R. Zain's Blog, page 5

Highly Critical False Information, Yet to be Retracted

In 2011, news that was spread and yet to be questioned by the mass media and independent NGO’s, was highly critical false information. To date with the anniversary of Feb 14th the same information is being used and spread on social media as if the truth.

On February 17th, 2011, the Bahrain hash tag on twitter went wild with people worldwide trying to access information as it was supposedly live streamed. The information on twitter being live would raise the expectation of truth, however when analyzing the data, not surprisingly, the truth is very far from it.

This above image is taken from the Wikipedia website on “Bahrain-Timeline”. Bahraini uprising (2011–present) Wikipedia presented false information which should lead anyone trying to establish the truth to question the claims.

However even The London Evening Standard published the headline, “A girl aged two was today reported to have been killed in Bahrain when armed police stormed a peaceful protest camp to drive out anti-government demonstrators. Graphic images were released showing the child’s bullet-ridden body apparently lying in hospital.”

The writer went on to write:

She is understood to have been with her parents when riot officers using tear gas, live bullets and clubs swooped on thousands camped in the main square in the capital Manama at around 3am local time. Men, women and young children, many of whom had been sleeping, were forced out of Pearl Square in the unannounced crackdown by police in tanks and armored vehicles.

Medical teams said people were shot, trampled, beaten and suffocated by the gas amid the chaos with plainclothes officers seen firing shotguns as protesters tried to flee. At least five people have been killed and more than 100 injured.

Demonstrators said they were chased by police down side streets as they fled. Several ambulance drivers reported being attacked as they tried to reach the injured. Protesters said dozens of people were missing amid claims they had been arrested and imprisoned. Demonstrators also reported the army had taken people shot to a military hospital, which the public cannot visit.

Thousands started to gather this afternoon at another hospital, the Salmaniya, as they vowed to make it the new rallying point of the anti-government movement after police razed the camp and used barbed wire to seal off the square. As many as 50 tanks rolled through the capital’s streets today as the military locked down the Gulf Island’s capital and banned protests.

Images of the dead girl and other killed demonstrators were rapidly circulated by mobile phone.

Protester Ali al-Haji said: “We send this picture so the world can see what the government is doing to us.” He said: “The first person responsible for this is the king. He is responsible for the killing, for the attacks on women and children. They attacked us. They raised the bar that we will now meet. We are ready to throw the king out.

We will not stop.” Mahmoud Mansouri, a protester, said police surrounded the camp and then quickly moved in. “We yelled, ‘We are peaceful! Peaceful!’ The women and children were attacked just like the rest of us. “They moved in as soon as the media left us.

They knew what they were doing,” he said. Dr Sadek Akikri, 44, said he was tending to injured protesters at a makeshift medical tent in the square when the police stormed in. He said he was tied up and severely beaten and then thrown on a bus with others. He said the police beating him spoke Urdu, the main language of Pakistan.

A pillar of the protesters’ demands is to end the Sunni regime’s practice of granting citizenship to Sunnis from other countries to try to dilute the strength of the majority Shias. Many of the new citizens work in security. The deaths have fuelled the protesters’ fury and demands and they have now started to call for the removal of King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, previously seen as untouchable.

Protesters, inspired by the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, have been calling for a major political overhaul in the tiny kingdom, which is next door to Saudi Arabia and has a native population of 600,000. The 70 per cent Shia majority have been ruled over by the Sunni al-Khalifa monarchy for more than 200 years.

Despite their greater numbers the Shias claim they are blocked from senior government posts or positions of power in the military and security services and that they face systematic discrimination. Shia opposition leader Abdul Jalil Khalil today said his 18 parliament members had resigned in protest at the killings. Tens of thousands have poured into the central square since Monday, calling for change and a move to a constitutional democracy. Many demanded that the government provide more jobs and better housing and the release of all political detainees. Bahrain is a pillar of Washington’s military framework in the region. It hosts the US Navy’s 5th Fleet, a counterbalance to Iran’s efforts to expand its influence in the region. Any prolonged crisis opens the door for a flashpoint between Iran and its Arab rivals in the Gulf.”

One wonders how much of the article one can rely on as truth. The wikipedia stated that four people were killed, the writer in the London Evening Standard claims five, including a two-year-old girl shot multiple times by police has never been retracted despite the fact that the BICI report never mentioned this action.  Regardless, the information was false.

The fact that a leader in the opposition Al Wefaq, also commented in this article meant that he must have read the article once published and must have been aware of the false information the article contained, as were the NGO’s who also came up with a report which included false information of the two year old girl.

A joint report titled “Bahrain The Human Price for Freedom and Social Justice” was published in November, 2011.

The information disseminated in this report has yet to be retracted and yet it was presented to the United Nations and carried by numerous media outlets including the Bahrain Human Rights Society, the BCHR and Pomed..

I have not gone on to study the complete document however it is surprising that such a statement can be made and presented as a factual report, and not even as alleged, and yet not questioned by even Pomed. If even a Project on Democracy in the Middle East can’t be relied upon to question false information, then it is questionable as to how honest an establishment promoting supposedly democracy for all really is.

A little research and the real facts are placed that on the 17th of February while the mass media indulged for days and weeks about a 2 year old girl death, was highly critical false information and yet to be retracted by the media and by the NGO’s. Does this not raise questions as to the credibility of the NGO’s and the mass media at all? Why am I not surprised.

Again, this is the picture of the unfortunate two year old that was tweeted and used by the protesters, NGO’s, mass media and claimed to be shot by riot police and placed in the Wikipedia.

 

The girl in the image is Romklao Plu whose image was used by the protesters at the GCC round about on the 17th February 2011, as a child shot by the police. On Thursday, December 18, 2008, the headline read Rotweiller dogs kill thai baby girl .

Two Rottweiler (Rottweil Metzgerhund) dogs, owned by a Dutch man named Johannas Bernadas based in Nakhon Ratchasima, mauled his 20 month old daughter to death early yesterday, police said. The toddler named Romklao Plu (Thai: ร่มเกล้า พลู), nicknamed Nina, was attacked and killed in an unprovoked attack inside her house compound in Muang district at 1 am.

Her 42 year old mother, Jintana Plu, was also severely injured in her desperate efforts to save the child, as the dogs had savaged her legs. It is disheartening to see the mass media and Wikipedia not verify the fact that a twenty month old child is used to depict horror in Bahrain, three years after her death in Thailand.  This false information had been tweeted 86 times with 2021 views. Read more here.

Besides the above false information, on the 13th of March 2011, Al Wefaq uploaded a video on their official you tube channel titled ‘Face To Face Shooting in Bahrain

This is a video that was uploaded by Al Wefaq and disseminated by the mass media. As of November 28th of 2012, this video had 1,011,382 views. It shows a man in a red shirt and a police officer arguing and then the police officer discharges his firearm, and from the angle of the camera, it appears that he is shot at least once, possibly twice.

The video ends and the world assumed he was shot brutally at close range. After this video emerged, the Independent wrote an article on the event and included 4 screenshots of the video.

The article points out that there is no evidence of what actually occurred in the event; what types of weapon was used, what the intent was, what happened to the protestor, or even who the protestor was. Yet the article continues to state that, “Such ruthlessness appeared to be an indication of the strength of the authorities’ rejection of reform.”

On the 13th March 2011, “Face to Face Shooting in Bahrain 2’ was uploaded by a you tube account ”Bahrain Documentary Channel”

The second video is an extended version of the same incident as the first video, but from a different angle. One sees a large group of protestors approaching a police blockade. The police are standing in a group. As the protestors move in on the group of police, at 0:21 seconds, the police start shooting tear gas canisters to disperse the crowd.

Al Wefaq its birth and origins.

HH Prince Khalifa: A Man of the People

I loved this article by @SallyfromSaar and felt I had to share.

“Natural disasters or man made tragedies are a way of life. We hear, we see, we read about them on a regular basis – but as long as these incidents don’t touch us or affect our lives we feel sympathy for a few moments and move swiftly on.”

