{"id":3414,"date":"2011-10-07T06:10:30","date_gmt":"2011-10-07T13:10:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=3414"},"modified":"2011-10-07T06:10:30","modified_gmt":"2011-10-07T13:10:30","slug":"obama-repeatedly-kicks-bahrain-opposition-to-the-crub-as-pleas-for-his-help-grow-louder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=3414","title":{"rendered":"Obama repeatedly “kicks Bahrain Opposition to the crub” as pleas for his help grow louder"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jailed doctors call for U.S. support in Bahrain<\/strong>
\nWashington Post – 7-OCt.2011<\/p>\n

HAMAD I MOHAMMED\/REUTERS – A boy holding a Bahraini flag gestures to the camera as he participates in a rally held by the Shi’ite opposition party Al Wefaq in Tubli, south of Manama, September 22, 2011. REUTERS\/Hamad I Mohammed (BAHRAIN)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe thought there were positive signs in Obama\u2019s speech. He encouraged the government of Bahrain to have real dialogue with the opposition,\u201d he said. \u201cBut they are not really active, because the American Navy is stationed in Bahrain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe Stork, the deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch, said the administration had been reserved in its criticism since May. \u201cThe U.S. government has plenty to say about human rights in Iran, Syria or Libya but rather loses its voice when it comes to Bahrain,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

There are growing worries that Bahrain has become deeply divided along sectarian lines in the aftermath of the uprising. The divisions are driven in part by discontent among the country\u2019s Shiite majority at perceived discrimination by the government, which is led by the Sunni Muslim al-Khalifa royal family.<\/p>\n

Alekri, the surgeon, said there were areas of the country he could no longer visit because he feared that Sunni people would attack him. He said he has been described as a killer doctor on state television. His daughter has been bullied in school by her Sunni classmates, he added.<\/p>\n

The fear goes both ways.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmong the Sunni community, there is a fear of the protesters vastly disproportionate to the threat they pose,\u201d said Jane Kinninmont of the London-based Chatham House think tank.<\/p>\n

She said a state media campaign portraying Shiite protesters as armed and dangerous had widened the gap between the sects.<\/p>\n

The unrest in the kingdom of a million subjects has also stirred existing sectarian tensions in neighboring countries. Bahrain\u2019s Gulf Air has suspended all flights to Iraq, which is led by a majority-Shiite government. Relations have worsened between Iran, where the Shiite theocracy has been vocally supportive of the protest movement, and Saudi Arabia\u2019s Sunni leadership, which sent troops to Bahrain to assist the government in quelling the uprising.<\/p>\n

Iraqi Shiite groups, both inside and outside the country, have campaigned on behalf of the Bahraini protesters.<\/p>\n

Although the monument at Pearl Square in Bahrain\u2019s capital was destroyed by government forces in March, hundreds of protesters still take to the streets every day.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany Shia who were not political before have been alienated as they see nonpolitical, professional Shia people being targeted,\u201d Kinninmont said. \u201cThe society is now deeply divided.\u201d …more<\/a><\/p>\n

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Jailed doctors call for U.S. support in Bahrain Washington Post – 7-OCt.2011 HAMAD I MOHAMMED\/REUTERS – A boy holding a Bahraini flag gestures to the camera as he participates in a rally held by the Shi’ite opposition party Al Wefaq in Tubli, south of Manama, September 22, 2011. REUTERS\/Hamad I Mohammed (BAHRAIN) \u201cWe thought there 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":[1410],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3414"}],"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=3414"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3414\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3415,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3414\/revisions\/3415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}