Arab News reports that nearly 40% of the people marrying in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province marry in disregard of the health risks of their marriages. Genetic testing is mandatory in Saudi Arabia due, in large part, to its long history of consanguineous marriages. Genetic problems that would not appear in marriages outside an extended family present themselves when people marry close relatives and marrying a close relative (ideally, a first cousin) is the tradition.
It does present a quandary. But so far, the government does not believe it has the coercive power to ban certain marriages, even though they are likely to lead to the birth of children with serious medical problems. Instead, it leaves it to the conscience of those who will marry—and their families, of course, as marriage in the Kingdom is almost exclusively by arrangement among parents.
What the article does not discuss, perhaps because the statistics are not captured, is what percentage of these ill-advised marriages are among the Shi’a population. As a minority, the Shi’ite population’s choices of spouses is even further circumscribed. But marrying across sectarian lines is not something most Saudis are willing to do. Will the Shi’a of the Eastern Province breed themselves into medical extinction?
38% of EP couples go ahead with marriage plans
despite health risks
MARIAM NIHAL | ARAB NEWSJEDDAH: Up to half of Eastern Province couples move forward with marriage despite medical tests showing health risks, according to Nawaf Al-Otaibi, who is in charge of the premarital testing program in the region.
Nationwide, the same estimate says over one in three marriages (38 percent) occur despite evidence of health risks.
Since 2004, prospective couples require pre-marital screening for recessive-gene disorders as well as infections, such as HIV and hepatitis. Approximately 24,000 such tests take place in the Eastern Province, one of the Kingdom’s most populated provinces. The test results take about 10 days.
“What is the point of these tests? If people are still allowed to do what they want to,” said Saba Al-Harithy, 25. “Why make it mandatory for every couple who disregard the medical aspect of their relationship.”
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Interestingly, Saudi Gazette is reporting that the Eastern Province is observing World Downs’ Syndrome Day. I guess all that can be done is to try to insure that people understand the risks…
Arab News editorializes on the few brighter aspects of King Abdullah’s speech yesterday. The overall thrust of the editorial is that Saudi Arabia is developing a nationwide welfare system for its citizens. Saudis already have a nationalized health care system: all Saudis can be treated at no cost at government clinics and hospitals. As in the UK, though, those who can afford it choose to be treated at private facilities, believing them (rightly or wrongly) to be better than the ‘free’ ones.
Housing is a problem in the Kingdom, with reasonably-sized accommodations not being reasonably priced. In his speech, the King noted that interest-free loans would be available to the amount of SR500,000 (US $133K), an increase over the current SR300,000 (US $80K). I’m not quite sure how this helps in the long run as I expect sellers to simply raise their prices in response to more money being available, but whatever…
The social programs also include, for the first time, unemployment payments of up to SR2,000/month (US $533). This is not much below starting salaries in many jobs and represents a danger of people simply deciding to take the money instead of bothering to work. The editorial notes that this can cause dependency on the government. Some in government, I suspect, see this as a feature, not a bug, but for the long-term benefit of the country, it’s an issue that needs to be monitored. Knowing that you’re making almost as much doing nothing as you’d be paid for doing something productive is a real temptation to keep doing nothing. Saudi Arabia already has a large enough number of young men who sit around not doing much of anything. The editorial does not address the issue of whether women will be eligible for unemployment compensation. I suspect not. Women already face an unemployment rate estimated around 40%, so including them could be a very expensive proposition.
For the first time, too, a minimum wage will be established, but only for government workers. As the editorial points out, this needs to be extended to the private sector as well, lest foreign workers continue to fill jobs that could be taken by Saudis solely because they’re cheaper to hire.
Now, these measure do accomplish a somewhat better distribution of Saudi Arabia’s oil revenue. I wonder, though, might it not be both simpler and more fair to simply give all Saudis a portion of that wealth, annually, as their share? This would have an advantage in helping people focus on the source of that wealth and how it is run.
Welfare system
Saudi Arabia has opened a new chapter in the relationship between state and citizenThe extensive raft of decrees announced yesterday by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah continues the pattern of reform that has been the hallmark of his rule ever since he became king six years ago.
