Hey it probably goes on behind the gilded doors of the royal family’s palaces - why not in public then.
Anyhowz, Bahrain managed to build “a world-class racing circuit in 483 days”. Shabaash to them :k: If the royal family only showed this same determination and commitment to money, in humanitarian endeavours… how many orphanages can you build in 483 days? How much does a “world-class racing circuit cost”? How many South Africans could you buy free anti-retroviral drugs for, with that amount of money?
i know, i talk like a socialist. oh well.
Grand Prix adapts its racy formula to Islam, David Blair, 1 April 2004
Triumphant drivers must not spray one another with champagne and scantily clad “pit girls” will be conspicuously absent.
When the Formula One Grand Prix comes to Bahrain tomorrow, these traditional features of the international racing circuit will have disappeared. For the first time, the event is taking place in the Middle East and the Gulf kingdom has beaten off stiff competition to stage the challenge.
Yet Islamist sentiment in Bahrain is intensifying, and if Michael Schumacher celebrated another victory by swilling champagne in the company of bikini-clad models, he would offend two of Islam’s cardinal sensibilities at once. The island’s politicians have been assured that nothing of the sort will be allowed.
“Shaking the champagne and spreading it on the people, this is something that I don’t think the people here will accept,” said Adel al-Moawada, deputy speaker of parliament.
Race organisers are accordingly preparing non-alcoholic drinks for drivers to spray.
King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa has gone to huge lengths to host the Grand Prix. Bahrain built a world-class racing circuit in 483 days. The king even offered to put up Schumacher in a royal palace.
Yet the official drive to stage big sporting events, win foreign investment and turn Bahrain into the Gulf’s banking centre is running up against a rising Islamist tide across the kingdom.
A fortnight ago, 100 men armed with knives burst into a restaurant in the capital, Manama, and threatened diners who were drinking alcohol. The twisted wreckage of a customer’s car, petrol-bombed by the gang, still sits outside the restaurant, which is closed and guarded by police armed with tear-gas grenades.
Bahrain’s state press vented the Government’s frustration with its Islamist critics.
“Who wants to invest in a country in the grip of a group of hardliners?” asked Akhbar al-Khaleej, an official daily. “Do we want to go in the same direction as Iran?”
But many of Bahrain’s 670,000 people look to Iran for inspiration. Some 70 per cent of Bahrainis are Shiite Muslims and the Sunni monarchy views them with deep suspicion.
This tension has consequences beyond Bahrain’s borders, for the island is the headquarters of the American Fifth Fleet.
Last Friday riot police dispersed hundreds of demonstrators hurling stones at the heavily fortified US embassy in Manama.
Hussein Ramadan, 24, a protest organiser, said: “Anger is increasing day by day because of the way America is treating the Arabs and Muslim people.”
