Apartheid on the Persian-American Gulf?………….
“Sectarianism is one of the leading challenges imperiling social stability and hindering the development of Bahrain, a report by the Bahrain Centre for Studies and Research, one of the country’s leading think tanks, said last week. The 157-page Bahrain Strategy Report........ documenting a sharp increase in sectarianism over the past few years and warning of its implications……. “Escalating sectarianism which has made many individuals and political groupings interpret every event and every act with a sectarian perspective adapting facts according to the individual’s or grouping tendency,” the report, the second strategic report to be released since 2003, said. The centre is an independent research body funded largely by the public sector. Four of the nine members of the board of trustees are ministers in the present cabinet. At one point the crown prince, Sheikh Salman bin Hamad al Khalifa, was the chairman of the board of trustees………… sectarian sentiment had spread to the print media, where criticism of the executive branch ministries or organisations...... flourished. Such sentiment, it said, was based on the sectarian origins of the individual media outlets and not based on any political aspect or performance of that government entity. It also found that job discrimination based on sectarian beliefs – in both the government and private sectors – was carried out on an unofficial, individual level by those responsible for hiring regardless of whether they were Sunni or Shiite. “This unofficial sectarian discrimination, which dominates the social and political situation, has led to the weakening of civil society and the political movement, hindering the ability of many of those able to give back to the country to reach their full potential,” the report said. The report also criticised the embedded sectarian divide in parliament, where a continuing power struggle between Sunnis and Shiites, who control the overwhelming majority of the 40-elected seats, impedes achievement of the hopes of citizens………..”
This government “Bahrain Centre for Research” blames everybody else for sectarianism in Bahrain except the real culprits: the ruling oligarchy and their elite supporters. They and their retainers have fanned the flames of sectarianism.
The report praises the cabinet, which is extremely sectarian (I believe there are only two minor ministries for the majority Shi’as). The cabinet runs this Center! They blame the legislature, more than half of which is appointed by the king (formerly Emir). They blame the media, calling it sectarian- like a pot calling a kettle black! The opposition report that some government ministries are hiring solely on a sectarian basis. These fools and their retainers, and their policies, are the biggest enablers of the Iranian mullahs and their ideological message in Bahrain. They are so blinded by their greed they cannot see the damage they are doing to society.
In this apartheid system on the Persian-American Gulf.
Cheers
mhg
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