Discover Yahoo! With Your Friends

Explore news, videos, and much more based on what your friends are reading and watching. Publish your own activity and retain full control.

To get started, first

YOUR FRIENDS' ACTIVITY

    Bahrain Sees Unrest One Year Since Uprising

    Sky News – Tue, Feb 14, 2012

    Anti-government protests marking the first anniversary of the Shi'ite-led uprising in Bahrain are expected to escalate.

    Activists are determined to return to the site where demonstrations were centred last year before being brutally crushed.

    On Monday, security forces in Manama fired tear gas and stun grenades at protesters trying to occupy the area dubbed last year as 'Pearl Roundabout'. They continued to disperse groups into the morning.

    Despite a heavy police presence around the site and warnings of zero-tolerance of anti-government activities, thousands of opposition supporters marched through the streets of Manama and called for further demonstrations to follow.

    "We will not back down," protester Nader Abdulimam said, taking refuge in a house just outside Manama with other activists overcome by tear gas.

    "This has gone on for one year and it will go for another year or more."

    More than 50 police vehicles filled 'Freedom Square', open ground in the suburb of Miqsha, where several government-sanctioned opposition gatherings took place last week, while riot police and security personnel took up positions around the island to prevent a mass uprising.

    Around 70% of Bahrainis are from the Shia sect but the tiny Gulf island off the coast of Saudi Arabia has been ruled by the Sunni al-Khalifa family since the late 18th century.

    Inspired by the revolutions in other Arab states, pro-democracy demonstrators had camped in the area for a month last year before the site was razed by the  government, with Saudi troops providing extra muscle.

    At least 40 people were killed, and many people, including doctors who had treated injured demonstrators, lost their jobs and were arrested.

    The kingdom's rulers have since reinstated hundreds of workers dismissed for protesting and ending military-run tribunals, a move welcomed by Amnesty International.

    Unlike in other 'Arab Spring' states, it also set up an independent commission to investigate allegations of the abuse of detainees and has implemented changes suggested, gaining the approval of many British politicians.

    Although they have promised reform, they have refused demands from protesters and the main Shia party Al-Wefaq to end the monarchy's ability to select the government and set key policies.

    US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland expressed concern about the most recent violence./ She urged demonstrators to stage peaceful protests and security forces to "exercise restraint and operate within the rule of law and international judicial standards".

    The US Navy's 5th Fleet is based on the island.

     

    1 comment

    • Al Aoun
      Al Aoun  •  3 months ago
      There are no differences between Shi'ite and Sunni Muslims, as there are no differences between prostants and Catholics in Christianity, but the Jewish-Zionists create these differences to fulfill their agenda, which all the World knows them. "this is called FITNA in Islam" .
      • Rich
        Rich 3 months ago
        The Quran contains at least 109 verses that call Muslims to war with nonbelievers. Some are quite graphic, with commands to chop off heads and fingers and kill infidels wherever they may be hiding. Muslims who do not join the fight are called 'hypocrites' and warned that Allah will send them to Hell if they do not join the slaughter.

        Unlike nearly all of the Old Testament verses of violence, most of the verses of violence in the Quran are open-ended, meaning that they are not restrained by the historical context of the surrounding text. They are part of the eternal, unchanging word of Allah, and just as relevant or subjective as anything else in the Quran.

        Unfortunately, there are very few verses of tolerance and peace to abrogate or even balance out the many that call for nonbelievers to be fought and subdued until they either accept humiliation, convert to Islam, or are killed. Muhammad's own martial legacy and the remarkable stress on violence found in the Quran have resulted in a trail of blood and tears across world history.

        Other than the fact that Muslims haven't killed every non-Muslim under their domain, there is very little else that they can point to as proof that theirs is a peaceful, tolerant religion. Where Islam is dominant (as in the Middle East and Pakistan) religious minorities suffer brutal persecution with little resistance. Where Islam is in the minority (as in Thailand, the Philippines and Europe) there is the threat of violence if Muslim demands are not met. Either situation seems to provide a justification for religious terrorism, which is persistent and endemic to Islamic fundamentalism.

        The reasons are obvious and begin with the Quran. Few verses of Islam's most sacred text can be construed to fit the contemporary virtues of religious tolerance and universal brotherhood. Those that do are earlier "Meccan" verses which are obviously abrogated by later ones. This is why Muslim apologists speak of the "risks" of trying to interpret the Quran without their "assistance" - even while claiming that it is a perfect book.

        Far from being mere history or theological construct, the violent verses of the Quran have played a key role in very real massacre and genocide.

        Muhammad's failure to leave a clear line of succession resulted in perpetual internal war following his death. Those who knew him best first fought to keep remote tribes from leaving Islam and reverting to their preferred religion (the Ridda or 'Apostasy wars'). Then, within the closer community, early Meccan converts battled later ones. Hostility developed between those immigrants who had traveled with Muhammad to Mecca and the Ansar at Medina who had helped them settle in. Finally there was a violent struggle within Muhammad's own family between his favorite wife and favorite daughter - a jagged schism that has left Shias and Sunnis at each others' throats to this day.

        There are just too many Muslims who take the Quran literally... and too many others who couldn't care less about the violence done in the name of Islam.
     Post a comment