Middle East Focus: Watermelon Politics of the Gulf………..

Arabia Deserta

Watermelon Politics of the Gulf………..

“MANAMA - Bahraini authorities have stripped high-ranking Shiite cleric Ayatollah Hussein Mirza Najati of his citizenship for "violation" of the law, local media reported on Monday. Another Bahraini Shiite cleric, Sheikh Abdeljalil al-Moqdad, has been notified that his sermons have been suspended for two weeks, Al-Ayyam daily said, citing a justice ministry statement. The sermons of Moqdad, the imam of a mosque in a suburb of Manama, "threatened social peace" and "interfered with the affairs of justice," the statement said. The actions against the clerics come amid heightened tension in the Shiite-dominated kingdom sparked when 23 Shiite activists were charged earlier this month with forming a "terror network" aimed at bringing down the Sunni-dominated government…….” M E Online

Okay, things are heating up in Bahrain. Likely an illegal act that is against domestic and international laws: to strip a citizen of his citizenship by fiat. If “violating the law” was an excuse for stripping someone’s citizenship, then many Arab oligarchs should probably lose their citizenship. Besides, don’t they have courts for “violators of the law” and judges that can pass sentences?
Such are the watermelon laws of my native Gulf.
Cheers
mhg

m.h.ghuloum@gmail.com