"In Bahrain, the Parliament yesterday accepted the resignations of 11 lawmakers from the Shi’ite opposition, a sign that the political crisis and sectarian divisions are deepening in the tiny Gulf kingdom....
In a statement yesterday, the Shi’ite opposition called on supporters to continue challenging the Sunni monarchy’s monopoly on power with acts of disobedience such as public mourning of “the martyrs who died to achieve the legitimate rights for Bahraini people.’’
Who would have ever believed it would be Muslims living up to Gandhi's ideals?
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"In Bahrain yesterday, the government lifted its ban on the main opposition newspaper after the editor resigned. The one-day ban was the latest step in a crackdown against protests rocking the tiny, strategic island kingdom. The paper, Al-Wasat, was expected to appear again today."
"Iran wants Saudi troops out of Bahrain" April 05, 2011|By Ali Akbar Dareini, Associated Press
TEHRAN — President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called on regional rival Saudi Arabia to pull its troops out of Bahrain, where they are helping a Sunni monarchy put down a Shi’ite-led protest movement demanding equal rights and a political voice.
Related: Obama Quiet About Bahrain
So is everyone except Iran I guess.
Since the wave of Arab unrest hit Bahrain nearly two months ago it has reverberated well beyond the tiny island nation’s borders. Its sectarian element — a key difference from other Mideast uprisings — quickly pit Sunni Arab nations on their side of the Gulf against Shi’ite power Iran....
You got your WWIII battle lines there (for as long as the Sunni dictatorships last? As soon as USrael attacks Iran they will be swept away by mobs in the streets).
Unable to contain the unrest immediately, Bahrain’s rulers declared a state of emergency and invited a Saudi-led regional military force to help.
Saudi Arabia has urged Bahrain’s rulers not to give ground, fearing that would embolden the Shi’ite minority clustered in its eastern oil-producing region, which lies just across a causeway from Bahrain.
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Also see: Warrant for Saudi prince upheld in probation case
"Bahrain’s government yesterday ordered the country’s biggest Shi’ite party to be dismantled for “threatening peace’’ in the Gulf kingdom after weeks of Shi’ite-led protests against the Sunni rulers.
The decision against the Al Wefaq party is part of Bahrain’s wide-ranging crackdown on the opposition after government forces crushed a wave of demonstrations by the island nation’s Shi’ite majority demanding equal rights and a constitutional monarchy with an elected government.
Al Wefaq has been the leading political backer of the uprising in this tiny but strategically key Persian Gulf country, home to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet.
That's why there is not a peep of protest from the AmeriKan Empire.
The protesters marched on financial institutions and royal palaces and occupied a main square in the capital Manama for a month during the unprecedented unrest against the country’s minority Sunni rulers....
The moves are likely to further anger and frustrate Shi’ites, whose bitterness has only grown since troops crushed the protests in Manama’s Pearl Square on March 16.
Bahrain declared martial law to quash the protests and has detained opposition leaders, hundreds of protesters, and leading human rights activists.
Earlier this week, authorities also accused Bahrain’s main opposition newspaper of threatening national security.
So much for the one-day ban.
They said three of its former top editors will face trial for publishing “fabricated news’’ and “false pictures.’’
Yeah, we have the same thing here in AmeriKa.
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"In Jordan, roughly 1,500 demonstrators gathered after Friday prayers in Amman to call for an end to corruption and for greater freedom."
I wonder how quickly they will be called terrorists.
"Hundreds of protesting Islamic hard-liners clashed with supporters of Jordan’s king yesterday, wounding dozens, in the latest move by the extremist movement to assert itself amid the country’s wave of antigovernment demonstrations.
A crowd of about 350 extremist Salafi Muslims faced off with a slightly smaller group of king loyalists in the town of Zarqa. Salafis beat the government supporters with clubs and fists, and the two sides hurled stones at each other, leaving people bloodied on the ground.
The Salafi movement — an ultraconservative version of Islam with an ideology similar to Al Qaeda’s — is banned in Jordan, but it has grown in strength in recent years. Salafis have held a series of rallies in various parts of the country in recent weeks.
Their demonstrations are separate from the 14-week-old wave of antigovernment protests by leftists and more moderate Islamists demanding democratic reforms in the Arab US ally.
But the "Al-CIA-Duh" will justify a crackdown, cui bono?
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Also see: Database on Jordan antiquities debuts
I'm sure it's fascinating, but....
"Thousands call for Hezbollah to disarm" by Associated Press / March 14, 2011
BEIRUT — Tens of thousands of supporters of Lebanon’s pro-Western opposition thronged downtown Beirut yesterday, demanding that the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah give up its weapons.
The rally was a potent show of support for Lebanon’s toppled prime minister, Saad Hariri, who moved into the opposition after Hezbollah and its allies withdrew from his government in January, forcing him out of power.
“We want to place the weapons at the disposal of the state, because it is the state that unites us all and it is the army that protects us all,’’ Hariri said, shouting over the crowd as people cheered and waved Lebanon’s national flag.
Hariri has taken a far stronger public stance against Hezbollah in recent weeks than he did during his 14 months as prime minister, suggesting that the country’s political deadlock is far from over.
Ghaleb Abu Zeinab, a member of Hezbollah’s political bureau, said the group will not respond to yesterday’s gathering.
But a slew of billboards has popped up in Beirut lately, saying “Israel also wants Hezbollah disarmed’’ — a clear message that Hezbollah sees its weapons as a necessary safeguard against its enemies.
Given Israel's record of invasions, yeah.
Hariri accused the militant group, which is backed by Syria and Iran, of using its weapons for intimidation and political leverage.
Who doesn't?
Yesterday’s rally heightens growing tensions in Lebanon....
Israel will just have to invade then, huh?
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Another AmeriKan oil ally:
"Authorities have detained two more activists advocating democratic reforms in the United Arab Emirates, where most political activity is banned, a lawyer said.
The pair includes one of the country’s most outspoken academics, Nasser bin Ghaith, who is a financial analyst and an economics professor at the Abu Dhabi branch of Paris’s Sorbonne university. He was detained yesterday in Dubai, said the lawyer, Mohammed al-Mansouri, a fellow activist.
He has frequently criticized the Gulf region’s ruling sheiks for refusing to consider all but the most limited of political reforms and for failing to provide a legal framework for the staggering economic development of the past decade.
The other activist, Fahad Salem al-Shehhy, was detained late Saturday in Ajman, another of the federation’s emirates north of Dubai, al-Mansouri said. Shehhy has been participating in an online forum calling for free elections and other democratic reforms in the UAE.
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Related:
"Islamist extremists attacked an army post and killed at least 13 soldiers watching the Algerian president’s televised speech promising reforms, security officials said yesterday.
Two militants in the group were killed by soldiers at the post in Kabyle, Algeria, some 80 miles east of Algiers, the officials said.
Yesterday, security forces swept areas including the Yakourene forest in a search for other suspects, the officials said.
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"Police in Swaziland, the last absolute monarchy in Africa, squelched a long-planned prodemocracy rally yesterday, firing water cannons and tear gas into crowds in Manzini, the nation’s largest city.
Organizers had dubbed the protest “the April 12 Uprising,’’ recalling the day, 38 years ago, when King Sobhuza II abandoned the constitution and rid himself of political parties.
His son, Mswati III, is now king. There is again a constitution, although it does not assure political freedom.
Yesterday, police arrested trade unionists who planned to lead the rally, then used blunt tactics to disperse the crowd.
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I know those were both in Africa, but you get the point.