The USA, being a vast country is affected by thunderstorms, floods, typhoons, and more disturbing cold-blooded murder of men women and children. The President visits affected communities to offer support and console the suffering victims. He flies in on a private jet surrounded by armed security and spends a while being toured before giving a speech and then leaves as quickly as he arrived. We consider this act as compassionate and the duty of a leader while the world applauds his effort and international media commend his concern.

Most expatriates in Bahrain don’t take much notice of local political news and thanks to satellite services are exposed to international media in almost whichever language they choose. The challenges in Bahrain have revealed the negativity and lob sided reporting of international media – and yet people still follow these same news channels. Media at all levels are experts in manipulating information with subliminal messaging, but on a social level society is even more convinced by the endorsement of legitimate and well-positioned people within their community. Bahrain has many community centres and clubs across the island, and sadly, it is at these venues during social gatherings that the most distasteful remarks and baseless accusations against the government are made.

The West does not fully comprehend the Middle Eastern concept of loyalty, dedication and love for a leadership or a country. This has not always been the case – in 1977 when the Queen celebrated her silver jubilee the whole of the UK planned street parties to celebrate, in a massive show of patriotism. The night before, all of us were out hanging banners and decorating streets. I remember wandering around with my friends in my neighbourhood in London, going to all the street parties, tasting food and playing games, we all wore HM pins and waved the union jack.

It was a show of allegiance to a country that we were proud of. We did not expect the Queen to visit us and yet we were in high spirits for days – the community celebrated together. Local businesses flourished with souvenirs – I still have my silver jubilee mug.

Bahrain has a very strong culture with religion being a way of life. Families tend to live within extended families and elders are highly respected. Problems, disagreements and issues are discussed and resolved internally. It is a country where people automatically greet each other – even strangers when walking into a building, an office or other public places.

As a resident of Bahrain the royal family always intrigued me. One meets members of the royal family at events, school, universities, education centres, social gatherings, local gyms and offices at all levels. There are members of the royal family in prominent positions but many are not involved in the government sector and focus on their own skills. Society is so open that we have princes and princesses who play football, ride horses, race cars, have thriving businesses and are even international fashion designers. All are discreet and so polite that one cannot really differentiate, since Bahrainis in general are warm hearted and kind.

This country is known for her people.

When the opposition occupied the GCC Roundabout in February 2011 and called for the death of the ruling family, I was horrified. Never in rallies, that I participated in regularly when I was at college in the UK, did I hear of anyone chanting death to anyone. If party leaders in the UK had called for the death of the queen, I am pretty sure they would lost all support, would have been jailed and thought of as being stark raving mad.

It was disturbing that opposition party leaders were promoting violence as a solution to issues that none of the expatriate community really understood. In any rebellion, young people are always a target but in this case the opposition was manipulating their youth into committing criminal offences – in reality a form of abuse.

It was a time of confusion and opposition groups tried to entice the expatriate community into believing in their cause. I for one just like many others could not be persuaded to work against a leadership and government that I knew was doing so much for this country. In the UK people have heating on timers and pay a large percentage of their salaries in tax, public transport, TV licenses, council tax, food, electricity, mortgages and heating bills. Speak to anyone living there and one can see how families are forced to live within a very meager budget.

So, some of us did our best to spread the true message in the best way we knew how. Many of us lost our jobs, we lost people we considered friends and we even lost our homes – but we never lost faith. Despite our personal hardships, we were not ready to let anyone sell Bahrain.

Over the months that followed foreign workers, civilians and policemen were attacked and some murdered while others sustained serious injures and were hospitalized. The main highway from the Diplomatic Area to Saar was blocked and to reach home, I would go all the way across town to use Adhari Road.

During the height of the opposition occupation of the GCC Roundabout, thousands of people went to Riffa outside Shaikh Khalifa’s home chanting “the people want Khalifa bin Salman”. Astonishingly he came out of his residence and greeted these terrified citizens and reassured them using a loudhailer when he said “the dreams of those who want to destroy Bahrain will not be fulfilled as long as there are people like you in Bahrain and I thank each and every one of you”.

These words had a powerful impact on me, as they were the words of a father comforting his petrified children. The thousands who had turned out were calmed and returned home.

This raised my curiosity further – why do people love this man so much?

One morning in March, I heard that the Prime Minister had used this highway and visited a mall in Seef district. I was amazed – the road had just been cleared as being safe and the PM drove over a once booby-trapped highway. I was even more surprised when I heard that when he met people in the Mall he had taken the time to ask about their businesses and showed real concern for all who had suffered losses.

On another occasion, a friend called me and casually mentioned that she had heard that the PM was going to visit Bahrain City Centre. I plucked up the courage to drive out to the mall – I was very nervous on the dimly lit road but I felt an irresistible pull.

I assumed that only a handful of people would turn out as at that time, so many of us were too frightened to venture out after dark.

When I arrived, the mall was relatively quiet and I felt an air of confidence; I believed this was my opportunity to greet the PM. Sadly, my hopes were soon dashed.

Within minutes, it felt like thousands were suddenly in the mall and I was now at the back of a wall of men, women and children. When I heard loud cheering I knew the PM had arrived, but I could not see him. As he walked into the ground floor area I saw him – he was just metres away but I could not get through the crowd so I decided to stay back and observ. Out of the blue, there was deafening chanting and everyone including the PM looked up – as I looked up I saw an unbelievable sight – each floor was packed with people shouting “the people want Khalifa bin Salman”.

Completely mesmerized, I stood in silence and I experienced first hand the effect of his presence. I am convinced that there is an aura and strength about him that is unexplainable and yet very powerful. He strolled across each floor, up the escalators, spoke with ordinary men, women and children and the mall was alive once again. One lady ran out crying and I comforted her thinking that she had been crushed in the rush but she sobbed “Now I know Bahrain will be fine because Shaikh Khalifa is here”. I now understood why everyone called him the “man of the people”.

That is the level of loyalty and devotion people have for this enigmatic man. There was no security, there was no protocol ushering well wishers away, it was just the PM mingling with citizens to assure them that he was with them. It was a thrilling night and one I will never forget. As I drove home on a dark and deserted highway, I decided that I would not give up doing whatever I could to spread the truth about a country that I love and for a monarchy that despite having given so many years of their lives working for the people and the country were now being criticized unjustly by the opposition with support from international media and silently by locally based residents.

When policemen were injured the PM went to visit them personally in hospital where he held their hands and reassured each one. He offered his support as a PM as a father, as a brother, as a friend who truly cared. He even visited injured civilians and discussed their injuries with genuine concern and instructed critical cases requiring specialized treatment to be sent to the best hospitals in the world. During his visit it was evident that his sons and grandsons also felt the pain and fear of the injured. I suppose growing up with a compassionate father has engrained the same qualities into the people around him.

Being a leader is not an easy task but to have the support of the masses takes an immense amount of commitment and fortitude. I set about to understand the achievements of a leader whom I have never met but had now experienced the effect he had on the lives of so many. As Peter Drucker said; “Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results not attributes.”

Shaikh Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa is the second son of Shaikh Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the former ruler of Bahrain. Shaikh Khalifa was educated in local government schools. He began working at his father’s office at the age of 19 but had been accompanying him to meetings since the age of 7 years. He learned the ropes quickly and like his father worked for the people and for the country; something he obviously does to this day.

Shaikh Salman was a visionary man who wanted the highest standard of education, health and housing facilities for all citizens. When the profits of oil rolled in, he made a decision to share this wealth for the development of the people and into a National Reserve Fund – a momentous and unprecedented act ensuring that the country was propelled wisely into the 21st century, making Bahrain the most developed country in the GCC.

Shaikh Khalifa under the guidance of Shaikh Isa stepped into the late Shaikh Salman’s governmental role in 1961. With his vision and determination to make the country competitive in the international arena, he went about putting a vision and long-term plan into action.

In his own words “ we have a goal to see that every Bahraini has a house, has a job and we will never have poverty in Bahrain”.

