The opposition in Bahrain: A bellwether for the gulf?

Middle East Policy

Volumn 5, Issue 2, 1997, Pages 42-57

  Bahry, Louay ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 0031488801     PISSN: 10611924     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-4967.1997.tb00263.x     Document Type: Article

References (29)

1. These include Harakat al-Madhlumin fil-Bahrain (the Movement of the Oppressed in Bahrain), al-Shabibah al-Ahrar (the Free Youth), Harakat Talabat al-Bahrain fil Kharj (the Bahrain Student Movement Abroad), Ulama al-Bahrain fi Qum (the Bahrain Ulama in Qum), and al-Dimuqratiyyun al-Muslimum (the Islamic Democrats). The activities of most of these groups are confined to publishing newsletters and issuing statements.
2. Sheikh Abd al-Amir Mansur al-Jamri is now considered Bahrain's most important Shia cleric and a religious authority (marja). Born in 1936, he studied Islamic law in the famous Hawzat al-Najaf in Iraq. He returned to become a member of the Bahrain National Assembly 1973-1975. After the dissolution of the Assembly, he worked as a judge in the Shia Sharia court until 1988. Although he was among the ex-deputies who petitioned the emir for a return of the Assembly, he did not express opposition views at that point. He did, however, gain notoriety as a judge, as people would come to him asking for fatwas. Since 1992, he has been a strong opponent of the regime. In and out of prison in the last two years, al-Jamri has contact with most of the Bahrain opposition groups. He is the author of a book on the rights of women in Islam, and his speeches and articles were published in a volume in London in 1996. His son, Mansur al-Jamri, is now the head of the Bahrain Freedom Movement based in London. Two other sons are in prison in Bahrain, one of them, Muhammad Jamil, for eight years.
3. Sheikh Ali Ahmad Salman, communication to the author, London, June 28, 1996.
4. Munira al-Fakhro comes from a distinguished Sunni family. She holds a Ph.D. in social services from Columbia University and was one of the first women to sign the second petition. Subsequently, she was asked by Bahraini authorities to withdraw her signature, and, when she refused, she was fired from her position as a professor at the University of Bahrain in the fall of 1995. She now lives in self-imposed exile in the United States. She is the author of Urban Society and Democratic Evolution in Bahrain ([in Arabic]; Cairo: Dar Ibn Khaldun, 1995).
5. He was able to gather some 1,200 signatures in one day at the al-Imam al-Sadiq mosque, the largest in Bahrain. Beginning in October 1994, he would speak in five different mosques a week.
6. Interview with Sheikh Ali Salman, London, June 28, 1996.
7. Protesters were holding banners with slogans such as: "You are guests in our country but you have no respect for our feelings," and "We are not against sports, just disrobing."
8. The three were supposed to be exiled to Syria, but they profited from a stop-over by the plane in Dubai. Here they boarded a plane to fly to London, instead of Damascus. Their exile in London constitutes an embarrasment for the Bahraini government.
9. Lord Eric Avebury, "Bahrain, the House of Pain," (in Dialogue, published by the Public Affairs Committee for the Shia Muslims, London, April, 1996.).
10. In the absence of official statistics, these numbers are estimates. Bahraini officials tend to lower the figures for the Shia population, and some Bahraini officials even doubt a Shia majority. Adnan Yousif, the information attaché in the Bahrain embassy in London, wrote that "in Bahrain...the population census does not have a question on the person's sect. Also, all other papers and personnel documents do not mention a person's sect." Al-Quds al-Arabi (London daily), May 31, 1996.
11. Bahrain's limited oil production reached a peak of 76,600 b/d in 1970; by 1993 it had been reduced to about half that - roughly 40,000 b/d. Like other Gulf countries, Bahrain enjoyed high oil prices and revenues prior to the mid-1980s and a sharp decline thereafter. Bahrain's oil revenues rose from 6,000 Bahraini dinars in 1965 to 374,000 BD in 1985; they declined to 306,000 BD in 1990. Per capita GDP reached a high of 3,600 BD in 1981 and dropped to 2,737 BD in 1994.
12. All estimates of Shia unemployment are for men; the rate among Shia women is much higher.
13. Bahrain's Awali oil field has proven reserves of 70 million barrels. At current production rates it will be exhausted in five years. Bahrain is now refining oil from the Abu Safa field, half owned by Saudi Arabia, but this totals only 140,000 b/d.
14. Non-Bahraini workers are mostly from Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and the Philippines. Arab workers are mainly Egyptian.
15. The Bahraini police force comprises some 9,300 people; the Bahrain Defense Force (BDF), 10,700.
16. Excerpts from an interview in al-Siyasah, (Kuwaiti daily), August 8, 1979, published in the Journal of Gulf and Arabian Peninsula Studies, 5:20, (October 1979, University of Kuwait, p. 197).
17. Mahmud Murad, Interview with the Bahraini prime minister, Sheikh Salman al-Khalifah, al-Ahram (daily) Cairo, November 5, 1996, p. 6. While the emir holds his weekly majlis on Tuesdays twice a month, the prime minister, Sheikh Khalifah, holds his each Sunday morning.
18. Adnan Yusif, al-Quds al-Arabi, May 8, 1996.
19. Dr. Mansur al-Jamri, al-Quds al-Arabi, April 13, 1996.
20. Interview with Adnan Yusif, information attaché of Bahrain, London, June 27, 1996.
21. Hani al-Rais, representative of the Committee on Human Rights in Bahrain, al-Quds al-Arabi, April 11, 1966.
22. The government is using the method of sending into exile some of those it considers leaders of the movement, refusing to allow them back into the country. There are some 300 Bahrainis -families and children included - in exile in countries such as Iran, Syria and England.
23. The four provinces are Muhafidhat al-Asimah (the capital); Muhafidhat al-Muhariq (al-Muharaq); al-Muhafidh al-Junibiyyah (Southern Province); and al-Muhafidh al-Shimaliyyah (Northern Province).
24. Interview with Dr. Said al-Shihabi, Bahrain Freedom Movement, London, June 26, 1996.
25. There are about 300 Sunni mosques in Bahrain and about an equal number for the Shia. In addition, there are around 300 matams.
26. The role of the imam in the Shia mosque is not limited to preaching. These religious clerics are very close to the people. They are allowed to enter their houses and participate in settling family affairs. Thus they exercise more influence over the Shia population than do their Sunni counterparts.
27. Statement of Sheikh Abd Allah Bin Khalid al-Khalifah, minister of justice and Islamic affairs, (photocopied statement), Manama, April 8, 1996.
28. Interview with Sheikh Ali Salman, London, June 26, 1996.
29. These concerns were expressed by the three sheikhs during a series of interviews in London, June 26-30, 1996.