Excerpt
MARGARET WARNER (Newshour): Why has this tiny Gulf nation of one million become the latest scene of protests on the Tunisia-Egypt model?
To explore that, we turn to Toby Jones, professor of Middle East history at Rutgers University -- he's lived in Bahrain -- and Simon Henderson, a former Financial Times reporter who directs the Washington Institute for Near East Policy's Gulf and Energy Program.
Welcome to you both.
Toby, more -- beginning with you, are you surprised that, of all the Gulf kingdoms, all the Gulf countries, the Bahrain has suddenly emerged as a place where you have protests that seem to be trying to model themselves after Egypt and Tunisia?
TOBY JONES, Rutgers University: Hi, Margaret. Thanks for having me.
No, I'm not surprised at all. Bahrain has a long history of political activism and civic sophistication. Over the last decade or so, Bahrainis have been agitating for political reforms of various kinds, reform to a constitution that they consider to be unfair, free and fair elections, and a more equitable distribution of power and material resources, social justice, if you will, amongst the country's majority Shiite population.
But, clearly, what we see here, too, is -- is an effort on the part of a group of Bahraini activists to tap into a sense of regional momentum. They have identified a very important moment historically across the region and are seeking to capitalize on what they believe to be a kind of energizing moment and to sort of secure some sort of legitimacy for themselves and to rally their fellow countrymen.
MARGARET WARNER: Simon Henderson, what would you add to that? And paint us a word picture of Bahrain. I mean, is this a typical Gulf oil sheikhdom? What's it like?
SIMON HENDERSON, Washington Institute For Near East Policy: Well, it isn't typical, although there are similarities.
Bahrain is the country where oil was first discovered in the southern Gulf. Ironically, now, it has very little Gulf oil left at all, and relies, frankly, on Saudi Arabia for the extra revenues it needs to live.
It's an island state. It's halfway down the southern coast, opposite Iran, and alongside the peninsula country of Qatar. Its closest ally is Saudi Arabia, with which it is connected by a causeway of 15 or so miles of bridges. And it's a place where it has a majority Shia population ruled by a Sunni ruling family, and a large banking and financial sector where -- so expatriates live there, Westerners live there and find it comfortable to live there.
But over the years, it's been overtaken in this sense of being a commercial financial center by the other Gulf sheikhdoms, like Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha.
MARGARET WARNER: So, Toby Jones, back to you on the protesters.
Now, do you have -- are these young people energized and organized on the Internet, or is this the traditional opposition, or a mix? And what are their main grievances?
TOBY JONES: Well, they're -- they represent a number of different things. And this is evolving very quickly over the last few days.
Several weeks ago, at the height of Egypt's revolution, when it became very clear that Egyptians were going to be able to rally through various media, social media and other kinds of media as well, other networks, Bahrainis began organizing. A group of young activists began organizing on Facebook and in other places preparing for what they call the day of rage this past Monday.
And they managed to energize enough folks to draw enough people into the street to constitute a significant presence. But they also alarmed Bahraini security forces, and police -- the police responded, as Bahraini police have done over the last few years, with incredibly brutal tactics, killing at least one person on Monday and then killing a second person on Tuesday.
And the consequence of that is what might have been a relatively small outpouring of people, continuing the tradition over recent years of small public protests and civil disobedience, has now turned into arguably a movement with national and much more significant consequence.
So, the demands of the younger generation are very clear. And they're focused on a key set of political things: reform of basic institutions of governance, the parliament, the constitution, as I mentioned earlier, but also a readjustment of the material relationship and the kind of -- you know, the socioeconomic status of the island's majority Shiite population, which faces a number of different kinds of discriminatory practices on the part of the government.
The government has taken a dim view of its Shia community over the last several decades and has implemented various oppressive and repressive apparatuses to make sure that they don't enjoy any kind of considerable political influence.
Ah! The classic mistake of authoritarian governments. Not understanding that violence against protesters makes things worst, magnifies the situation.
ALSO
"Unrest Spreads, Some Violently, in Middle East" by NEIL MacFARQUHAR, New York Times 2/16/2011
Excerpt
From northern Africa to the Persian Gulf, governments appeared to flounder over just how to outrun mostly peaceful movements, spreading erratically like lava erupting from a volcano, with no predictable end.
The protests convulsed half a dozen countries across the Middle East on Wednesday, with tens of thousands of people turning out in Bahrain to challenge the monarchy, a sixth day of running street battles in Yemen, continued strikes over long-suppressed grievances in Egypt and a demonstrator’s funeral in Iran turning into a brief tug of war between the government and its opponents.
Even in heavily policed Libya, pockets of dissent emerged in the main square of Benghazi, with people calling for an end to the 41-year rule of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. Iraq, accustomed to sectarian conflict, got a dose of something new: a fiery protest in the eastern city of Kut over unemployment, sporadic electricity and government corruption. And the protesters in Bahrain were confronted Thursday morning by riot police officers who rushed into the main square in Manama firing tear gas and concussion grenades.
The unrest has been inspired partly by grievances unique to each country, but many shared a new confidence, bred in Egypt and Tunisia, that a new generation could challenge unresponsive authoritarian rule in ways their parents thought impossible.
"The Pharaoh has left (and now comes the hard part)" by Rose Aslan, AltMuslim 2/12/2011
Excerpt
Now that Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak has resigned after 18 days of peaceful and persistent protests, the real revolution must start from inside by Egyptians themselves.
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