By: Kayhan Int’l
The oppression of the Bahraini people by the repressive Aal-e Khalifa minority regime has reached alarming proportions and despite denunciations by human rights groups the world over, the US and Britain (the self-styled defenders of democracy) are ominously silent, while the UN continues to turn a blind eye.
Out of a population of 568,000 Bahrainis, over 4,000 are languishing in jail as political prisoners, while several thousand have fled the tiny Persian Gulf island state and are living in exile.
The overwhelming majority of those remaining in their ancestral land live in a state of fear, not knowing when their citizenship will be revoked by the regime, which has imported some 700,000 people from various countries to use as workforce or as mercenaries to serve in the security forces for the merciless suppression of the original Bahrainis.
Recently, a group of six Bahraini men who returned from pilgrimage to the holy shrines in Iraq and Iran, were arrested on arrival at Manama airport, accused of having ties with Hashd ash-Sha’bi and the IRGC. They were sentenced to jail by a kangaroo court and deprived of their nationalities.
The ruler Sheikh Hamad, who since 2010 has been styling himself as ‘king’ is notorious for his enmity, not only towards the Shi’a Muslim majority but also towards Sunni Muslim activists who demand democracy and representative rule.
When the popular and peaceful uprising started in 2011 at the now demolished "Maidan al-Loulou” (Pearl Square) of the capital, Sheikh Hamad invited Saudi troops to brutally crush it, and ever since,the so-called security forces continue to desecrate and destroy mosques and hussainiyahs, burn sacred texts, including copies of the holy Qur’an, and trample upon religious symbols.
The ruler’s son, Nasser bin Hamad, who is notorious as the "torture prison” and has been personally involved in the atrocities against the hapless detainees, once shamelessly tweeted: "If it was up to me, I’d give them all life [in prison].”
As head of Bahrain’s Olympic Committee, he has created a special commission to "identify and punish more than 150 members of the sporting community” who took part in the 2011 protests alone.
He has also publicly called for "a wall to fall on protesters’ heads, even if they are athletes, saying Bahrain is an island and there is nowhere to escape.
An example of the brutalities against athletes is the case of Bahraini footballer Hakeem al-Araibi, who was recently arrested at the airport in Bangkok when he arrived from Australia with his wife, unaware of the fact that the Aal-e Khalifa regime had cabled his photos and passport particulars to the authorities in Thailand by accusing him of criminal activities and demanding his extradition.
It was a shocking sight for sportsmen and sports lovers throughout the world to see the 26-year old al-Araibi being dragged to the prison barefoot in chains like a criminal.
Thanks to the protests by human rights activists all over the world, the Thai government had to release him and allow him to return to Australia where he currently resides and plays for a Melbourne club.
Meanwhile, to whitewash its criminal record and to fool the world, the regime as usual is giving extensive coverage to the holding of the so-called Formula One Bahrain Grand Prix, which the majority of citizens of the tiny Persian Gulf island state oppose, and have taken to the social media to express their disgust.
This has made the regime intensify its policy of state terrorism, whose latest victim is the young female activist, Najah Yusuf, who has been jailed and subjected to torture and abuse.
As a result, human rights groups in the West are calling on Formula One to cancel the event.
The Aal-e Khalifa regime thinks that its hosting of the US 5th Fleet in Manama, along with its subservient ties to its former colonial master, Britain, will prolong its precarious survival and safeguard it from the wrath of the people.
Its trust is misplaced, and the moment the Americans and the British realize that the regime is a liability to their vested interests, they will dump it in the dustbin of history, provided they find a secular democratic alternative – of course, not the popular government of Bahrain’s long suppressed majority, which is anathema to the imperialists and the Zionists.
The oppression of the Bahraini people by the repressive Aal-e Khalifa minority regime has reached alarming proportions and despite denunciations by human rights groups the world over, the US and Britain (the self-styled defenders of democracy) are ominously silent, while the UN continues to turn a blind eye.
Out of a population of 568,000 Bahrainis, over 4,000 are languishing in jail as political prisoners, while several thousand have fled the tiny Persian Gulf island state and are living in exile.
The overwhelming majority of those remaining in their ancestral land live in a state of fear, not knowing when their citizenship will be revoked by the regime, which has imported some 700,000 people from various countries to use as workforce or as mercenaries to serve in the security forces for the merciless suppression of the original Bahrainis.
Recently, a group of six Bahraini men who returned from pilgrimage to the holy shrines in Iraq and Iran, were arrested on arrival at Manama airport, accused of having ties with Hashd ash-Sha’bi and the IRGC. They were sentenced to jail by a kangaroo court and deprived of their nationalities.
The ruler Sheikh Hamad, who since 2010 has been styling himself as ‘king’ is notorious for his enmity, not only towards the Shi’a Muslim majority but also towards Sunni Muslim activists who demand democracy and representative rule.
When the popular and peaceful uprising started in 2011 at the now demolished "Maidan al-Loulou” (Pearl Square) of the capital, Sheikh Hamad invited Saudi troops to brutally crush it, and ever since,the so-called security forces continue to desecrate and destroy mosques and hussainiyahs, burn sacred texts, including copies of the holy Qur’an, and trample upon religious symbols.
The ruler’s son, Nasser bin Hamad, who is notorious as the "torture prison” and has been personally involved in the atrocities against the hapless detainees, once shamelessly tweeted: "If it was up to me, I’d give them all life [in prison].”
As head of Bahrain’s Olympic Committee, he has created a special commission to "identify and punish more than 150 members of the sporting community” who took part in the 2011 protests alone.
He has also publicly called for "a wall to fall on protesters’ heads, even if they are athletes, saying Bahrain is an island and there is nowhere to escape.
An example of the brutalities against athletes is the case of Bahraini footballer Hakeem al-Araibi, who was recently arrested at the airport in Bangkok when he arrived from Australia with his wife, unaware of the fact that the Aal-e Khalifa regime had cabled his photos and passport particulars to the authorities in Thailand by accusing him of criminal activities and demanding his extradition.
It was a shocking sight for sportsmen and sports lovers throughout the world to see the 26-year old al-Araibi being dragged to the prison barefoot in chains like a criminal.
Thanks to the protests by human rights activists all over the world, the Thai government had to release him and allow him to return to Australia where he currently resides and plays for a Melbourne club.
Meanwhile, to whitewash its criminal record and to fool the world, the regime as usual is giving extensive coverage to the holding of the so-called Formula One Bahrain Grand Prix, which the majority of citizens of the tiny Persian Gulf island state oppose, and have taken to the social media to express their disgust.
This has made the regime intensify its policy of state terrorism, whose latest victim is the young female activist, Najah Yusuf, who has been jailed and subjected to torture and abuse.
As a result, human rights groups in the West are calling on Formula One to cancel the event.
The Aal-e Khalifa regime thinks that its hosting of the US 5th Fleet in Manama, along with its subservient ties to its former colonial master, Britain, will prolong its precarious survival and safeguard it from the wrath of the people.
Its trust is misplaced, and the moment the Americans and the British realize that the regime is a liability to their vested interests, they will dump it in the dustbin of history, provided they find a secular democratic alternative – of course, not the popular government of Bahrain’s long suppressed majority, which is anathema to the imperialists and the Zionists.
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