Tag: Bahrain

British naval base in Bahrain a disaster waiting to happen

The British decision to establish a naval base at Mina Salman Port in Bahrain as an old colonial power strongly supporting the Sunni monarchy, is a questionable move.

Bahrain has been criticized by international organizations for human rights abuses, however, as the home of the US Fifth Fleet, it has faced little criticism from Western governments.

The monarchy mercilessly crushed demands for democracy and civil rights from the island’s Shia majority during the Arab Spring in 2011.

Their repression was excessive. Shia mosques and holy places were bulldozed. Doctors at the main hospital in Bahrain that treated injured protesters were tortured by being forced to stand without sleep for days on end. Other prisoners were told that unless they sang the praises of the king their interrogators would urinate into their mouths.

The hypocrisy in the claims of the US and Britain to support secular democracy and civil rights in countries such as Libya and Syria, are therefore outrageous.

They do so in alliance with Sunni theocratic repressive monarchies which understandably have no interest in spreading secular democracy anywhere.

In 2011, UAE said it would refuse to join the coalition against the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi if there was any criticism of Bahraini repression.

At the heart of the crisis convulsing this part of the Middle East is a struggle between Sunni and Shia, and Britain has openly taken the side of the former.

It may not necessarily be a good long-term investment, but the British are good at switching sides as Gaddafi found out too late.

The total population of states bordering on the Gulf is about 145 million of whom at least 110 million are Shia.

Nabeel Rajab, one of Bahrain’s leading human rights activists, was arrested on 1 October because he “offended national institutions” by his comments on social media. Rajab had criticised the government for using counterterrorism laws to prosecute human rights defenders.

He also pointed out that a former Bahraini interior ministry officer, Mohamed Isa al-Binali, had joined ISIS and was calling on other interior ministry employees to do likewise.

The opening of a large UK naval base in Bahrain is a reward to London for not speaking out against the royal family’s abuses against dissenters, human rights activist Nabeel Rajab said.

Hundreds of Bahrainis protested the announcement.

It is not at all clear why Britain needs to establish its first permanent naval base in the Middle East since 1970 in Bahrain.

The base in Bahrain will be used to support RAF operations against the Islamic State in Iraq, but these are on such a small scale that they will not do much to affect the outcome of the war with ISIS.

Most British disasters in the Middle East over the past century have stemmed from wishing to be a major player in the region, while underestimating the resources necessary to do so.

Bahrain will pay for the naval base, however.

Gulf states to introduce medical testing to detect gays

arabgaysBahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the UAE already outlaw homosexuality, but are toughening their stance.

A medical test being developed by Kuwait will be used to detect homosexuals and prevent them from entering the country – or any of the Gulf Cooperation Countries (GCC), according to a Kuwaiti government official.

GCC member countries – Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – already deem homosexual acts unlawful.

This stance is being toughened, according to Yousouf Mindkar, the director of public health at the Kuwaiti health ministry.

He told Kuwait newspaper Al Rai: ‘Health centres conduct the routine medical check to assess the health of the expatriates when they come into the GCC countries. However, we will take stricter measures that will help us detect gays who will be then barred from entering Kuwait or any of the GCC member states.’

Those taking part in homosexual acts in Kuwait, if they’re under 21, can receive a jail sentence of up to 10 years.

Earlier this month Oman newspaper The Week was suspended over an article that was deemed to be sympathetic to homosexuals, according to the BBC.

It’s illegal to be gay in 78 countries, with lesbianism banned in 49. Five countries mete out the death penalty to gay people – Iran, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Yemen and Mauritania.

Iran: Since 1979, the government has executed more than 4,000 people charged with homosexual acts. A non-adult who engages in consensual sodomy is subject to a punishment of 74 lashes.

Saudi Arabia: Although the maximum punishment for homosexuality is execution, the government tends to use other punishments – such as fines, prison sentences, and whipping – unless it feels that homosexuals have challenged state authority by engaging in social movements.

Sudan: For homosexual men, lashes are given for the first offence, with the death penalty following the third offence. 100 lashes are given to unmarried women who engage in homosexual acts.For lesbian women, stoning and thousands of lashes are the penalty for the first offence. Today, the issue has divided some religious communities. In 2006, Abraham Mayom Athiaan, a bishop in South Sudan, led a split from the Episcopal Church of Sudan for what he regarded as a failure by the church leadership to condemn homosexuality sufficiently strongly.

Yemen: Homosexuality is still illegal in Yemen in accordance to the country’s Shari’ah legal system. Punishment ranges from flogging to death.

Mauritania: The Shari’a law applies in Mauritania. The penal code states that, since 1983,any adult Muslim caught engaging in an ‘unnatural act’ with a member of the same sex is punishable with the death sentence by public stoning.