By: Anas Alkatib Davenport University And Mohammad Hassam Kang
On Saturday November 19 a conference was held to Support the Bahrainis at the Islamic Institute of Knowledge in Dearborn Michigan. Abdul-Latif Berry was the organizer and gave the keynote speechHaving a majority Arab speaking audience, there were few words in English that were spoke but the main program carried on in English to facilitate some of the older members in the audience. It was in support of the popular uprising in Bahrain, one of the smaller Arab nations under despotic rule that has alluded media attention.
“I can’t believe the double standard that is happening in Bahrain. It is a crime what is happening in there, and in which there is no media coverage of the situation there at all.” Said one speaker, and went on to speak about how major media broadcasts the Syrian uprising as a revolution, but when they talk about Bahrain, they report it as disobedience and disturbance in the area and the region. But I’m sure and positive that the people will overcome and will succeed in this revolution.
Dr. Baqir Barri spoke after about living in a country where people are demonstrating peacefully, but they are not gaining much support from us (Americans Muslims). Their braveness in their heart, they are still out and they are giving us an example to us of what they are made of and they are showing us what’s going on around them. They want reform and they are not willing to accept the divide of Sunni and Shia. They are all Muslims and all
they want is democracy and want our support. “The answer is here, in the United States came calls from everywhere in the conference.
Dr. Hytham Youssif (Bahraini Pediatric Intensivist ) from Bahrain started Talking about the background on Bahrainis demands. He told of how Bahrain has history all the way from Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), when during the spread of Islam, Bahrain went into Islam peacefully. He continued onward to the first masjid that was built during the time of Omar Al-Khattab, the second khalifat. Problems started with the rule of Issa bin Ali, who was ruling as a dictator from 1869 until his death in the 1930’s, with taxes ranging from fish tax, property tax, and other excessive taxes. He also talked about Abdullah bin Isa in who was kidnapping women and using them as sex slaves and confiscating houses and lands. Fast forwarding to 1930’s with the discovery of oil. He recounted Ian Henderson AKA the butcher of Bahrain who was the head of the Bahrain intelligence, in which he killed many Bahamians during his time and ruled the country with an Iron fist. Pro-democracy, demands by both Sunnis and
Shia have since been thwarted by thugs and mercenaries bought by the oil rich oligarchs to quell democratically inspired protests.
Yathreb Al-Aali: A Bahraini citizen, and a Bahraini Medical Resident, was in Bahrain when the events started. In his country Khalifa Bin Sulayman has been the first and only prime minister of Bahrain for over 41 years. In Feb 16. Four people got killed when 200,000 people marched in the largest Arab demonstration against Bahrain’s illegitimate rulers. In a country with some 1 million population, as you can see, this is about one fifth of the entire nation. The roundabout where the protest was held was demolished, hundreds of mosques were demolished, and peaceful protesters were murdered in the process. A witch hunt has been running in the past months in which they are targeting all the people that participated in the protest, even the soccer payers and many other people including a 20 year old young female poet was not exempt from the mass arrest, and subsequent torture.
Ali Al-Ahmad, the president – Institute of Gulf affairs is a political activist and from the Saudi opposition. (Bahrain Stand Alone) came all the way from Washington, and started by saying “this is revolution is a very unique revolution in which there was no violence what so ever”, referencing Imam Ali the fourth Khalifat saying “I will never surrender to you”. We as a whole have to tell President Obama, we will not vote for you if you do not take out the ruler of Bahrain, and we will organize to vote for your opponent. He asked for support from everyone, just as Bahrainis helped out the Iraqis in London. For Muslims especially he instructed to help the people of Bahrain and don’t let their cry go out without no response. Out of the 33 islands, 29 are owned by the Khalifa and only 4 are owned by the people of Bahrain, and even so,
those are shared with the ruler.
Joshua Colangelo. From the Human Rights Watch, who flew all the way from New york was directly involved with the violations of human rights in Bahrain carrying out investigations there. He first went to Bahrain for the first time when he was checking on one of the Guantanamo detainees. However, the second time he returned was to check on the
reports that they were getting that the police were abusing the detainees that were arrested while protesting. During the investigation the reports that were reported earlier were corroborated by the evidence that discovered that many of the protestors that were detained had bruised and irregularity in their shoulders, which clearly demonstrates that they were suspended from a ceiling. There are 285, 204 cases were for possessing political
publication, or inciting political disturbance. One case was 21 people arrested and all of them were in regards to a claim that they wanted to over throw the government when no evidence of such plot was found. In this case, all 21 they were convicted. The charge against them included talking to foreign media, protesting, chanting slogans. Ten of them are serving life in prison, and the rest are serving 15 years or more. Some doctors also were convicted because they treated some of the protestors, also considered one of the other criminal
activities, as they called for the minister of health to step down, because not enough ambulances were dispatched. A soccer player was also detained because he had a picture of one of the children that was killed in the protest. Another lady was detained and convicted because she took a picture of a municipal building and printed and threw it on the ground. She was charged with obstructing arrest and disturbance.
