What's "Normal" For Bahrain? (NEWS BRIEF/BLOG)

-by Teymoor Nabili (May 11, 2011)

(Credit: Teapartytribune) Monday's edition of the Gulf Daily News, ("The Voice of Bahrain")  led with the surpising declaration that everything is "Back to Normal", (or will be by next month).

"His Majesty King Hamad yesterday ordered an end to the State of National Safety from June 1. The State of National Safety is to be lifted by June 1 across the Kingdom of Bahrain."

Surprising because McClatchy news service has a sharply differing take on the state of the Kingdom.

Apparently un-noticed by the US, McClatchy reports, Bahrain's government has been systematically targeting any and all dissenting voices, most of them part of the Shia majority.

For example, 27 of the country's Shia mosques have been demolished without warning or explanation.

"The demolitions are carried out daily, Shia leaders say, with work crews often arriving in the dead of night, accompanied by police and military escorts. In many cases, the workers have hauled away the rubble, leaving no trace, before townspeople awake."

Al Jazeera sources also confirm that demolitions have been taking place.

Perhaps most chillingly, the news service also points to an example of what it calls "hate speech of the sort that preceded the 1994 Rwandan genocide", highlighting as evidence this letter printed by the Gulf Daily News.

The author, identified only as "Sana PS", labels the Shia February 14th movement as "termites", and recommends their extermination.

- originally published by Al-Jazeera on May 9, 2011 under Creative Commons Licensing