Bahrain's Fate and Visioning it's Future

Courtesy

I remember meeting Sharif a few days before the crackdown. We sat at a burger restaurant, and I asked him about their main demand. He said, “The most important is to elect a constitutive committee representative of the people to write a new constitution for the country to replace the current one. Everything else is secondary.” I said, “You realize they will not accept that, and that this basically means there will be a showdown.” He looked up from his hot dog, paused, and then nodded.
“Yes, it probably does.”

sharif-heart

Bahrain’s Fate
by Omar AlShehabi – JACOBIN – January, 2014

On Ibrahim Sharif and the misleadingly-dubbed “Arab Spring.”

The Arab uprisings have unleashed fraught issues around identity and national sovereignty. Within the struggles for a better future, opportunism and sectarian politics run rife. Amid suffusing uncertainty, some yearn for despotism or the old stability of Western colonialism.

Although the events have given way to many movements, activists that oppose the hydra of Western intervention, despotism, and sectarianism that confronts the Arab world are rare. Ibrahim Sharif, a Bahraini opposition figure, is a prominent exception. And, manifestly, a dangerous one: he is currently in prison, having been tortured, and facing the remainder of a five-year sentence. His plight has barely registered beyond Bahrain’s shores, but there is no better story than his to illustrate the complexity of this necessary fight.

Sharif was born on 15 May 1957, the ninth anniversary of the Nakba — which saw the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Arabs from historic Palestine — and the establishment of the state of Israel. His birthplace was Muharraq, the second-largest island in the Bahraini archipelago, and at that time the hub of political opposition to British colonialism. Sharif’s home was in Steeshan, a lower-middle-class neighborhood deriving its name from the English word “Station,” after the old central bus station that used to be located at the top of the neighborhood.

As with most people in Steeshan, Sharif’s family came from a Huwala background — a Sunni ethnicity that populates the two coasts of the Gulf, between the colliding Arab and Persian cultures. Such movement between the Gulf’s two worlds used to be commonplace, especially in a maritime economy built on mercantilist trade, well before the drawing of borders and the advent of modern nationalities in the region.

Sharif’s family came to Bahrain in the early twentieth century from Behdeh, a small village on the eastern coast. He came from a Sayyed lineage, his family claiming descent from the Prophet Mohammed’s daughter. Sayyed families have much less resonance among Sunni discourse than Shi’a, as the concept confers much more social, economic, and religious prestige and benefits to the latter.

The Huwala are a minority in Bahrain. Some members within the other ethnic groups look on their claims of Arabness with suspicion, due to their roots on the eastern coast of the Gulf. This perspective suggests a racial view of Arabness, imagining it can only be determined by clear and unbroken lineage to a tribe from the Arabian Peninsula. This blood-based identity discourse contrasts sharply with the modern notion of Arabness accompanying Arab nationalism, which takes language to be its primary trait.

This complex historical lineage has led many Huwala in Bahrain to embrace Arab nationalist currents, and the city of Muharraq, where most Huwala are concentrated, has become that movement’s main urban center. This is common among many minorities in the Arab world. For example, Christians and Alawites also disproportionately fill Arab nationalism’s ranks. The ideology has been presented as a unifying, non-sectarian, non-racial force that could guard against the tyranny of the majority and facilitate development in societies prone to sectarianism and ethnic divisions. …more

122 thoughts on “Bahrain's Fate and Visioning it's Future”

  3. reputable mexican pharmacies online [url=https://mexicoph24.life/#]mexican pharmacy[/url] mexico pharmacies prescription drugs

  7. mail order pharmacy india [url=http://indiaph24.store/#]world pharmacy india[/url] best india pharmacy

  8. buy ciprofloxacin over the counter [url=https://ciprofloxacin.tech/#]buy generic ciprofloxacin[/url] buy cipro online without prescription

  12. buy cytotec online fast delivery [url=https://cytotec.club/#]Abortion pills online[/url] Cytotec 200mcg price

  15. tamoxifen chemo [url=http://nolvadex.life/#]nolvadex half life[/url] tamoxifen and osteoporosis

  21. where to buy lisinopril online [url=http://lisinopril.network/#]lisinopril tabs 10mg[/url] lisinopril 5 mg india price

