{"id":8649,"date":"2012-04-13T07:48:27","date_gmt":"2012-04-13T14:48:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=8649"},"modified":"2012-04-13T07:48:27","modified_gmt":"2012-04-13T14:48:27","slug":"beirut-solidarity-alkhawaja-freedom-justice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=8649","title":{"rendered":"Beirut Solidarity, AlKhawaja, Freedom, Justice"},"content":{"rendered":"

Protest in Beirut in solidarity with ‘Bahrain uprising,’ Khawaja<\/strong>
\nDana Khraiche – 13 April, 2012 – The Daily Star<\/p>\n

BEIRUT: Around 100 men and women protested Friday in Downtown Beirut in support of the \u201cuprising in Bahrain\u201d and for the release of imprisoned Bahraini activist Abdul-Hadi al-Khawaja who has been on hunger strike for 64 days.<\/p>\n

A line of women in black held large signs with Khawaja\u2019 picture as tens of army soldiers and riot police surrounded the protesters at Riad Solh square in the capital.<\/p>\n

Bahraini activists and religious figures flew in to Lebanon to help organize the demonstration in collaboration with the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, which was founded by Khawaja.<\/p>\n

\u201cBahraini people complain of the weak coverage from Arab media of their case, which is based on oppressed people who have been ruled by a backward family for decades and now they have reached the tipping point,\u201d Sheikh Jaafar al-Alawi, a leading figure in a Muslim movement in Bahrain, told The Daily Star.<\/p>\n

He added that the problem with the uprising against the government in Manama was being misrepresented as a sectarian, Shiite-led movement.<\/p>\n

He stressed that the movement was a purely secular and national one.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are grateful for the Lebanese people who embrace Arab opposition members and particularly the Bahraini ones,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

In February of last year, protests by Bahrainis calling for reform were crushed by the government. Bahrain accused Iran of fueling the protests. Tehran denied the allegations.<\/p>\n

Recent weeks have seen a renewal of large-scale protests. Last month, thousands of Bahrainis demonstrated near Manama to demand democratic reform.<\/p>\n

Describing Lebanon as an oasis of freedom in the \u201cArabian desert,\u201d Alawi expressed hope that the Lebanese would stand against oppressors everywhere and that Lebanon remains a place where people can express their views freely.<\/p>\n

A brief scuffle disrupted the protest when a young group of youths carrying posters slamming President Bashar Assad and Bahraini king Sheikh Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa tried to join in, but the anti-Manama protesters tore their signs and asked the young men to leave. …more<\/a><\/p>\n

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Protest in Beirut in solidarity with ‘Bahrain uprising,’ Khawaja Dana Khraiche – 13 April, 2012 – The Daily Star BEIRUT: Around 100 men and women protested Friday in Downtown Beirut in support of the \u201cuprising in Bahrain\u201d and for the release of imprisoned Bahraini activist Abdul-Hadi al-Khawaja who has been on hunger strike for 64 more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[247],"tags":[1925],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8649"}],"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=8649"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8649\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8650,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8649\/revisions\/8650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}