Here are some pictures from this event that tried to shed light on suffering of our brothers and sisters in Bahrain:
“I can’t believe the double standard that is happening in Bahrain. It is a crime what is happening in there, and in which there is no media coverage of the situation there at all.” Said one speaker, and went on to speak about how major media broadcasts the Syrian uprising as a revolution, but when they talk about Bahrain, they report it as disobedience and disturbance in the area and the region. But I’m sure and positive that the people will overcome and will succeed in this revolution.
Dr. Baqir Barri spoke after about living in a country where people are demonstrating peacefully, but they are not gaining much support from us (Americans Muslims). Their braveness in their heart, they are still out and they are giving us an example to us of what they are made of and they are showing us what’s going on around them. They want reform and they are not willing to accept the divide of Sunni and Shia. They are all Muslims and all
they want is democracy and want our support. “The answer is here, in the United States came calls from everywhere in the conference.
Dr. Hytham Youssif (Bahraini Pediatric Intensivist ) from Bahrain started Talking about the background on Bahrainis demands. He told of how Bahrain has history all the way from Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), when during the spread of Islam, Bahrain went into Islam peacefully. He continued onward to the first masjid that was built during the time of Omar Al-Khattab, the second khalifat. Problems started with the rule of Issa bin Ali, who was ruling as a dictator from 1869 until his death in the 1930’s, with taxes ranging from fish tax, property tax, and other excessive taxes. He also talked about Abdullah bin Isa in who was kidnapping women and using them as sex slaves and confiscating houses and lands. Fast forwarding to 1930’s with the discovery of oil. He recounted Ian Henderson AKA the butcher of Bahrain who was the head of the Bahrain intelligence, in which he killed many Bahamians during his time and ruled the country with an Iron fist. Pro-democracy, demands by both Sunnis and
Shia have since been thwarted by thugs and mercenaries bought by the oil rich oligarchs to quell democratically inspired protests.
Yathreb Al-Aali: A Bahraini citizen, and a Bahraini Medical Resident, was in Bahrain when the events started. In his country Khalifa Bin Sulayman has been the first and only prime minister of Bahrain for over 41 years. In Feb 16. Four people got killed when 200,000 people marched in the largest Arab demonstration against Bahrain’s illegitimate rulers. In a country with some 1 million population, as you can see, this is about one fifth of the entire nation. The roundabout where the protest was held was demolished, hundreds of mosques were demolished, and peaceful protesters were murdered in the process. A witch hunt has been running in the past months in which they are targeting all the people that participated in the protest, even the soccer payers and many other people including a 20 year old young female poet was not exempt from the mass arrest, and subsequent torture.
Ali Al-Ahmad, the president – Institute of Gulf affairs is a political activist and from the Saudi opposition. (Bahrain Stand Alone) came all the way from Washington, and started by saying “this is revolution is a very unique revolution in which there was no violence what so ever”, referencing Imam Ali the fourth Khalifat saying “I will never surrender to you”. We as a whole have to tell President Obama, we will not vote for you if you do not take out the ruler of Bahrain, and we will organize to vote for your opponent. He asked for support from everyone, just as Bahrainis helped out the Iraqis in London. For Muslims especially he instructed to help the people of Bahrain and don’t let their cry go out without no response. Out of the 33 islands, 29 are owned by the Khalifa and only 4 are owned by the people of Bahrain, and even so,
those are shared with the ruler.
Joshua Colangelo. From the Human Rights Watch, who flew all the way from New york was directly involved with the violations of human rights in Bahrain carrying out investigations there. He first went to Bahrain for the first time when he was checking on one of the Guantanamo detainees. However, the second time he returned was to check on the
reports that they were getting that the police were abusing the detainees that were arrested while protesting. During the investigation the reports that were reported earlier were corroborated by the evidence that discovered that many of the protestors that were detained had bruised and irregularity in their shoulders, which clearly demonstrates that they were suspended from a ceiling. There are 285, 204 cases were for possessing political
publication, or inciting political disturbance. One case was 21 people arrested and all of them were in regards to a claim that they wanted to over throw the government when no evidence of such plot was found. In this case, all 21 they were convicted. The charge against them included talking to foreign media, protesting, chanting slogans. Ten of them are serving life in prison, and the rest are serving 15 years or more. Some doctors also were convicted because they treated some of the protestors, also considered one of the other criminal
activities, as they called for the minister of health to step down, because not enough ambulances were dispatched. A soccer player was also detained because he had a picture of one of the children that was killed in the protest. Another lady was detained and convicted because she took a picture of a municipal building and printed and threw it on the ground. She was charged with obstructing arrest and disturbance.
Here are some pictures from this event that tried to shed light on suffering of our brothers and sisters in Bahrain:
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