Heads of States, Universities and International Organisations have honoured the Prime Minister. One of his key achievements was the 2006 – UN Special Citation–Habitat Scroll of Honour. During the presentation Shaikh Khalifa was saluted by Ban Ki Moon, Secretary General of the UN “ I should like to praise your government for the significant progress in achieving the education for all goals, especially as regards universal primary education, adult literacy and gender parity. The fact that you started your distinguished career as the President of the Education Council of Bahrain is certainly not foreign to the efforts made by your government in this field”.

In October 2009 Shaikh Khalifa was awarded the Avicenna gold medal in recognition of his strenuous efforts to support culture, human heritage and UNIESCO activities.

The PM has been recognized “for uplifting the standards of all Bahrainis through a concerted focus on alleviating poverty and modernization while preserving the cultural heritage of Bahrain”. His accomplishments are undeniable proof that people near and far value his contribution to the people of this small island and give him credit – and what did Shaikh Khalifa do after receiving these awards – he seemed to work even harder.

These are just two of his numerous accolades of a man who has stood by the people of Bahrain through the worst adversities.

People seem to forget that the PM has been instrumental in spearheading international businesses into Bahrain, making us a financial hub, creating a competitive business environment, developing the real estate sector and bringing international exhibitions to our doorstep. This was even more obvious during the global recession when Bahrain was the least affected due to his foresight that pushed us out of the darkness into the light.

Instead of criticizing, people in Bahrain should actually be applauding a man who has built the country to face any challenge. Call me a stool pigeon if you will (I have been called much worse) but I only share what I passionately believe.

To quote some people I came across; “People see him as a sign of strength, law and order. His grip is a manifestation of just that”. “He made us remember the words, stay united, when we needed it the most in the 2011 crisis”. “He earned our love and respect – as simple as that”.

In Bahrain we have a leader who instills loyalty. People trust this man to the core and know he is not only a man of his word, but also a man who genuinely stands by his people and his country. Over the years this man has shone through and shown people the way forward. He has stood in the face of the most grotesque criticism and continued to prove his loyalty and dedication to the people of Bahrain. This man who commands so much admiration and respect is our Prime Minister, Shaikh Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa – truly a man of the people.

@Sallyfromsaar

Human Rights, all Wrong

While the United Nations has been monitoring the human rights abuses around the world they have not been monitoring the human rights activists that the mass media refers to as prominent and who have been the source of disseminating information. They have relied on these activists’ reports and accounts of situations without independently verifying the material presented or the relation of the sources. They have also failed to question why certain human rights abuses are documented while others remain ignored. NGO Monitor prepared a list that Human Rights Watch documented. The top seven countries in terms of documents filed by HRW are documented below:

 One of the Top seven countries that have been documented was Bahrain.

In 2011, 54 documents were submitted on Bahrain alone. With a population of just 1,323,535 (2011), HRW felt the need to document Bahrain 54 times in 52 weeks. That’s equivalent to more than one report per week. Joe Stork, Deputy Director of Human Rights Watch Middle East and North Africa division,  has even made himself available to attend and support one of many panels.

Now that’s just the report on Human Rights Watch. Researching the human rights organizations that disseminated the majority of the information I found the following. While some information disseminated was accurate, some was exaggerated and obscured while some was false or “alleged” however still promoted as a factual report. And then there was many abuses that were ignored.  Bahrainstorming blogspot  recently wrote:

Dynasties in the Bahraini Opposition

There is an old Arabic expression that a man only cares about politics once his family is involved, and this idea is perhaps nowhere more pertinent than in the current conflict in Bahrain. Families play a significant role in every side of the dispute, from the royal family’s penetration of every level of government and even some elements of civil society to the domination of certain families within the organized opposition, even as they themselves criticize the regime for its own such practices. The difference between the two is that while the government, being a monarchy, makes no qualms about its open favoritism, the nepotistic and cronyistic structures within the organized opposition are a bit more shrouded – but influential nonetheless.

Such dynasties exist throughout various segments of the opposition – from Shaikh Abdul Amir Al Jamri, deceased spiritual leader of Bahrain’s Twelver Shi’a, whose son owns the primary opposition newspaper Al Wasat that is in turn connected to both the Shi’a opposition society Al Wefaq to the socialist opposition National Democratic Action Society Wa’ad; to the now-imprisoned Hassan Mushaima, self-styled religious cleric and founding member of the opposition societies Al Wefaq, Haq Movement, and Coalition for a Republic, whose son Ali Hassan and several close associates are active in raising awareness for the Bahraini opposition in Europe. Although it is normal, indeed expected, for a certain group of élites and their immediate circles to play a prominent role in any such political movements, the structural dominance of certain key networks in the Bahraini opposition is both unusually distinct and carries important repercussions.

Perhaps the most conspicuous such example is that of the circle surrounding Abdulhadi Alkhawaja, who is currently serving a life sentence for opposition activity, and his affiliated organizations. Alkhawaja’s opposition activity began in the late 1970s when he quit Bahrain to pursue higher education in the UK and became associated with several student groups there. These groups had links to the Islamic Front for the Liberation of Bahrain, the Shi’a militant organization of which the Islamic Action Society is the modern-day political descendent and whose former members, exiled after a failed 1981 uprising, dominate the leadership of the Bahraini opposition today. Alkhawaja was among those exiles, and he spent his years abroad in the UK, Syria and Denmark, formenting ties with not only other opposition figures but also western NGOs and activist groups.

 

The community surrounding the Bahrain Center for Human Rights

As such, Alkhawaja eventually became Middle East and North Africa Protection Coordinator for Frontline Defenders, a prominent international human rights organization. He also helped to establish the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR), which has become the focal point of the activism-oriented Bahraini opposition, with his close friend and colleague Nabeel Rajab, who arguably serves as the opposition’s primary connection to the international NGO and activist community. Aside from the BCHR, Rajab serves as president of the Gulf Center for Human Rights, deputy secretary general of the Fédération internationale des ligues des droits de l’Homme, a member of the advisory committee for the Human Rights Watch MENA Division, and a member of the advisory board for the Bahrain Rehabilitation and Anti-Violence Organization.

The writer goes on to write:

The Alkhawaja family, not just Abdulhadi himself, is extremely active in both the BCHR and the opposition movement as a whole, particularly in gaining international media coverage.  His daughter Zainab created a popular English-language Twitter account, @angryarabiya, which garnered a good deal of media attention, both within the MENA and around the world. She has continued to remain prominent within the opposition scene due to a number of well-publicized media stunts and protest-related arrests. Another of Abdulhadi’s daughters, Maryam, has likewise maintained a conspicuous media presence through her own popular Twitter account @MARYAMALKHAWAJA (this one in both Arabic and English), through continued appearances in international media, and as acting president of the BCHR. Maryam’s sisters husband, Mohammed Al Maskati (@MohdMaskati), is a former member of the BCHR and president of the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights, which maintains strong ties with international human rights groups, Bahraini youth groups, and the socialist opposition society Wa’ad. Abdulhadi’s brother, Salah Alkhawaja, is currently serving a five year prison sentence related to his documentation of the 14 February uprisings for the international media. He is also vice president of the Islamic Action Society, the aforementioned modern descendent of the militant Islamic Front for the Liberation of Bahrain and whose president Shaikh Mohammed Ali Mahfoodh was an associate of Abdulhadi’s during their exile in Damascus together during the 1980s. Abdulhadi’s wife, Khadija Al Mousawi (@tublani2010), is a close relative of Hadi Al Mousawi (@SHalMosawi), a former MP for the Al Wefaq society and chairman of the trade union for BATELCO, the state-operated telecommunications company. Finally, Abbas Al Omran (@abbasalomran), a long-time associate of Abdulhadi and member of the BCHR currently living in exile in the UK, frequently speaks to the international media about the Bahraini opposition’s cause – so much so, in fact, that the regime has sentenced him in absentia to 15 years’ imprisonment and revoked his Bahraini citizenship.

