Middle East Focus: Politics of Fear on the Persian-American Gulf……

Arabia Deserta

Politics of Fear on the Persian-American Gulf……

Walking on water

Religious fervor and conflict is rearing its ugly head in the Persian-American Gulf states of the GCC. Or maybe it is political manipulation of religious passions that are difficult to control once unleashed. On the shores of my Gulf they are fighting old religious wars, battles that ended fourteen centuries ago but are alive in fundamentalist minds (of both sides). This seems to be the case in three Gulf states where the Shia are either a large minority or a majority (Bahrain).

Sectarian divisions were widened and tensions raised in some Gulf states early on, during the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, when most Gulf states sided and actively supported Saddam Hussein. The Shi’as, understandably cool toward the genocidal Ba’ath regime in Baghdad, were often under suspicion as potential danger to existing order. August 1990 disabused some of the fools of all that, but only some of them for some of the time.

In Bahrain unrest by reformists and the Shi’as against economic and political disenfranchisement stretched during the 1990s. A new electoral system was announced by the Emir (now King) with a change from an all elected house to a bicameral half-appointed legislature (at most half elected, at most). Shi’a unrest in Bahrain continues with claims of being disenfranchised economically and politically. It is ascribed to Iranian meddling by the Gulf oligarchy media. There probably is some Iranian meddling; only a fool would deny that, but it should not get anywhere unless there was something terribly wrong with the status quo.

Saudi media is especially having a field day, putting the blame squarely on one side (sort of like I do sometimes, but I never claimed impartiality), further stirring the sectarian pot. Its allies in this fear-mongering are the Salafi Wahhabis, always happy to help against Shi’a heretics. Many of their leaders were spawned by Saudi Shari’a schools, and they have spread across the Gulf and into Egypt in recent years. The most potent weapon used by both is fear. It is the old power of fear and its manipulation: when sectarian passions are aroused, and people are frightened, they cling to the oligarchy for protection. It almost worked in Lebanon, almost but not quite. It is sort of like the bad old days, when everything was blamed on “the Zionist enemy” (they still do that, but rather quietly: it is frowned upon in the West).

Al-Quds Alarabi, a pan-Arabist newspaper published from the safety of London, claimed that it is part of a Western plot to strike at Iran. It claimed yesterday that the goal maybe to soften the Gulf states, frighten the people into supporting an American-Israeli war on Iran. It hints that they have been kind to Israel in the Saudi media in recent months, trying to improve its image in the region, perhaps in preparation for a temporary military “cooperation”. I am highly suspicious of this claim. Okay, not highly suspicious, just a tad suspicious for now.
Cheers
mhg

m.h.ghuloum@gmail.com