Some are a logical update on existing regulations, such as increasing the minimum housing loan from SR300,000 to SR500,000. It is a realistic reflection of the increased costs of construction. Similarly, the increased number of loans to build hospital and the extra SR16 billion for the health sector is a response to the increased costs of health care for a rapidly growing population.
However, among the announcements there are some very radical moves.
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Writing for the Egyptian Al-Ahram Weekly, Saudi-American journalist Rasheed Abul-Sahm looks at the ‘Day of Rage’ that wasn’t and why it wasn’t.
Confusion, uncertainty, unclear goals, fear of the calls for protest being a false-flag operation, a general level of content with the status quo… all added up to little enthusiasm to take to the streets.
The article was written before the King’s speech, so it obviously does not include anything that developed there. As a result, it’s a tad outdated. Seen in light of the speech, it appears a bit too sanguine, too. The Saudis he quotes, journalists and bloggers alike, are hopeful, but constrained in their praise for both reforms to date and the first package of new or improved benefits announced before today’s speech.
Saudi smoulders but is not on fire
Rashid Abul-SahmThe Saudi royal family appear to be weathering the regional wave of uprisings against autocratic rule, though for how long remains in question
The “Day of Rage” called for 11 March in Saudi Arabia by democracy activists demanding a constitutional monarchy, an elected parliament, a written constitution and various freedoms fizzled out with barely a bang. A heavy police presence on the streets of major Saudi cities, including helicopters flying above, and an aggressive public relations campaign by the Saudi government warning would-be protesters that they faced imprisonment and possible flogging, made sure that hardly anyone appeared in the streets.
“I think the protesters were facing the challenge of actually going out on the streets. It is an experience they have never had before, and they might have imagined it to be like Egypt or Tunisia, but there was a vicious campaign vilifying anyone who dared think about protesting,” said Abeer Mishkhas, a London- based Saudi journalist.
Others doubted the authenticity of the organisers of the “Day of Rage”, who had set up several groups on Facebook to gather support. “It was hard for me to take the calls to protest seriously because the two Facebook groups that called for them simply looked too sketchy. Nobody knows who was behind these groups. The groups also had many non-Saudi members,” said Ahmed Al-Omran, a popular Saudi blogger and currently a graduate student of journalism in New York.
Indeed, many Saudis supportive of the royal family tried to spin the non- events of 11 March as proof of the loyalty and love that most Saudis feel towards King Abdullah Ibn Abdul-Aziz Al-Saud, the absolute monarch of the kingdom. Tareq Al-Homayed, editor-in-chief of Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper, wrote in his column that Saudis had shown their allegiance to king and country by not appearing on the streets last Friday to protest.
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No, not the film, the speech given by Saudi King Abdullah earlier today. In his speech, as reported in this Reuters story, the King is opening the country’s coffers to provide more to the people: higher welfare benefits, public employee salary bumps, new housing. Unfortunately, the speech also seems to signal a retreat on reform, apparently adopting the post-1979 stance of increasing the role and prestige of the Saudi religious establishment. The King is also giving more money to the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice and warning Saudi media to back off of its criticism of clerics.
In 1979, following the takeover of the Grand Mosque in Mecca by conservative religious fanatics, the government boosted the authority of the religious establishment in order to protect itself from attacks from that quarter. The ferment today, while it does include those who cry for the brakes to be put on reforms, is mostly coming from those who want liberal political reform and greater freedoms. Further empowering the religious authorities does nothing to address those concerns. Seen in company with an increase in security force staffing, another step announced through decree, it looks as though the government has shifted toward a more repressive modality.
Perhaps I’m being pessimistic here. I hope I am. Other than a few fatter paychecks, I don’t see how these steps are to the longterm benefit of the country or its citizens.
And perhaps, putting on my optimist cap, this is just one step, giving the conservatives their bite, to be followed by another announcing a bit of liberalization. Incremental reform is certainly the Saudi way of doing things, so maybe, just maybe, there’s more to come.