The writer concludes:

The result of such a structure is that an outside observer – indeed, the primary target of all these individuals’ efforts – may see a reasonable plurality of independent human rights-oriented activists and groups within Bahrain without realizing the reality that they are all in fact a very closely-affiliated network of family members, friends, and organizations. This is not to make allegations of a covert conspiracy among Alkhawaja and his associates, as some elements of the pro-regime camp have done, nor is it to make claims that these individuals’ work is invalidated by their relationships with one another. It is, however, important to note that these relationships do mean that Alkhawaja’s network has a disproportionate influence both over international media coverage of the opposition’s (widely-varying) perspective and over the information that international NGOs and human rights groups have about the situation on the ground in Bahrain. Moreover, such external observers working with Alkhawaja and Co. may be given the impression that they are dealing with NGOs or watchdog groups, rather than politically-savvy activists with a definite agenda to promote. Indeed, there has been some discussion even within the opposition movement itself that Alkhawaja’s network exercises an inordinate amount of influence within the international community and has presented the situation in Bahrain from a distinctly-biased perspective. Read more here Bahrainstorming blogspot.

I can’t comment on what occurs between the Government and the United Nations as I am personally not aware of the direct correspondence but I can comment on the abuses that I felt were ignored by the family dynasty of activists that the United Nations, the NGO’s and the mass media rely on as a source. There are two sides to every story, two ways of looking at the same thing and two sides to present.

Praise and criticism should be objective and based on true statements backed with solid evidence. Accepting the universality of human rights a defender must accept the universality of human rights as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

A person cannot deny some human rights and yet claim to be a human rights defender because he or she is an advocate for others. For example, it would not be acceptable to defend the human rights of men but to deny that women have equal rights. In reference to Bahrain, the rights of Expatriates in the independent BICI commissioned report states in their Findings and Conclusions:

1525. The Commission found sufficient evidence to establish that some expatriates, in particular South Asian workers were the targets of attacks during the events of February/March 2011. The Commission finds that four expatriates were killed by mob attacks during the events and many were injured.

The BICI report states more, the questionable part in the above is why the activists named above did not cover or condemn such attacks? An answer is required as to why the above reference was not included in any condemnation or represented by NGO’s ,based in and outside of Bahrain, that have a duty and must accept the universality of human rights as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Basic reporting on violence committed against expatriates were neither recorded nor condemned by any of the above. I went on to research and found the following;

“On Thursday, 12th January, 2012, Nabeel Rajab (President of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights) dropped quite a shock to both the regime and the political societies when he took to the podium by making the King of Bahrain his main target”

The announced prominent human right defender became a politician. Is that the job description of a human right defender?

I am not here to judge the Director of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights stance, however as he has been referred to as a prominent human rights defender as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights I have not noted any statement or even reference to the  brutal nearly deadly attack on Khalid Al Sardi.

Khalid Al Sardi was brutally attacked and nearly tortured to death on the 13th of March, 2011 at the University of Bahrain by anti government protesters.  Here is his case:

“On the 13th of March last year, I went to the university as usual. It never came to my mind that I am going to face death on that day. Demonstration started in the morning at the UOB and the protestors started attacking students & harassing female students. We tried to protect the female student, as thugs started to throw stones, so we went to one of the building and I volunteered to watch from the roof. A Few minutes later, rioters surrounded and attacked the building. I have seen buses bringing more rioters carrying weapons. Hearing my colleagues’ screams, watching windows and door breakage by 14Feb thugs, and the huge number of thugs attacking the college with their weapons, make the image unbearably frightening. I really felt insecure. Five minutes later, 14Feb reached the roof where I was. They attacked me brutally. I was beaten by huge number of rioters. I was hit, beaten and kicked. The tutored continued & continued; I couldn’t move nor defend myself. I felt drowsy, giddy & numb in all my body. I felt severe headache that I wished to loss conscious. They ordered me to move down the stairs. I tried, but could not; they threaten me to be thrown from the roof. I was pulled down the stairs while beating continued. Finally I reached down. When I have seen the ambulance, I thought at last I could relax. However, they continued their brutal attacks on me even when I on ambulance trolley. Finally, I entered the ambulance and the door closed. I thought it over, I could relax, but the nurse begins to verbally assaulting me. My body was covered by blood, felt severe pain all over my body and intensely traumatized. I beg the nurse to take me to BDF hospital. When she notices my body shivering, she thought I am dying. Once I reached BDF, I lost my consciousness. I could not believe I am still alive. 13 March could be the last day in my life.”

Article 2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which sets out the basic principle of equality and non-discrimination as regards the enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms, forbids “distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status”.

In the case of Khalid Al Sardi, the BCHR failed to document the attacks or condemn them or report it and neither did any of the other “human rights” organizations or activists. Do you see a trail here? Do you understand the source of dissemination yet?

A recent example of non-reference to victims of violence which again was neither documented by the BCHR or Human Rights organizations was the death of Ahmed Al Dhufairi who suffered 2nd and 3rd degree burns and shrapnel from an explosive planted between burning tyres on the 16th of April, 2012. He passed away two months later in hospital and was laid to rest on the 9thof June 2012. During a live discussion Hussam Al Hadad’s death was mentioned as is documented by the BCHR however the documentation and condemnation of the death of Ahmed Al Dhufairi by the BCHR was never raised. Funnily enough the reporter wasn’t aware of the recent death either or the rest opposing panel. Instead they chose to mock a prominent Surgeon. Is that what human rights defenders are supposed to do?

In another unreported incident by the BCHR , a mother and her son were the innocent victims of a gas cylinder explosion outside their house in Bilad Al Qadeem. Again another failure to report. These are just a few critical cases that I have mentioned, there are many more.

Despite the fact that the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights was closed in September 2004 a number of human rights organizations  fall under the umbrella of the BCHR. Therefore I specifically raised the study based on the BCHR practice and the way the information is disseminated.

“Several similar groups have been identified, including, for example, the Migrant Workers Protection Society, the National Committee of People Deprived of Citizenship, Youth Human Rights Society, the Anti-Torture Committee and the Unemployment Committee all of which come under the BCHR umbrella” or “management”.

It is a disappointment and absurd that human rights activists that are in the position of defending every human right representing well established NGO’s around the world failed to report or condemn human rights abuses against expatriates of Asian descent while in the meantime reporting on maids mistreated when it suits a certain agenda. The BICI reported those claims and yet to date the question remains unanswered as to why the NGO’s failed to condemn or report others.

While the incidents that took place against anti-government protesters were reported, they failed to report on the incidents that took place against innocent bystanders by the anti-government protesters which still carry the phrase peaceful by the international mass media and NGO’s. Attacks that took place during the time should be reported regardless whether alleged or not as they have other alleged cases that have been turned into facts.

In the case of the BCHR while highlighting cases that covered an antigovernment agenda, the human rights advocates failed to highlight victims that were not a part of the anti-government movement.

Regardless of their views or sect, NGO’s and activists are in power to represent communities as a whole not who they support. This is the first basic principal that should be administered when representing an NGO that stands for human rights.

I turn to the United Nations honorable sirs and madams and ask, what do you really represent?

The answer I hope for is people and not power. People no matter what their background or ethnicity, regardless of their beliefs and their convictions, regardless of their stance. It is your duty to provide a voice for all, not for some.

Human life and human suffering has been left on a cross road for agendas. I, like many, have lost faith in the system that represents one side. It is a duty to respect and treasure human beings that have now become collateral damage in wars and revolutions around the world which has not bought peace, but more conflict and more lives at the brink of survival. Human Rights/ NGO’s should not be used as a political bargaining tool, it breaks the essential ethics of what they are supposed to be about.

Bring that faith back, and restore the basic ethics that we were born with, and the fundamentals of what an NGO should represent, which is applying human rights to all, regardless of their opinion or stance.

If you are truly honorable, than you must protect the honor of all.

 

My Arab Spring: Trolled

Not that I really care but you did it again. You pride yourself as a “human rights activist” and yet you just had to leave your mark without even reading my book My Arab Spring. Note the title My Arab Spring… My … not yours, not someone elses, not the governments and not the oppositions, but My Arab Spring. But thanks for buying my book, the price you pay to TROLL the truth.

Here is your trolling comment:

You must really be desperate to condemn anyone that doesn’t agree with you or adhere to your way of thinking. What a shame to act as a human rights advocate and yet condemn another persons right to an opinion and to the truth they way they lived it. This is something you have never experienced behind the comfort of your PC trolling from half way accross the world, condoning, condemning.