  22. tamoxifen hormone therapy [url=https://nolvadex.life/#]where to get nolvadex[/url] tamoxifen cancer

  28. buy cipro cheap [url=https://ciprofloxacin.tech/#]buy cipro[/url] cipro online no prescription in the usa

  30. tamoxifen for breast cancer prevention tamoxifen alternatives premenopausal or alternative to tamoxifen
    https://images.google.co.uz/url?q=https://nolvadex.life tamoxifen benefits
    [url=http://sermedin.com/galeria/main.php?g2_view=core.UserAdmin&g2_subView=core.UserLogin&g2_return=https://nolvadex.life/]lexapro and tamoxifen[/url] does tamoxifen cause joint pain and [url=https://bbs.zzxfsd.com/home.php?mod=space&uid=35981]tamoxifen generic[/url] where to get nolvadex

  32. buy cipro online without prescription [url=https://ciprofloxacin.tech/#]buy generic ciprofloxacin[/url] ciprofloxacin order online

  40. tamoxifen vs clomid [url=https://nolvadex.life/#]nolvadex side effects[/url] tamoxifen endometrium

  44. buy cytotec pills online cheap [url=http://cytotec.club/#]buy cytotec pills online cheap[/url] buy cytotec over the counter

  46. cost generic propecia tablets cost generic propecia pill or cost generic propecia
    https://www.fahrschulen.de/clickcounter.asp?school_id=60913&u_link=https://finasteride.store buying propecia without prescription
    [url=http://historico.cubainformacion.tv/enlazar.php?video=leccionesdemanipulacion077ITA.flv&id=17321&ur=https://finasteride.store/]cost cheap propecia for sale[/url] propecia otc and [url=http://www.9kuan9.com/home.php?mod=space&uid=624892]generic propecia without a prescription[/url] cost generic propecia price

  52. where can i buy cipro online [url=https://ciprofloxacin.tech/#]ciprofloxacin generic[/url] buy cipro online canada

  55. propecia sale [url=https://finasteride.store/#]cost cheap propecia without insurance[/url] cost of propecia without dr prescription

  64. Levitra online USA fast [url=https://levitrav.store/#]Buy generic Levitra online[/url] Levitra 10 mg best price

  67. buy viagra here [url=http://viagras.online/#]Cheap Viagra 100mg[/url] sildenafil online

  75. Levitra 10 mg buy online [url=https://levitrav.store/#]buy Levitra over the counter[/url] Levitra 10 mg buy online

  77. Vardenafil online prescription [url=http://levitrav.store/#]Vardenafil online prescription[/url] buy Levitra over the counter

  84. india pharmacy mail order [url=http://pharmindia.online/#]top online pharmacy india[/url] indian pharmacy online

  88. online pharmacies no prescription [url=http://pharmnoprescription.icu/#]no prescription drugs[/url] canadian pharmacy online no prescription

  92. mexican mail order pharmacies [url=http://pharmmexico.online/#]mexican online pharmacies prescription drugs[/url] mexico drug stores pharmacies

  99. canadianpharmacy com [url=https://pharmcanada.shop/#]my canadian pharmacy[/url] canadian pharmacy uk delivery

  103. prescription drugs online canada mexico prescription drugs online or cheap prescription drugs online
    https://maps.google.com.gi/url?q=https://pharmnoprescription.icu online pharmacies no prescription
    [url=https://images.google.ml/url?sa=t&url=https://pharmnoprescription.icu]online pharmacies without prescription[/url] buy medications without a prescription and [url=http://www.coin520.com/home.php?mod=space&uid=36974]how to get a prescription in canada[/url] online pharmacy reviews no prescription

  105. canada pharmacy online no prescription [url=https://pharmnoprescription.icu/#]canadian prescription prices[/url] pharmacy no prescription

  108. rexall pharmacy amoxicillin 500mg [url=http://amoxila.pro/#]cost of amoxicillin 30 capsules[/url] where to buy amoxicillin over the counter

  111. buy doxycycline without prescription uk [url=http://doxycyclinea.online/#]buy doxycycline monohydrate[/url] doxycycline 100mg online

  119. prednisone 20 mg [url=http://prednisoned.online/#]buy prednisone online canada[/url] prednisone online sale

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *