Everything you know about Bahrain is wrong. What I just wrote is a quote from the title of a famous book named “Everything You Know Is Wrong." I remembered it as I was reviewing the news I have about Bahrain, because of the Formula One Grand Prix taking place today. The book was published in 1998 and remained in the bestselling book chart for weeks. Lloyd Pye, the author, insists that all the facts that people have taken for granted are wrong, including the creation, the earth surface and other facts. The news I read about Bahrain is wrong. I am writing about a country that I knew when I was a teenager. Since then, I have always been in touch with Bahrain and I know the rulers and the people there. A group within the British parliament objected to having the race in Bahrain due to the “most atrocious Human Rights violations" committed in Bahrain according to the group's letter. The letter did not read ‘atrocious' but rather ‘the most atrocious,' which is something that the British parliamentarians never said about Israel and the criminal occupation of Palestine, in which Britain played a historic role. I do not think that any of the British parliamentarians attended the Bahrain race, while I attended the first race with my family in 2004. I also attended last year's race with my daughter and there were no problems in the hotel, the capital or the arena. I have so many examples and I can write a book about this, but I will pick a few: - A column headlined, “Who needs the Grand Prix of Bahrain," insisted that this race is the most important part in the country's political program. What was the government doing before 2004? The column does not say. - Al-Wifaq organization condemned the bombing in the financial district regardless of its source. However, Press TV went on to publish a silly erroneous report stating that the bombing is the result of a dispute in the ruling family. - The Ayatollah, Sheikh Issa Qassem, called on the regime to make reforms and to stop violating the rights of the others. The other sheikh, Ali Salman, said that the army is ruling the country because of the many checkpoints in the streets. I say to the Guide, “Give it up. You do not want reform. You rather want to establish a Faqih rule and you want Bahrain to be subjected to Iran." And I say to the head of Al-Wifaq that the checkpoints were erected, because the Opposition sent children with rocks and Molotov bombs to carry out attacks and use the Grand Prix in order to catch the opposition's attention. - Zainab al-Khawaja is now holding a food strike in a Bahraini prison just like her father, Abdel Hadi, who wants to imitate the Palestinian prisoners. Zainab sent a letter to the well-known moderate journalist, Nicholas Christopher. The letter was published in the New York Times. I do not want to see Zainab or her father in jail. However, I believe she is a hypocrite. She addresses the Americans by quoting Martin Luther King and John Kennedy. In other words, she is trying to fool them just like her father tried to fool us by talking about democracy instead of mentioning the Faqih rule. - A child, Ali Ahmad Ibrahim al-Jaziri, was killed during the opposition's protests. I do not wish to add to his family's pain. I will thus say that I fully condemn the firing of bullets against the protesters and I also condemn the adults who encourage their children to take part in protests. The children thus take to the streets with rocks and firebombs. The police will retaliate and this is a joint responsibility. - A guy called Ali Al-Aswad was quick to tell the Guardian that there were both Sunnis and Shiites in the Lulu Roundabout. This is not true. I went there and there were no Sunnis. A report issued by the Carnegie Institute states that “hundreds of thousands" of Bahrainis staged protests two years ago against injustice and theft. Hundreds of thousands? All the Bahrainis and non Bahrainis living within the borders amount to one million so where did these protesting masses come from? The protests rather aimed at establishing the Faqih rule. Besides, theft is difficult in a country with no natural resources like Bahrain. This silly report affected Carnegie's objectivity. The positions of Amnesty International and the Human Rights Watch are even worse. These two organizations believed the opposition's lies. Their regular reports and statements reveal nothing about Bahrain, but rather tell of the ignorance and naiveté of their authors. The last report from the Human Rights Watch is kind of “stupid", since it indicates that the Bahrain race organizers are ignoring the human rights violations that are directly related to the race. This is directly connected to those who are calling for the Faqih rule, because Iran's gangs want to destroy Bahrain and these are the ones that should be questioned about the violations rather than the athletes. I will not say more, because I still have some respect for the two organizations. I recommend that they open their eyes, because everything they know and say about Bahrain is wrong. [email protected]