Saudi king orders more handouts, security boost
RIYADH (Reuters) – Saudi King Abdullah announced on Friday billions of dollars in handouts for his people and boosted his security apparatus in a renewed effort to shield the world’s top oil exporter from unrest rocking the Arab world.
In a rare televised address to the nation, the aging king made a brief statement congratulating Saudis for their loyalty and national unity before a battery of decrees were read out suggesting he was embracing increasingly conservative policies.
Amongst a wave of new spending, the decrees outlined a boost in welfare benefits, bonuses for public sector workers, including the army, and a massive drive to build new housing.
In addition, the king ordered the creation of 60,000 security jobs within the interior ministry, promised more money for the religious police and, in a sign Saudi’s ruling Sunni elite will tolerate no dissent, said the media must respect clerics.
Saudi Arabia has mostly avoided the protests seen elsewhere in the region, but dissent has nonetheless built up and some demonstrations have taken place — especially in the east where many Shi’ite Muslims live.
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In its online coverage, Arab News provides a more detailed list of the benefits and programs announced by the King:
• Immediate payment of two months salary to all government employees, both military and civil, as an ex-gratia payment to help people face the rising cost of living.
• Two months scholarship fees for all higher education students getting scholarship.
• Payment of SR2,000 as unemployment allowance monthly for all starting from next Hijra year.
• Minimum wage for Saudis in government jobs has been fixed at SR3,000.
• Allocation of SR250 billion to build 500,000 new houses throughout Kingdom and a steering committee comprising ministers of municipality and rural affairs, finance and economy and planning to supervise the projects.
• The real estate fund has been instructed to raise the minimum level of housing loans from SR300,000 to SR500,000.
• A national anti-corruption commission has been set up under a chairman with a status of a Cabinet minister. The first anti-graft czar will be Muhammad Abdullah Al-Sharif. The commission will report directly to the king.
• SR16 billion has been allocated to the health sector to enhance medical and health facilities throughout the Kingdom.
• Loans given by the Health Ministry to private hospitals have been raised from SR50 million to SR200 million.
• 60,000 new posts have been created in the Interior Ministry to boost internal security while also providing job opportunities for the youth. Widescale promotions were also announced for military personnel.
The earthquake and tsunami that so damaged nuclear reactors in Japan has GCC states concerned about reactors in Iran. Not only is the quality of technology and engineering in Iran inferior to that of Japan, but Iran is also sitting on top of a seismically unstable region of the world. Of principal concern is the Bushehr nuclear facility. As this map demonstrates, with prevailing northwesterly winds, Bushehr is upwind of the United Arab Emirates. It is also only 250km from the Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province and Kuwait. Bushehr was hit by an earthquake as recently as last summer. It experienced another quake in 2002.
Not to diminish the concerns expressed here, but it should be pointed out that the quakes that have hit Bushehr have been in the Magnitude 3.2-4.6 range, not Magnitude 9.0. The difference is that between 2 Gigajoules (10^9 joules) and 2 Exajoules (10^18 joules). In other words, the Japanese quake was 100,000 times stronger than recent quakes in Iran.
Another factor is the radiation itself. While radiation can be lethal, there are many factors that effect its lethality. The first is the type of radiation, then what materials are carrying it. The factors that affect that include reactor design—Chernyoble’s design was markedly inferior to that of the Japanese reactors and represented a much higher degree of intrinsic danger. Many forms of radiation (including alpha and beta radiation) are stopped by the skin, but can be dangerous if inhaled or otherwise introduced into the body. Gamma radiation, on the other hand, can be very hazardous, but it still needs some way to get from point A to point B. That’s where the type of accident/explosion comes into play. A reactor accident does not generate nearly as many particles as an explosion would. This article from Popular Mechanics does a good job of explaining the difference and why panic is not an appropriate response.
As a political matter, there may be excellent arguments against Iran’s nuclear program. As for scientific or public health issues—at least for those outside Iran—we might need better arguments.
