim, living off a small oil industry, a booming finance sector controlled by Sunnis and foreigners, and strategic rent so Washington can harbor its expensive Gulf-patrolling naval toys.
No wonder this was bound to explode - and it will.
The medieval House of Saud simply cannot contemplate a more democratic, Shi’ite-represented Bahrain - even though it would never become a slave of Tehran. Arab Shi’ites are very independent, they consider themselves Arabs first, and Shi’ites second. Most don’t follow ayatollahs.
The key problem is that Shi’ites defying the powers that be in Bahrain would seduce all other minority Gulf Arab Shi’ites, from Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates to Saudi Arabia itself. And one thing is certain; a really representative Shi’ite-dominated government would mean goodbye to the US 5th Fleet.
This could get really messy - and it certainly will. If protests do reach an Egyptian fever level - crackdown or not - Saudi Arabia will enter the fray to keep the al-Khalifa in power. Rumors swirl that Saudi police has already crossed the causeway to combat protests.
The Saudis, like obedient vassals, after all are fighting for the interests of the US naval base. And the circus must go on - there’s a Formula 1 race coming. One thing is certain; Shi’ites will put up one hell of a fight. And sooner rather than later, they will be back with a vengeance at the Pearl roundabout.
Re: Bahrain protests
this is the real voice of Bahrain…
more than 300,000 people showing their support for the King and the Al-Khalifa family…
only fools will listen to the voice of 3000 and ignore the 300,000…