Aal-e Khalifa Regime Axing Own Feet Through Human Rights Violations

By: Kayhan Int’l 

The human rights record in the Persian Gulf island state of Bahrain has gone from bad to worse, as the repressive Aal-e Khalifa minority regime tries to cling on to its questionable rule by suppressing the majority of the population through such inhuman measures as denial of birthrights, depriving of citizenship, indiscriminate arrests, imprisonment without trial, unhygienic prison conditions, torture, lack of access to medical care, and death.

According to the latest statistics, some five thousand Bahrainis are languishing behind bars for no apparent fault but opposition to the barbaric policies of the US-British-supported regime.

Among the prisoners are juveniles and women, as well as some prominent national and international figures jailed for peaceful demands for restoration of civil liberties.

These include, religious leader Sheikh Ali Salman the Leader of the banned al-Wefaq Party which used to have almost half of the seats in the elected parliament that was unconstitutionally dissolved some eight years ago following start of the peaceful nationwide demonstrations.

If Sheikh Salman’s illegal prison sentence was unlawfully extended by several more years as his time for release approached, the latest case of official oppression is prominent activist Nabeel Ahmad Abdur-Rasoul Rajab, whose recent appeal against his unlawful detention was rejected by the so-called supreme court, which is nothing but a kangaroo court.

The regime has barred re-entry to Bahrain’s senior religious leader, Ayatollah Sheikh Eisa Qassem, who is currently in the holy city of Najaf, Iraq, following belated medical treatment in London, where he was allowed to go only after long years of house arrest.
The elderly Hassan Mushaima, the Secretary-General of the Haq Movement of Bahrain has been refused release and so also engineer Abdul-Jalil as-Singace, whose health is deteriorating.

With the full backing of the equally oppressive Aal-e Saud heretical Wahhabi regime of the 1932 British-created fiefdom called Saudi Arabia, the Aal-e Khalifa, who are descendants of pirates that seized Bahrain in the late 18th century when Iran was in a weakened state and consolidated their occupation by seeking British protection, have with gay abandon not just trampled upon human rights but have desecrated religious symbols, including copies of the holy Qur’an and banners bearing the names of Prophet Muhammad (SAWA) and his Infallible Household.

At the same time, the regime is feverishly trying to change the demography of Bahrain by settling mercenaries from Pakistan, Jordan, Yemen, and other places, while openly dilly-dallying with the illegal Zionist regime, which is in occupation of Islam’s former qibla, Bayt al-Moqaddas, and almost daily kills the Palestinian people. 

It is a matter of deep regret that the US, which has based its 5th fleet in Bahrain, blindly supports the crimes of the Aal-e Khalifa regime. Washington turns a blind eye to even the UN which on very rare occasions has condemned the tyranny of the Bahraini regime and called for release of detainees, such as Nabeel Rajab, who is no stranger to human rights circles in America and Europe.

Rajab is a member of the Advisory Committee of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East Division, Deputy Secretary General for the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), former chairman of CARAM Asia, member of the Advisory Board of the Bahrain Rehabilitation and Anti-Violence Organization (BRAVO), and Founding Director of the [Persian] Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR).

His only fault was to vocally support the peaceful uprising of the people of Bahrain and to participate in the public rallies with calls for democracy. 

Nabeel Rajab did not call for regime change and only insisted on relaxation of the police state atmosphere, in addition to denunciation of Riyadh’s meddling in Bahrain’s internal affairs.

In the eyes of the shaky regime, which might not last long, criticism of its Saudi masters is a crime while any peaceful demand for people’s rights warrants arrest and the resulting torture and deprivation of all citizenship rights.    

Since Nabeel Rajab happens to be a nephew of Mohamed Hassan Jawad Perweez, one of Bahrain’s Top Thirteen who were imprisoned for taking part in the uprising in 2011, the regime is alarmed that his release will boomerang upon it.