Fukushima disaster prompts GCC fears over Iranian reactor
ROGER HARRISON & MICHEL COUSINS | ARAB NEWSJEDDAH: Saudi and Kuwaiti environmentalists have expressed serious concern about the safety of Iran’s nuclear reactor at Bushehr, some 250 km on the other side of the Gulf from the Saudi-Kuwait border. This follows the explosions at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor as a result of earthquake and tsunami damage last Friday.
Like the Japanese reactor, the Iranian one is built in an area of seismic activity. The concern is accentuated by the fact that while Japan has the highest standards in the world for the design and construction of buildings in earthquake zones, Iran does not. In the Bam earthquake in 2003, 30,000 people died as buildings collapsed all about them. In the one in Manjil in 1990 over 40,000 people perished.
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Al-Watan Arabic daily reports (here, via Arab News) that one of Saudi Arabia’s 25 Most Wanted terrorist suspects has been arrested in Iraq. Apparently, he has been detained there for the past three months. The story also says, a bit confusingly, that Battal Al-Harbi spent six years in an Iraqi jail, commencing after he first entered Iraq.
Saudi terror suspect arrested in Iraq
ARAB NEWSJEDDAH: Iraqi authorities have announced that Saudi terrorist Battal Ameesh Al-Harbi was among 25 Al-Qaeda suspects arrested in Iraq over the past three months, Al-Watan newspaper reported on Thursday.
Director of the Iraqi Terrorism and Crimes Department Maj. Gen. Dhia Sahi told the newspaper Al-Harbi had served six years in an Iraqi prison for illegally entering the country and had only been released a year ago.
Al-Harbi’s father, who lives in Hafr Al-Batin, said he had recently received information about his son’s arrest.
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January’s deadly floods still have Jeddawis on tenterhooks. Arab News reports that rain in the city has people worried and schools closing. Interestingly, the nuclear safety issues in Japan following the earthquakes and tsunami are spinning up rumors of a ‘nuclear cloud’ drifting around the world and, in the minds of some, heading for Saudi Arabia.
Jeddawis panic as weather mood swings
ARAB NEWSJEDDAH: Roads in Jeddah were crowded on Tuesday when afternoon rains that followed a visibility-reducing sandstorm sent people scurrying home.
The Ministry of Education announced that Saudi schools would be closed on Wednesday. The International Indian School of Jeddah has also announced it would be closed on Wednesday. King Abdulaziz University let students out early on Tuesday and said it would be closed on Wednesday.
No rain-related deaths or accidents were reported, but the Civil Defense has warned people to stay away from wadis for 48 hours following the precipitation. Wadis, the natural flood paths of rainwater, can fill up quickly and wash people and cars away in a matter of minutes. The danger exists even if there is no precipitation in the immediate vicinity, as wadis carry flood waters from higher altitudes kilometers away to deposit water in the sea.
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There are wildly conflicting reports coming out of Bahrain about exactly what’s going on. It seems clear that Bahraini security forces did go into the main protest camp at Pearl Monument, on the northern coast of Manama, and cleared out the hundreds of people who had been camping there. Main roads into the capital are reported to have been closed off by the government, but smaller streets are being closed by unidentified people in civilian clothing. Whether these are undercover police or protesters is not clear.
Agence France Presse ran a report that hundreds of people had been shot in a Shi’ite village, but that article was taken down from the front page of Yahoo.com’s Arabic portal Maktoub. I see a problem with that report. First, it’s AFP. In the business, they are notoriously unreliable and a second source should be found to verify what they report. I’ve worked with AFP—including in Bahrain—and found that they don’t do a good job of fact-checking. In this story, the source is an anonymous phone caller who claims to be a doctor. I’m not saying that 200 people weren’t shot; I’m saying I want more evidence than AFP is providing.
I fear that all news media—and consumers of those media—are going to have to be alert to less-than-accurate ‘citizen reporting’. Particularly when there are heated emotions, it’s not unusual for exaggerated, or blatantly false, information be put out to spin the story. With Twitter, Facebook, and e-mail, anyone can claim anything with very little way of verifying what’s being said. Of course, one has to be alert to government sources spinning, too.