On February 14th, 2011, my life changed dramatically, everyone’s life changed dramatically. I was one of a muted majority who suffered in silence while our nation, the Kingdom of Bahrain, was driven into chaos. I wrote My Arab Spring to highlight what the decades of whispers on the ground achieved. The term Arab Spring is quite ironic as the Arab Spring became the silent majorities Arab Winter Chaos.

There are many tyrants in this world. Those who feel it is in their hands to decide who should live, who dies, who stays, who goes. You are one of them. Thousands of human lives are lost along the way without a thought or justification of how many innocent lives left unaccounted for, unnumbered, without a name or a face to live with what remains. Those tyrants will never be held accountable for what they term “collateral damage”. Our Allies read it and learn, those are the real tyrants, the dictators, the ones never held accountable for any of their murderous crimes.

The battle to be heard gave me strength to recount the days and nights of a part of history that in every way shook the world. I lived through two revolutions in 2011, one against the Arab Spring that erupted in a place you cannot compare to Egypt or Tunisia, where the people are truly in poverty, and another with the people I was trying to defend. I shall remain as I started, defending what I believe in and will stand against what I believe is wrong. As for you, thank you… you can’t stand it, the truth really does hurt you.

 

 

 

 

Our Allies

I’m tired of hearing the word ally. How rare these days to actually find a real ally. When we refer to the term ally we usually think of a “friend”. In terms of the United States of America,  the only alliance with this “ally” that I have seen is one state formally cooperating with another for a strategic military purpose. Not in our interest mind you. The United States has always been known for the “interest of America”, is there a need for me to go further.

I hate quoting the BICI report, but everyone else does as and when it suits their agenda. Here is how quick our ally reacted in 2011.

As part of its mediation efforts between the Government of Bahrain and the seven main opposition parties, the United States dispatched Ambassador Jeffery D. Feltman, the Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, to Manama to examine the potential for reaching an agreement between the two sides. The consultations that were undertaken led to the drafting of a document entitled, “Code of Conduct – To be Sponsored by a Regional Leader, with the US GoB Acting as Observer”. The document included the following point: The intent to form an interim government within 60 days.

They didn’t take into concern the rest of the Nation. Secret behind the door decisions. As if we don’t exist. According to opposition sources, Al Wefaq and the other political societies accepted this US proposal, while the GoB did not respond to this initiative. So much for our ally, our “friends” as some may like to think. It is unforgiveable and unforgetable.

Our allies are working hard to impose their hegemony on the Arab world. They admit it openly.  They suceeded in Iraq, until their unpredictable other ally, our neighbour, Iran got in the way.

They are the driving force behind the fighting in Somalia.  Sudan has been divided and continues to suffer the constructed designed chaos. The US secret Libyan war (not very secret anymore)  went ahead as planned and as a prelude it wants to destroy Syria, Lebanon and eventually Iran which in turn will effect what remains of the Middle East.

“Hegemony is as old as Mankind…” -Zbigniew  (the man behind Obama)Brzezinski, former U.S. National Security Advisor

Our allies have been open about their strategy in Redrawing the Middle East , the “New Middle East” project was introduced publicly by Washington and Tel Aviv with the expectation that Lebanon would be the pressure point for realigning the whole Middle East and thereby unleashing the forces of “constructive chaos.” This “constructive chaos” –which generates conditions of violence and warfare throughout the region– would in turn be used so that the United States, Britain, and Israel could redraw the map of the Middle East in accordance with their geo-strategic needs and objectives works parallel with Iran‘s plot to rule the Middle East.

“In the second half of the 10-year plan we must secretly and indirectly agitate the Sunnis and the Wahhabi scholars against social corruption and those acts in opposition to Islam that prevail in these countries by distributing critical pamphlets from other countries in the name of the religious authorities. Undoubtedly, this will cause the agitation of scores of people in these countries. In the end those religious leaders will be arrested or they will say that what has been written in their names are lies. These pious people will defend those pamphlets rigorously and suspicious acts will take place leading to an edict either to seize their authority or replace them. These acts will result in mistrust between the rulers and the pious in the country; therefore they will not be able to spread religion and build mosques and other religious buildings. The leaders will consider religious sermons rhetoric and celebrations of creed as acts opposed to their regimes. Furthermore, it will increase the grudges and alienations between religious scholars and rulers. Even Sunnis and Wahhabis will lose the protection of their interior centers, and they will not have external protection at all.” I think we can see the beginning of this happening around us today. Stop and think what you are being led to before it’s too late.

For decades we have been under our allies “protection”, our allies condoning, our allies condemnation. For every minute issue that arises we seek their praise, or wait for their vilification. We have forgotten our faith as we allow judgement by mere hippocratic mortals. Empires have come and gone, Hittite , Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Macedonia, Roman, Byzantine, Sassanid, Mongol, Ottoman  to name a few, but not one of those Empires like the European Colonisation , established nation states and chalked borders that we adhere to today quite faithfully.

Britain by itself, has invaded almost  90 per cent of the world’s countries (Daily Mail)  and each one more brutally than the last.

Our allies have war crimes and torture  everywhere and yet they turn to the rest of the world condemning via their missionaries demanding accountability, not in the real name of human rights but in the result of complete control. The USA’s  accountability to address these crimes have dissapeared as everything else does after elections. If human rights were such a concern didn’t they notice that the Palestinians lost their human right to exist in their own land when the State of Israel was founded in 1948. ILAN PAPP´E wrote The 1948 Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine. Had any western nation cared for human rights they would have spoken up at the time or even now. Israel expanded under the Armistice Agreements and this is what is left of Palestine today.

The Middle East and North Africa in some shape or form has never been fully decolonised. The Arab world while we like to declare our independence has been the target of continual interference and intervention. We have been bordered into artificial states that suits the forever dependence on our allies which leaves us under a falsehood of independence. The west for decades has conjured plans always to remain in control.

The chaotic Arab Spring in 2011 served a wider war in the Middle East and if not addressed will result in redrawn borders that are strategically advantageous to Anglo-American interests and Israel. And they still refer to the word ally…

What resulted in the Arab spring was the constant bombardment of “sect propaganda”, that did not raise many results in Tunisia, Egypt or Libya but came into effect when the Arab Spring spread to Bahrain. Having succeeded in dividing and establishing chaos in Iraq, of which Anglo-American interests and Israel did not benefit from as previously planned and having spent trillions of dollars in instigating a war that would break a major obstacle, Saddam Hussain and a modern Iraq, the plan moved on to create the same chaos and divide in the region.

A major factor that a political party under Shia Clerics, Al Wefaq, whilst the Government mainly operating and labelled as Sunni, could be used to their advantage, the mass media controlled by Israel and the Anglo-American’s went into play. Labelling anyone that supported the government as Sunni, opposing as Shia. During this period, uprisings that occurred in Saudi Arabia were also labelled in the same manner. How do you divide people? You label them.

Force feed media to repeat labels until the masses refer to themselves with the label fed to them, hence creating an unnoticed divide which our ally could then rule. History repeats, time and time again, divide and rule and time and time again, we all fall for it.  Our “Allies”…

Do we have a chance to turn this around?

We have to live together, we can’t deny the others right to existence. We can change today, if we are ready to.  It’s time to break away from the mass media propaganda, from the Wahabi, Salafi, Safavid, Christian, Shia, Sunni, Jewish labels and come to terms as a society as a whole on which way to break this division before it reaches a critical no return point. The only constructive path at the current time to deviate and destroy the project planned, is leadership that will initiate constructive reconciliation. A nations power is it’s people, not false allies.

The open, weekly Majlis of his highness is dearly missed by the people in Bahrain. Citizens feel as if there is a gap between the King and the people. Perhaps reinstating the tradition of the Royal Majlis would close this gap. It worked before, and it could work again.

Many of the problems we are facing in Bahrain today are attributed to either ineffective planning, or the lack of it. We all have heard of the Bahrain 2030 vision, but what are the action plans in place to realize the vision? What measurements of success are there to verify that we’re on the right track? It is no secret that we also have a deteriorating infrastructure in Bahrain. A few inches of rain would clog nearly all sewers in the country, roads would crack, and ponds would be found everywhere.

There are many Bahrainis with high qualifications and innovative minds that are fleeing the country causing a brain drainage in Bahrain. They feel not appreciated by the society, or government and would prefer to work elsewhere where opportunity is much higher. A significant cause of this is our dependence on foreign workers, and not putting the right people in the right places. We need to live together, as we lived before. Surely that is not difficult to achieve.

Division leads to Hatred, which leads to Chaos, and in turn Instability. Eventually the end of life that once flourished in the region,  and eventually if not corrected, the only option left to avoid further conflict and escalation as history proves that this has been done in the past, is to divide the region as and according to the New Middle East Anglo-American Israel plan, by which time there will be no one left to object.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am a prince of the Kingdom of Bahrain

This is one of the best speeches I have heard in a long time and I had to share it. Here are some of the highlights of HRH Crown Prince Salman opening remarks at the  8th IISS Regional Security Summit The Manama Dialogue.

Ladies and gentlemen, I am not a prince of Sunni Bahrain; I am not a prince of Shia Bahrain. I am a prince of the Kingdom of Bahrain and all mean a great deal to me personally.

Without justice there can be no freedom, and without freedom there can be no true security.

There is a silent majority here in the Kingdom of Bahrain who feel their voices are unheard. They are the ones who go to sleep at night with no security on their gates. They are the ones who live in mixed communities, representing different sects, ethnicities and political beliefs. They are the ones who have to live, day‑to‑day, with the spectre of a sectarian conflict erupting that may damage themselves or their own interests, their future or their children at any time. That cannot be allowed to happen. Responsible leadership is called for.

First and foremost, the member states of the GCC. Thank you. In particular, notice must be given to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, without whose actions and words we would have been in a far different place. They did not put their young men in the face of danger or their money into developmental projects to subjugate the people of the Kingdom of Bahrain. They did so to deter any external aggressor from taking advantage of what was then a very, very difficult, unpredictable and uncertain time. To the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and to the United Arab Emirates, we will never forget your stand during our difficult time.

I would personally like to thank many in the West who were very kind to me and what I have tried to achieve by promoting dialogue between all of the disparate groups here in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Your support to me has been invaluable over the difficult past 18 months. However, I would in particular like to thank the diplomats, the leadership and the government of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth of the UK. You have stood head and shoulders above others. You have engaged all stakeholders. You have kept the door open to all sides in what was a very difficult and sometimes unclear situation. Your engagement and your help in police reform and judicial reform, and your direct engagement with the leadership of the Kingdom of Bahrain and with members of the opposition, has saved lives, and for that I will be personally eternally grateful. Thank you

I would like to thank those in the East who received us with open arms: the governments of Singapore, Korea and Japan. You deserve our thanks and our respect. Thank you very much.

The governments in the East, however, are seeking new ways to engage with our region – the Arab region, the Islamic region – and are deploying their growing influence to take advantage of the rapidly‑shifting global order. This is a reality and it must be recognised

The Full Speech

Bismi-llāhi r-raḥmāni r-raḥīmi. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Kingdom of Bahrain. It is indeed a great pleasure to see you all here. I genuinely extend my thanks for your time, your energy and your effort in making this journey in circumstances that require us to be quite reflective and introspective and considerate when dealing with the matters at hand. I would like to thank you, sir, and the IISS, for all of the great work that you do around the world, the great work that you did last year here with the Sherpa meetings, and especially for reconvening the Manama Dialogue at this critical time.

I think I would like to start by outlining some regional challenges and interests that are shared by many governments around the world. Nuclear non‑proliferation, which is probably in the forefront of many of your minds. The rise of extremists, compounded by the potential entrance of – God forbid – chemical and biological weapons from nation states which seem to be failing at the present time. The resultant threat from terrorism from that God awful eventuality is something that we must all be genuinely concerned about. Third, oil security, something that is rarely talked about these days but is still critical to the recovery of many economies around the world, especially in the United States, and maybe more so in Europe. Number four: the promotion of democracy and rule of law. This has been a longstanding goal of many governments, especially in the West, and I do not see it changing any time soon. For the United States in particular, it is managing its relationship with the state of Israel and the stalled peace process which is important to us all.

Those are five real heavyweight security concerns that I am sure many of you consider. I would like to draw the attention of the audience to the fact that all of those serious challenges were present before the so‑called ‘Arab Spring’. These are not new. But in fact, managing them through this turbulent time has got a lot harder as the instability in the region has grown.

Consider this. Never before have such a surge in democratic rights and threats to freedom been so apparent at the same time. The outcomes of the tremendous change that we are seeing across the region have yet to be determined to be benign or, if I may say so, malign. We must always keep a vigilant eye on where we are headed.

The response from the international community has been mixed. There are some governments in the West that are criticised for doing too much and, at the same time, doing too little, which smacks to me of a need to refocus the efforts of those particular governments to be more effective, more targeted and more in line with a coherent international public policy. The governments in the East, however, are seeking new ways to engage with our region – the Arab region, the Islamic region – and are deploying their growing influence to take advantage of the rapidly‑shifting global order. This is a reality and it must be recognised. Add to that the power of the information age, either through the many satellite TV channels, which, in my opinion, were the real game‑changer on the information landscape, or the modern phenomenon of social networks, and you have the added challenge that the reach and speed by which events can rise is compounded by a factor that is unseen in human history. It is a tall order indeed and I am sure these subjects will be discussed over this weekend, as they need to be.

We must realise, ladies and gentlemen, that we are dealing with a new Middle East; make no mistake. Anyone who does not recognise that is fooling or deluding themselves. It is, however, my thesis that it is the tried and true tools of statecraft that will let us emerge from this tumultuous time with the least human harm done.

Let me explain that from a personal experience. You are aware we had our own experience with the so‑called ‘Arab Spring’ last year. It delayed the Manama Dialogue and caused a lot of harm to the society of my beloved Kingdom. In our case, it divided the nation. While relative calm has returned to the Kingdom, there are many wounds to be healed on all sides. I would like to take, though, the opportunity to thank those who got us to this point of relative calm.

First and foremost, the member states of the GCC. Thank you. In particular, notice must be given to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, without whose actions and words we would have been in a far different place. They did not put their young men in the face of danger or their money into developmental projects to subjugate the people of the Kingdom of Bahrain. They did so to deter any external aggressor from taking advantage of what was then a very, very difficult, unpredictable and uncertain time. To the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and to the United Arab Emirates, we will never forget your stand during our difficult time.

I would personally like to thank many in the West who were very kind to me and what I have tried to achieve by promoting dialogue between all of the disparate groups here in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Your support to me has been invaluable over the difficult past 18 months. However, I would in particular like to thank the diplomats, the leadership and the government of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth of the UK. You have stood head and shoulders above others. You have engaged all stakeholders. You have kept the door open to all sides in what was a very difficult and sometimes unclear situation. Your engagement and your help in police reform and judicial reform, and your direct engagement with the leadership of the Kingdom of Bahrain and with members of the opposition, has saved lives, and for that I will be personally eternally grateful. Thank you.

I would like to thank those in the East who received us with open arms: the governments of Singapore, Korea and Japan. You deserve our thanks and our respect. Thank you very much.

Moving on from state actors, I would like to thank the members of the BICI, the international commission which did the investigation into the abuses and the reality of what took place last year. It was an unprecedented move by a government to invite eminent human rights lawyers and investigators to the Kingdom to document exactly what had happened. It is through that good work that we have a realistic picture of what occurred last year, and it fundamentally – I cannot stress this enough – changed the political landscape of the Kingdom. It allowed for a calming of the events which were taking place; it created a unified discourse or document, which outlined what had indeed taken place; and it prevented many people from exaggerating events or spinning events – let me put it that way – in a manner beneficial to their particular point of view. So I would like to thank them.

I would like to thank internally our Ministry of Interior, which has been extremely forward‑leaning in pursuing reform agendas, whether it is training police or changing their tactics on the ground, and under very difficult circumstances. With over 1,700 police officers wounded, some who have lost their lives, they have continued to maintain the discipline required to help facilitate an environment which brings people together.

But, ladies and gentlemen, security is not the only guarantor of stability. Without justice there can be no freedom, and without freedom there can be no true security.

I believe that the way forward for the Kingdom of Bahrain is as follows. The government of the Kingdom of Bahrain I believe has taken significant steps, but more work needs to be done, specifically reform and capacity‑building in the judiciary.

I believe fundamentally that only through the genuine application of a just, fair and inclusive legal system will people feel that their own rights and their own futures are protected. We must do more to improve the training and capacity of our own judges. We must do more to change laws which still can lead to, in my opinion, judgments which go against the protections guaranteed in our constitution. We must do more to stop the selective enforcement of law. This is key.

This is what will build trust across the whole of the society here in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Also, the responsibility does not lie solely with those who are in a position of authority. Political figures who disagree with either the constitutional structure or the performance of the government must condemn violence. Silence is not an option. I call on all of the senior leadership of those who disagree, including the Ayatollahs, to condemn the violence on the streets unequivocally, and more, to prohibit it.

Ladies and gentlemen, unleashing people power means that we must respect the opinions of people. There is a silent majority here in the Kingdom of Bahrain who feel their voices are unheard. They are the ones who go to sleep at night with no security on their gates. They are the ones who live in mixed communities, representing different sects, ethnicities and political beliefs. They are the ones who have to live, day‑to‑day, with the spectre of a sectarian conflict erupting that may damage themselves or their own interests, their future or their children at any time. That cannot be allowed to happen. Responsible leadership is called for. That is because the majority of the people of Bahrain want a solution that puts the events of last year firmly in the past, and I believe that dialogue is the only way forward.

Geopolitically, demographically and historically, the differing political views represented in disparate political groups here in Bahrain must be reconciled. They will only be reconciled by sitting together and agreeing a framework where the limit of what is acceptable is the limit of what is unacceptable to the other, with the ultimate goal being to reach an agreement.

We have our work cut out for us, but the international community must play its part. Wishing for peace never works, but peace‑making does. I call on our friends in the West to engage like the United Kingdom has done – engage all stakeholders, train all groups, work with us to make our environment and our capacity greater and stronger. Stop exclusively scrutinising government actions alone. There is a moral responsibility on all sides to work to bring the Bahrani body politic together. We must heal these wounds. We must stop the violence. We must reduce the fear and we must stop the bigotry. I call on you unequivocally to condemn violence if ever it occurs. We will continue to do our part, but you will help us all if you do yours.

Ladies and gentlemen, I am not a prince of Sunni Bahrain; I am not a prince of Shia Bahrain. I am a prince of the Kingdom of Bahrain and all mean a great deal to me personally. I soon hope to see a meeting between all sides – and I call for a meeting between all sides – as I believe that only through face‑to‑face contact will any real progress be made. It does not even have to be on a very serious subject, but meetings must start to take place to prevent us sliding into an abyss that will only threaten all of our national interests as we, here in the Kingdom of Bahrain, although small, are large in what we symbolise, what we represent and what we have achieved. His Majesty the King of Bahrain was a pioneer of the reform process here in the Middle East. We started well before 11 September and we continue to commit ourselves to move forward in the future.

All I can say is history has taught us that the path to progress is not always linear. There are setbacks; there are challenges. But if we hold human dignity, human security and justice above all else, then we will prevail. If we fall into the dangerous area of sectarianism, false, misplaced nationalism and isolationism, then history also teaches us that failure is not far behind. I urge you to wish us well in our endeavour and I wish you well in sorting out, maybe for you, some of the more relevant problems that you have come here to seek to address. Thank you very much.

For more follow IISS.org

Austerity and War: Destroying Human Rights?

We are living in an era of tremendous change and upheaval. Times of crisis are times of great opportunity. Recognize that We the People are the solution. We are waking up and coming together.

This is a time that requires commitment and courage. A time to soar to new heights. Through your actions and communications, you can inspire business leaders, political leaders, students and teachers, housewives and husbands – everyone – to manifest a world our children and grandchildren will want to inherit.

As the Dalai Lama told a group of us he invited to his home in India: “It is important to pray for peace. But you must also take actions to make that happen. Every single day.”

Making a better world is the most satisfying and joyful thing you can possibly do. I look forward to doing it with you!

-John Perkins

By  John Perkins

Holiday crowds swarmed the streets of downtown Seattle. Christmas lights and music filled the night with a festive spirit. My daughter Jessica, five-year old grandson Grant, and our friend Mark left the hustle and bustle of elegant shops and made our way down Marion St., headed for the ferry terminal. As we crossed the pedestrian bridge that arches above the Alaskan Way, we came upon the cluster of homeless people who hang out in the shadows of the ferry terminal. Among the familiar signs perched near them, I spotted a new one: “Iraq Vet. – Austerity and war destroy human rights.”

It was so reminiscent of an article I had recently read by my friend Laura Flanders entitled “Austerity: A Violation of Human Rights?” that I figured the bearded veteran hunkered down behind the sign must have seen that same article.   (http://www.thenation.com/blog/171364/austerity-violation-human-rights)

The issues around government, economics, and war raise serious questions. All of us, especially we who are citizens of the United States and the European and Asian countries that today control the global economy – one that is obviously failing – must ask ourselves: What impact do the austerity policies proposed by politicians have on human rights? How about war?

Flander’s article points out that President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941 defined the “Four Freedoms” essential to good democracy and human rights as: the freedom of speech and expression, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. These concepts were incorporated into the U.N.’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.

Riding the ferry across Puget Sound and watching Grant snuggle into his mother’s lap as she read a Christmas story to him, I kept thinking about that Iraqi Veteran. It seemed to me that his government, the one he fought for, has taken the last two of FDR’s freedoms away from him.

“Freedom from want” was the keystone of FDR’s New Deal and has been considered a necessary element to good governance ever since. Yet in 2010, 46.9 million people in the U.S. were classified as living in poverty– the fourth consecutive annual increase and the largest number in the 52 years for which poverty rates have been published (the 2011 and 2012 numbers will probably be even higher, although not yet published). Globally, about 1 billion people are officially classified as hungry; however, governments tend to underestimate these figures: in reality roughly half the world is malnourished, approaching starvation, or actually starving.

“Freedom of fear” has new implications in a country so obsessed with fighting terrorism that its officials pass laws which strike fear into anyone in a position to seriously criticize government policies and the authorities who enforce them. These laws include warrantless searches, secret intelligence (and military) courts, extraordinary renditions, and the denial of habeas corpus, a guarantee that no one shall be detained without sufficient evidence and that anyone arrested will have a speedy trial. Regardless of your opinions about Guantanamo, police brutality against the Occupy Movement and unions, and Bradley Manning, you have to wonder . . .

Those who would keep us in a state of war mentality understand that the threat of war is their avenue to increased riches (since they are the military-industrial complex) and the simplest way to perpetuate fear and the draconian laws that walk hand in hand with it.  The war economy also assures huge budget deficits – which in turn offer an excuse for cutting back on social services for the poor and middle classes.  The U.S. military budget is more than 50% of the world total; yet among the 34 OEDC countries the U.S. ranks last in spending on social services. Alexis de Tocqueville, the 19th century historian and author of Democracy in America, wrote: “All those who seek to destroy the liberties of a democratic nation ought to know that war is the surest and shortest means to accomplish it.”

As the debates rage in Washington and throughout Europe over trade-offs between raising taxes on the rich and cutting social services for everyone else, as we muddle through the militaristic flag-waving that brings us closer to war in the Middle East and create a mushroom cloud of national debt, and as we continue to grant oil and other mega-companies huge concessions to ravage lands and cultures around the planet, we might be well advised to heed the message of a man who went to Iraq and now sits in the cold shadows of the Seattle ferry terminal: “Austerity and war destroy human rights.”

