{"id":3141,"date":"2011-09-18T20:35:46","date_gmt":"2011-09-19T03:35:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=3141"},"modified":"2011-09-18T20:35:46","modified_gmt":"2011-09-19T03:35:46","slug":"bahrain-feature-repression-tears-apart-a-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=3141","title":{"rendered":"Bahrain Feature: Repression Tears Apart a Country"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bahrain Feature: Repression Tears Apart a Country (Shadid)<\/strong>
\nFriday, September 16, 2011 – Scott Lucas – EA WorldView<\/p>\n

Demolition of a Shia Mosque in BahrainAn interesting parallel to James Miller’s coverage on EA of the situation in Bahrain — Anthony Shadid, who in my opinion is one of the best reporters for first-hand observation, reports for The New York Times:<\/p>\n

The battle began soon after sundown. And for the next six hours, in air heavy with heat and tear gas, phalanxes of police officers in helmets battled scores of youths in ski masks, as customers at a Costa Coffee not far away sat like spectators.<\/p>\n

No one won in the clashes, which erupt almost every night in this Persian Gulf state. Five months after the start of a ferocious crackdown against a popular uprising \u2014 so sweeping it smacks of apartheid-like repression of Bahrain\u2019s religious majority \u2014 many fear that no one can win.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is all cutting so deep,\u201d said Abdulnabi Alekry, an activist whose car was stopped at one of the checkpoints of trash bins, wood and bricks the youth had fashioned during the clash in August. \u201cThe fabric here was never that strong, and now it is torn.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the revolts that have roiled the Middle East this year, toppling or endangering a half-dozen leaders, Bahrain, an island kingdom once best known for its pearls and banks, has emerged as the cornerstone of a counterrevolution to stanch demands for democracy. While the turmoil elsewhere has proved unpredictable \u2014 the ascent of Islamists in Egypt, the threat of civil war in Syria and the prospect of anarchy in Yemen \u2014 Bahrain suggests that the alternative, a failed uprising cauterized by searing repression, may prove no less dangerous.<\/p>\n

See also Bahrain Special: New Martyrs, New Protests, New Crackdown<\/p>\n

The crackdown here has won a tactical and perhaps ephemeral victory through torture, arrests, job dismissals and the blunt tool of already institutionalized discrimination against the island\u2019s Shiite Muslim majority. In its wake, sectarian tension has exploded, economic woes have deepened, American willingness to look the other way has cast Washington as hypocritical and a society that prides itself on its cosmopolitanism is colliding with its most primordial instincts. Taken together, the repression and warnings of radicalization may underline an emerging dictum of the Arab uprisings: violence begets violence.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe situation is a tinderbox, and anything could ignite it at any moment,\u201d said Ali Salman, the general secretary of Al Wefaq, Bahrain\u2019s largest legal opposition group. \u201cIf we can\u2019t succeed in bringing democracy to this country, then our country is headed toward violence. Is it in a year or two years? I don\u2019t know. But that\u2019s the reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

For decades, Bahrain\u2019s relative openness and entrenched inequality have made it one of the Arab world\u2019s most restive countries, as a Shiite majority numbering as much as 70 percent of the population seeks more rights from a Sunni monarchy that conquered the island in the 18th century. But February was a new chapter in the struggle, when the reverberations of Egypt and Tunisia reached Bahrain and, after bloody clashes, protesters seized a landmark known as Pearl Square, where they stayed for weeks. …more<\/a><\/p>\n

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Bahrain Feature: Repression Tears Apart a Country (Shadid) Friday, September 16, 2011 – Scott Lucas – EA WorldView Demolition of a Shia Mosque in BahrainAn interesting parallel to James Miller’s coverage on EA of the situation in Bahrain — Anthony Shadid, who in my opinion is one of the best reporters for first-hand observation, reports more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[247],"tags":[743],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3141"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3141"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3141\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3142,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3141\/revisions\/3142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}