The Washington Post reports that Manama’s main hospital is in lockdown. The Associated Press, in an article posted less than two hours ago as I write this, states that six people have been killed, including two policemen.
Another AFP story focuses on the rift between the US and Saudi Arabia over Bahrain. There is indeed tension in the relationship now. The USG would like to see Bahrainis resolve their problems through dialogue and political process, starting with the government giving more political rights to its citizens. The US sees that the use of military force may stop protests, but it won’t address the issues that lay at the center of the problem. Saudi Arabia, as I’ve said, sees the situation in Bahrain as a quasi-existential threat to its own national security. As to which country has the better intelligence capability to determine if, and to what extent, Iran may be meddling here, I’m not particularly confident in either. I don’t know the current staffing of the US Embassy in Manama, but I do know that it is a small embassy, with no more than a dozen officers. It is also likely that not all of those officers are fluent in Arabic, never mind Farsi. When I was there in the mid-80s, only I and the Arab-American ambassador were fluent in Arabic. Saudi reports are likely to be colored by animosity toward both Iran and Shi’ites in general. Reports from official Bahraini sources are also likely to be colored by self-interest. Of course, Iran is not asleep at the switch when it comes to offering its critique of the Bahrain situation.
Bloomberg news service also sees the US-Saudi rift. It notes that while popular protest may have swept away governments in Tunisia and Egypt, other governments are pro-actively behaving to defend themselves. The report puts Libya and Saudi Arabia on the same side of the equation here, something that is sure to annoy the Saudis. Saudi media has been reporting on Libya with disdain, sharply criticizing Qaddafi’s use of force against his own people. The presence of Saudi forces in Bahrain allows the Bahraini government to use its own troops to suppress dissent. That is certainly an awkward stance for the Saudis.
So far, reporting seems to focus on Saudi Arabia’s presence in Bahrain, with some mention of UAE police. This suggests that Saudi Arabia is using the GCC’s Peninsula Shield decision to intervene as political cover. That may or may not be true. Asharq Alawsat runs a story from the GCC saying that this is not a ploy. We’ll better know when/if other GCC forces arrive. No reporting, however, says that Saudi forces are involved in today’s policing actions. The tendentious student-run website Jadaliyya—out of Georgetown University’s Arab and Middle East Studies program—comes close, though, with stories ostensibly sourced to Bahrainis
The situation in Bahrain, grave as it is, is being pushed down the news page, however. The disaster in Japan, particularly concerning the safety of its nuclear power plants, dominates international news. Behind it are the stories coming out of Libya. Whether this is the right prioritization doesn’t really matter: it is what it is.
Arab News editorial:
Arab News lead story:
Saudi Gazette lead story:
On a side note, both US and British embassies have suggested that their citizens avoid Bahrain and have authorized the departure of ‘non-essential’ embassy staffs and dependents.
Writing in Asharq Alawsat, Mshari Al-Zaydi usefully reminds us that not all calls for ‘reform’ necessarily tend toward the direction of greater human rights. Beneath the battling fatwas regarding the calls for a ‘Day of Rage’, with some condemning and others condoning them, there is a struggle going on to decide who speaks for the religious establishment.
The Demonstration Fatwas
Mshari Al-ZaydiThe existing religious controversy surrounding the legitimacy of demonstrations and protest marches reflects a hidden political debate, and the possibility of major future political choices.
The Council of Senior Scholars in Saudi Arabia, the largest official religious body in the kingdom, issued a detailed fatwa in which it condemned the demonstrations in the country, with language akin to an urgent statement, and a clear religious stance warning against the Kingdom descending into political chaos.
The position adopted by the Council, together with a number of Saudi sheikhs who issued their fatwas in newspapers and Saudi websites, was met with an opposing religious stance by those who support the demonstrations, protests and marches. Some Islamists issued fatwas to legitimize demonstrations, or provide pretexts for when they would be acceptable, stating that the right to protest was as natural as rainwater. In doing so, such Islamists were recently supported by the Kuwaiti sermonizer Hamid al-Ali, who is also well known for his enthusiasm for al-Qaeda, and Salafi Jihadists.