The Aal-e Khalifa are living in a fool’s paradise, and should know that neither London can save them nor the Americans and the Zionists, as the storm gathers pace for their imminent overthrow by young revolutionaries who have no other choice but to start an armed struggle against the repressive regime. 

Farcical Polls Will Not Avert the Inevitable in Bahrain

By: Kayhan Int’l 

Forget the claims of voter percentage turnout at the farcical polls held in the Persian Gulf island of Bahrain for the so-called parliamentary and municipal polls, which the repressive Aal-e Khalifa minority regime is trying to tout as an example of democracy in a bid to hoodwink the world.

Legitimacy was conspicuously absent during the recent regime-orchestrated campaign in which the two main parties representing the overwhelming majority of the Bahraini people were absent – al-Wefaq led by the illegally jailed religious leader Sheikh Ali Salman, and the secular Waad. 

This means both figures of voter turnout – the 67 percentage claim of the regime and the 30 percent cited by the opposition, are irrelevant – since democracy does not come through the barrel of a gun by an increasingly isolated clique of rulers that survives because of clinging to the straw called Saudi Arabia, which in turn precariously exists under the auspices of the US.

With hundreds, if not thousands, languishing in jail; with a greater number driven into exile; and with many unlawfully deprived of citizenship despite being descendants of the original inhabitants well predating the late 18th century seizure of Bahrain by the Aal-e Khalifa pirates of the Khor Abdullah waterway (between Kuwait and the Iraqi port of Umm al-Qasr), not just the recent elections but the entirety of the administration of the island state lacks legitimacy.

Repression, imprisonment, torture, and killing of the sons of the soil, or attempts to change the demography by settling foreigners and granting them Bahraini passports including the right to vote, will not ensure the survival of the regime.

And neither will the protection provided by the US 5th Fleet, which yesterday suddenly lost its overall commander, Scott A. Stearney – heaven knows whether he died a natural death, or committed suicide out of frustration, or was stealthily murdered by the Pentagon for difference of opinion, or was revolutionary executed – prolong much the rule of the minority regime.

In 2011 when the first sparks of the peaceful protests lit the skies of Bahrain at the now criminally demolished Pearl Square in Manama for reforms and dismissal of the elements blocking the just demands of the people, the rulers had the chance for defusing the crisis in its embryonic stage through dialogue with the lawfully elected representatives of the masses in the lower house of the bicameral parliament.

Arrogance, ignorance, and intransigence, on the part of Aal-e Khalifa, coupled with instigation for use of brute force against the unarmed people by the Aal-e Saud clan, which greatly feared mass demonstrations of the same kind spreading to mainland Arabia, made the minority rulers in Manama miss the golden opportunity for peaceful solution.

The elected parliament was not only unconstitutionally dissolved but even Islamic sentiments were desecrated by attacks on religious gatherings, trampling of sacred symbols, and burning of copies of the holy Qur’an, in addition to forbidding of the weekly Friday Prayers.

These are unpardonable crimes for which the unapologetic perpetrators are answerable to the Muslim Ummah in this world and will surely be held accountable in the Divine Court on the Day of Resurrection.
Now with stances hardened on both sides – the regime and the repressed masses – farcical elections for the rubber stamp houses of parliament are not the solution and cannot avert the inevitable.

The disgruntled people of Bahrain are well aware of the situation in the region. They will neither lose hope in God’s justice nor be cowed down through repression. Their eyes are open to the situation in the region – how the dictator Ali Zainal-Abedin had to flee Tunis; how the seemingly powerful Hosni Mubarak, (who used to orchestrate similar farcical elections to ensure 100 percent vote for himself), had to yield to the Egyptian people’s demand; how Saddam’s genocide of the Shi’a Arabs and the ethnic Kurds could not guarantee survival of the repressive Ba’th minority dictatorship in Iraq; and how the Yemeni people are resisting the full force of Saudi Arabia’s US-backed brutal bombing.

The future belongs to the people and not to the tyrannical powers, including the Great Satan, the US. This means lesser devils are living on borrowed time, and sooner than later, the Bahraini people will become masters of their own destiny.