VIEWPOINT: What’s Really Going on in Bahrain? A Young Citizen’s Perspective

This Viewpoint essay was submitted by Bahraini citizen Ahmed Al Mahri in response to this post – Bahrain Citizens Write Letter to US Congress Denouncing Protesters.

I am a Bahraini citizen, 25 years old, working in the banking sector. I would like to tell the world what is really happening in Bahrain, where every day we live in horror because of the so-called “pro-democracy protests.”

I am not into politics, yet I know that exercising one’s rights and demanding them must occur in a peaceful and civilized way, which is completely not the case here in Bahrain. The situation started in February 2011 when a group of people came out of the blue supposedly to demand the rights for the Bahraini people, but in just few days it became clear that the main goal of those people was to hijack the country and form an Islamic republic. That was clearly stated by one of their leaders, Hassan Mushaima. They even took over a main hospital and used it to hold hostages.

A year has passed from that terror period which was led by the Alwefaq party and other “opposition” groups under the guise of pro-democracy protests. Since the crackdown on these un-peaceful protests on March 2011, Bahrain has experienced a horrific period that manifests itself in daily acts of terror ranging from the blocking of main streets by setting fires and exploding gasoline bombs to attacking policemen with Molotov cocktails and iron rods. All these acts intensified and grew more violent on January 24, 2012, after Shiite leader Isa Qassim issued a statement to all Shiites stating that “whomever you find from [the] police you have to crush.” He issued his statement after falsely accusing the police of insulting women who were engaging in terrorist acts, such as blocking roads and throwing Molotov cocktails. This, in turn, ignited a new series of violent acts that resulted in a toll of over 60 policemen badly wounded with their injuries including burnings, piercings with metal rods and bone fractures. What made the situation worse was that police were facing iron rods and gasoline bombs unarmed, equipped with only shields, wooden sticks and tear gas – not really adequate tools against such attacks.

The issue is, these people are proud of what they are doing posting videos showing attacks on policemen, main roads and citizens. All of this comes under what they call “the holy defense.” I am writing this to a world that has become biased, too biased to understand that Alwefaq is the force that leads this terrorism. They call their activities peaceful demonstrations, while they are as far from being peaceful as Pluto is from the Sun.

Alwefaq activists claims that they are being prevented from gathering and demonstrating while in reality they are practicing this right every day, bringing as a result traffic jams and violent acts by the attendees of those gatherings. And, in effect, they bring nothing but harm to the people of Bahrain.

In turn, all of the above does great harm to the economy of Bahrain, as last year the Grand Prix was cancelled, resulting in great losses to many people that worked for this event. Bahrain is considered a hub for the banking sector in the region, and because of recent events it may lose this position as banks may want to do business elsewhere.

What Alwefaq is doing is not a pro-democracy protest; it’s an attempt to take over the country and destroy all what has been achieved over the past years. Rejecting dialogue is not a way of demanding democracy but that, unfortunately, was the course Alwefaq chose to take toward the national dialogue which was held last year. And they claim to speak on behalf and represent the interests of all the people of Bahrain, while they are NOT! If they were, why then are their protests and gatherings attended only by Shiites? It is a question they never answered, because the majority of Bahrainis reject their acts.

My message is an SOS message to the whole world, especially to human rights organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch as they are only getting the story from one side – the side that is fabricating stories. What they need to hear about is what is really going on in Bahrain, particularly after an independent commission appointed by the King of Bahrain to investigate the events that took place in February and March 2011 concluded that protesters selectively attacked Sunnis and expats. Unfortunately, I never saw any statements from rights organizations condemning these terrorist acts. My hope is that the world will see the truth of what is really happening in Bahrain.

Please watch the videos below and judge for yourself.

Video 1             Video 2

The viewpoint expressed here is the author’s own and is not endorsed by Middle East Voices or Voice of America. If you disagree with the author of this post, you may use our democratic commenting system below. Also, you may submit a proposal for a Counterpoint.

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Ahmed Al Mahri

Ahmed Al Mahri is a Bahraini citizen working in the kingdom's banking sector. He describes himself as someone who has suffered from the protests.