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Last Friday’s ‘Day of Rage’ protest turned out to be less than much of anything. For numerous reasons, the call went unheeded, with most Saudis seeing it as either unnecessary or to fraught with peril. Now, though, some Saudis are calling for retribution against those who called for reform. That is an exceedingly bad idea.
While Saudi Arabia is notably lacking in political freedom, there should still be room for people to speak out against what they see as a system that is failing them. There are some traditional and approved routes through which they can express their discontent—the high ranking officials’ majalis, for example—but those do not seem to have been effective, at least if one looks at actual reforms as a measure of success. Calls for demonstrations, which are currently forbidden under Saudi law, should not be a prosecutable offense. They should be seen as warning signs that all is not well in the Kingdom and that much more needs to be done.
The better option here is to ignore whatever legal peccadilloes those calling for protests may have committed. Leave them alone, but take note of the issues they raised and do something to address legitimate complaints. Jailing them only serves to raise the heat of discourse, not to end it and certainly not to fix the problems.
Calls mount for prosecution of ‘Day of Rage dissidents’
MUHAMMAD AL-SULAMI | ARAB NEWSJEDDAH: “May Allah Blacken Your Faces” is the title of a new Facebook campaign launched by a number of Saudi youths against those Saudis who used the social media tool to call for the failed Day of Rage last Friday.
The proposed Day of Rage petered out with citizens all over the Kingdom expressing their love for and allegiance to Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah. The new campaign coincides with calls for lawsuits against those who called for the Day of Rage.
Internet sites of those who had called for protests and who called their movement the “Hunain Revolution” (in reference to a battle during the time of the Prophet, peace be upon him) remain deserted after their complete failure.
Loyal Saudi subjects have put together over 30 Facebook pages dubbing the alleged revolution “a fake and a failure.”
Over 2.3 million Saudis, constituting about eight percent of the Kingdom’s total population, use Facebook.
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The movement of Saudi troops—likely military police from the Saudi Arabian National Guard—and a UAE police force into Bahrain gets front page coverage in the Saudi media. The stories point to the fact that this intervention is a) at the invitation of the Bahraini government, b) under the aegis of the Peninsula Shield mutual security program, and c) not there to put down insurrection, but to protect Bahrain’s infrastructure. Other GCC members are said to be sending their own contingents to Bahrain, but no specifics are given.
All of these points are true, but they also elide the root of the issue: Iran. To the Saudis, and other GCC members to varying degrees, Iran represents a near-existential threat. Centuries of enmity between Arabs and Persians, between Sunnis and Shi’as, continue to color both formal relations and popular perceptions. Iran’s history of meddling in the Gulf—which it sees as a natural part of its own sphere of influence, of course—both angers and frightens the Arab states. The size of Iran’s military and its willingness to wastefully throw that military into action (See: Iran-Iraq War) does nothing to lessen the threat. The bottom line is still that Saudi Arabia will not tolerate Bahrain’s becoming a satellite of Iran, just at the other end of a 25km causeway from its own oil facilities.
It is now being reported that a Saudi soldier has been shot and killed by a protester. This is a serious escalation in the situation on the ground. It will do nothing to encourage gentle behavior by the Saudi forces there who presumptively already have a negative view of the Shi’a.
Kingdom takes lead to help Bahrain
SIRAJ WAHAB | ARAB NEWSSaudi Arabia and other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states started sending security forces on Monday to Bahrain in response to Manama’s call for military help to quell anti-government protests that have shaken the country. Bahraini opposition groups including the largest party Al-Wefaq denounced the move to invite GCC forces. But the United States, while urging Bahrain to exercise restraint, said it does not consider the entry into Bahrain of GCC security forces an invasion.
MANAMA/ALKHOBAR: Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states responded positively on Monday to Bahrain’s call for military help to quell anti-government protests that have shaken the country.
“The Saudi Cabinet has confirmed that it has answered a request by Bahrain for support,” said a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.
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No interference in internal affairs, says King
Saudi Gazette/Saudi Press Agency (SPA)RIYADH: King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, reiterated Monday the Kingdom’s “absolute rejection of any interference in its internal affairs”.
