Popular uprisings have swept a number of Arab countries. Some have toppled the regime, as in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, and some have ended with neither victor nor vanquished, as in Yemen. In some places, such as Syria, the unrest continues. In Bahrain, there was an attempt to change the country from a kingdom into a religious regime based on clerical rule, Iranian-style. The spiritual guide Issa Qassem is inspired by the Iranian supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, and considers him to be infallible, which means that the former is not democratic. The secretary general of the Wifaq Association, Sheikh Ali Salman, is a clergyman who studied Islamic Sciences in 1987-1993 in Qom, Iran. He returned to Bahrain to work as an imam at a mosque, before getting involved in politics. In Bahrain there are around 300 Shiite men of religion, most of whom studied in Qom, and all speak Farsi. I visited Bahrain when the Shiite protest movement began. On two successive nights I went to Pearl Square, and heard speakers calling for overthrowing the regime. I did not hear a single speaker call for democracy. The supreme guide and the leaders of Wifaq and other groups, such as al-Haqq (Righteousness), which is practically the antithesis of its name, seek to install a regime that cannot be democratic, but religious. Differing with the supreme leader in Iran or his deputy in Bahrain is forbidden, because one of them is carrying out God's will and whoever opposes him therefore opposes God. Naturally, when Iran's agents sit with foreign journalists or representatives of human rights organizations, they do not talk about the supreme leader in Qom or his leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, or the supreme leader in Bahrain. Instead, they talk about democracy, which cannot emerge or function properly based on religious rule, which places Shiite-Persian loyalty over national loyalty. The foreigners have taken the bait, and fallen hook, line and sinker. I have mentioned this in previous columns and I return to the topic today, after Bahrain's highest court confirmed life sentences for 13 Iranian agents, or "activists" as the western media calls them. Among them are Toby Jones, a professor of history and head of the Middle East Studies Center at Rutgers University. In an article recently published by Jones, he called the trials in Bahrain a farce and took the side of Iran's partisans as if he were one of them. I read the objection by Human Rights Watch to the verdicts and found it to be rude; the organization claims that it knows Bahraini law more than the judges there do. Readers should note that I am criticizing the opposition without defending the government of Bahrain. The opposition wants to turn a country whose economy is flourishing with no significant natural resources (it is the smallest oil economy in the Gulf) into a satellite of Iran, which is under economic blockade. There is no use in denying this. If Iraq became dependent on Iran, what hope is there for a small country such as Bahrain to remain independent of the ayatollah in Qom? Perhaps I would not have returned to the topic of Bahrain today were it not for the fact that the confirming of sentences against people agitating for civil strife reminds me of two articles in The New York Times. The first was by Nicholas Kristof, a moderate, objective commentator who is too experienced to be swayed by falsehoods. The second was by Zainab Al-Khawaja, described as a human rights activist. However, she is also a Shiite member of the opposition whose husband, along with his brother and her father, were imprisoned. I believe that she is in the opposition for the sake of pro-Iranian Shiism, and not Bahrain and its people. Nevertheless, I do ask that she not be detained or imprisoned. Kristof was banned from entering Bahrain and objected to this. I call for abolishing any decision against him by the Ministry of Interior. He should be allowed to enter and hear the opinion of the government and the opposition, instead of being left to listen to Zainab Al-Khawaja and her like, who only see half of what is going on in Bahrain. I have always said, and say today, that the opposition in Bahrain has just demands. I then warn them about their method of dealing with the government, which will mean that they have lost these demands, and perhaps the day has come in which they find themselves to be a minority in their country. When I see demonstrators holding Molotov cocktails and rocks and attacking policemen, I condemn the adult members of the opposition who send their children at night to throw rocks at any government vehicle they see. They are thus training their children in trouble-making, not respecting the authorities, and neglecting their studies. Most importantly, they are responsible for any destruction caused by these juveniles. I will end where I began. The Bahrain opposition does not want democratic rule, but rather religious rule based on a supreme leader, dependent on Iran. This will not happen. You live and see, you live and learn. [email protected]