Chairing the weekly Cabinet meeting Monday, King Abdullah said the Kingdom’s foreign relations were based on “the principles of mutual respect and non-interference in domestic affairs”, with rules founded on “the Holy Qur’an and the Prophet’s Sunnah to safeguard the security, stability and peace of Saudi society from sedition and divisions”.
King Abdullah thanked Almighty Allah for “the blessings of security and stability and the strong relations between the Kingdom’s people and their leadership”.
The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques cited the statement from the 118th session of the GCC Ministerial Council in reaffirming the “total rejection of GCC states of any foreign attempt to interfere in their affairs, and their determination to deal firmly with any incitement to factional sympathies, promotion of divisions between the people of member states, and threats to security”.
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Peninsula Shield Forces enter Bahrain to maintain order
Asharq AlawsatLondon/Manama, Asharq Al-Awsat- Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) security forces entered Bahrain yesterday at the request of Manama to help protect government facilities from the threat of unrest, after weeks of protests in the Gulf kingdom.
The Saudi government said it had responded to a call for help from its neighbor as Saudi-led forces from the Gulf countries’ joint Peninsula Shield Force crossed the causeway into Bahrain.
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Once again, the Middle East demonstrates its problem with missed opportunities. Had Bahrain not treated its majority Shi’ite population less well than its Sunni minority, there would be no cause for unrest. The same applies to Saudi Arabia. Had the governments bothered to distinguish the different Shi’ite sects, rather than lumping them into one entity, they might have found willing partners. Had they not continued to demonize Shi’ism itself, they would not be facing sectarian as well as political issues today. Had they not put off reforming their political and social systems, all in the name of ‘traditional values’, they would not be faced with demands for those reforms to be made now, with no further delay. Had they seen the overthrow of the Shah in 1979 as a warning sign rather than an immediate threat, those governments might have started making changes 20 years ago instead of being confronted with angry mobs.
As the political turmoil in Bahrain reaches a boiling point, the government has asked for the assistance of the GCC—under the ‘Peninsular Shield’ mutual support program—to help protect strategic facilities. The GCC, composed of Sunni governments, is willing to do this because they fear the presence of an Iranian-influenced state in their midst. Arab News runs an Associated Press piece on the issue; Yahoo.com’s ‘Maktoob’ news portal carries an Agence France Presse piece that specifies that Saudi forces are the first to arrive.
I think that much of the Sunni-Shi’a friction in the region is self-inflicted by Sunni governments. Intolerance toward their own Shi’a populations has fed discontent. Favoritism shown toward Sunni co-sectarians over the Shi’a populations, particularly in Bahrain, where the Shi’a represent 70% of the population, has the natural consequence of making people unhappy or even leading them to revolt.
Sunni attitudes, though, are not the only factor here. Iran, the predominant Shi’a state, has its own issues and its own history of messing around with the Sunni-dominated GCC states. Whether it’s exerting territorial claims, as is the case in Bahrain and the UAE, or calling for the overthrow of the Sunni governments, as with Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, Iran is seen to be behind much of the turmoil. The Iranian government, led by a Shi’ite religious hierarchy, has its own problems with sectarian differences. It is not an innocent by-stander here. While its direct interference, at this time and in this location, may be unproved, its record in the region and across the decades is indeed a major part of what informs GCC opinion.
Bahrain lawmakers push for martial law;
GCC forces arriveREEM KHALIFA | AP
MANAMA, Bahrain: A parliament group asked Bahrain’s king on Monday to impose martial law after a month of unrest that has left the tiny Gulf nation sharply divided between minority Sunni Muslims backing the ruling system and Shiites demanding sweeping changes.
The parliament bloc’s statement, carried by the state-run Bahrain News Agency, asked for a three-month declaration of martial law and claimed “extremist movements” were trying to disrupt the country and push it toward sectarian conflict. The appeal also seeks a curfew and the dispatch of army units around the country.
An adviser to the royal court, meanwhile, said from neighboring Gulf Arab countries have arrived to help maintain law and order on the strategic island kingdom.
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