__________________________________________________________

NOTE:

January 6 – February 2, 2013: “Achieving Peace Through Higher Consciousness” – Omega Workshop in Nosara, Costa Rica

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MY ARAB SPRING

What was the ‘Arab Spring’ and why did the revolution sweep the Middle East, seemingly without warning? This is a survivor’s true story from the frontline of the uprising that erupted in Bahrain and almost toppled the Monarchy. But this is not the mass media’s slanted version of events of what happened. This is an account of the uprising from the perspective of an activist involved in the counter-revolutionary movement ignored by the media. Enter a world of dirty tricks, smears, violence and even murder. This is the truth from behind the lines of the revolution that made history and shook the world. This is the story of a desperate battle for survival in the midst of chaos.

Preface

It had been coming for years. All the pent up anger and frustration across the Arab world finally erupted in 2011. The product became known as ‘The Arab Spring’ as millions of Arabs mobilised to redress the balance of  power. But the mass media only told one side of the story; the rebel story and their struggle to overthrow the governments in Libya, Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen.

In short order, the uprising spread to Syria and the Middle East became a battleground again. This is nothing new in the Middle East, the Middle East has always been a bloody battle ground, not for the sake of humanity, but for the sake of resource control. As Civil war and the potential for it swept the region, it eventually spread to Bahrain.

Mass protests erupted against the government and the King. People have the right to protest but why resort to violence and killing? I was dismayed and deeply hurt by the chaos that seized Bahrain in such a short space of time. I was so concerned that I had to intervene, not as a warrior but by the simple greatest power, the pen.

There are always two sides to a story but the mass media’s coverage of the battle for Bahrain was biased in favour of the protest movement. No one wanted to know about the reality of what was happening and a loyalist like me, stood no chance of being heard. So I had to make myself heard and took to the internet to express myself and let it be known what was really happening in the Kingdom. The protest movement was not quite as angelic as portrayed by the mainstream media in the West.

As a child growing up and being educated in England, I was desperate to return to Bahrain.  I could not stand by and watch the nation collapse into absolute anarchy. I took to Twitter and opened an account and did my best to expose the truth and counter the lies being spun. And I soon realised that certain groups had no interest in the truth, they only wanted to cause anarchy and spin propaganda. ‘The truth is the first casualty of war’ and experience teaches me that the same is true of rebellion. Just about anything goes on both sides.

I am not claiming to know the ‘entire truth’ as though it can be revealed to any individual in one lifetime. On the contrary, I make no such conceited claims and concentrate here instead on the truth of ‘My Arab Spring’. This is an eyewitness report from the frontline and it may not be popular with certain sections of the mass media but the story has to be told for the sake of the truth that was ignored.

I am only motivated by the need to tell the truth. I am not out to spin propaganda for a cause and I set bias aside. My agenda is to tell the truth about the “evil Kings and evil Queens” on both sides of the struggle for power. Ultimately, it’s always about power and ‘fighting for justice’ is simply a mantra to win popular support from the general public.

One should never think a situation is black-and-white, cut and dried, with good guys and bad guys like a childish Hollywood movie. We are not dealing with a cowboys and Indians story, we are dealing with human lives, real lives not entertainment for the masses.

The truth is fifty shades of grey and sometimes it is difficult if not impossible to determine the divisions between the sides because they are so similar. People on my side behaved more like enemies than allies or ‘friends’. We may have been on the same side, but we were fighting a different battle. I fought for the truth, they fought for position.

I am just telling the true story about the Arab Spring as I saw it and I have a better inside view of the struggle than many journalists who claim to know ‘the truth’ after a couple of visits to the region. Some of the journalists who visited Bahrain obviously did not pay a great deal of attention to the events taking place or even try to understand the motives of both sides.

Reporting on an event should entail an understanding of why the incident took place to begin with, and propaganda or bias should play no part. But seems many sections of the media cannot operate without a biased agenda against a particular side in a conflict.

Journalists wax lyrical about ‘impartiality’ but so few of them are impartial it’s not worth mentioning them by name. Media organisations either ignore the conflict zone completely or report on it from a biased agenda. In essence, they push propaganda to people who do not know the truth and rely on the media for ‘news’. So please do not expect me to spin lies and partisan propaganda in this book.

I am loyal to the King of Bahrain and always will be but I am not blind, particularly to the corrupt middle men who have misled the nation and set the country on the course to uprising. I have unfortunately found that the middle men will ignore anyone that does not fit their agenda or conform to their perception of what they want the truth to be, not the way it is.

They will smear, slander and attack people who dare to speak out about their antics. I have spoken out against them, in retaliation to their attacks on false grounds. I have been crushed in return even though it was never my intention to topple them but to stand in support of my King and my country.  They live for the lie, feed off it and milk it for all it’s worth just to maintain their status quo.

I refuse to do the same, particularly when I have been targeted for trying to expose the truth by people who claim they are also loyalists. I want to try and save Bahrain from the great turmoil and slaughter that ravaged most of the Arab world in the aftermath of the Arab Spring. That was my motivation from the outset.

I would like to see a peaceful settlement between both sides in Bahrain and my purpose in writing this book is to help the situation, not to harm it.

Do both sides in Bahrain really want a civil war and the slaughter it will lead to? This is not a pleasant story but it is nonetheless true. This is Reem’s View.

Out now in Paper Back , this is My Arab Spring

And via Amazon

U.S. Warns Protests Could “Break Apart” Bahrain, Topple Regime?

The latest headlines from Democracy Now is a warning? A threat perhaps? “U.S. Warns Protests Could “Break Apart” Bahrain, Topple Regime”. 

Apparently,

According to Democracy Now, the Obama administration is “quietly” warning that Bahrain’s ongoing internal unrest could lead to the overthrow of the ruling Sunni monarchy. - The statement is beyond comprehension when protests are not majority backed although the media likes to show you otherwise.  We must also take note that the mainstream agency that media likes to constantly quote is the correspondant for Associated Press the wife of a well known Al Wefaq  supporter and the Editor in Chief of  Al Wasat Newspaper.

The Obama administration, two years on, still fails to recognise a rally held on the 18th of february 2011.

Followed by thousands in a rally held at Al Fateh on the 21st of February 2011.

Three highways were jammed packed leading to the Al Fateh mosque in Juffair in support of National Unity and of the Monarchy.

Such rallies may not occur visibly today however if the need may arise, you will find a stronghold majority ready to rally on the streets to protect and preserve. The United States would do well to avoid interfering with foreign nations, and focus on it’s own domestic affairs.

According to Stephen Lendman and quite rightly, he writes;

 ”Far and away, America’s human rights record is the world’s worst. No other nation approaches its unprincipled history. Earlier crimes against humanity were largely internal and regional.

Twentieth century ones went global. New millennium ones elevated atrocities and other human rights abuses to an unprecedented level. It keeps rising. America is guilty of virtually every crime imaginable and then some.

America today wages multiple direct and proxy wars. US military bases infest the world. CIA elements operate everywhere. US special forces perform various military related services globally. Wherever they show up, they’re killers, not protectors.

Domestically, America is more battleground than homeland. FBI, CIA, NSA, FEMA, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Border Patrol, and other federal agencies work jointly with state and local authorities against the interests of most US residents.

Anyone can be arrested, charged, prosecuted, and imprisoned for any reason or none at all. By presidential diktat, any US citizen at home or abroad can be murdered.

Others can be arrested and detained indefinitely uncharged in military prisons. Innocence is no defense. State terrorism is policy at home and abroad. That’s how police states operate.

Freedom, human rights, and other democratic values are non-starters. Supporting what’s right is hazardous. Challenging Washington’s right to dominate globally risks persecution or death. America is unfit and unsafe to live in.

America’s “tarnished human rights record has left it in no state – whether on a moral, political or legal basis – to act as the world’s human rights justice, to place itself above other countries and release the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices year after year (that) accuse and blame other countries.” At the same time, it absolves itself through silence, duplicity, and/or bald-faced lies. According to the State Department: “The protection of fundamental human rights was a foundation stone in the establishment of the United States over 200 years ago.” “Since then, a central goal of U.S. foreign policy has been the promotion of respect for human rights, as embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” “The United States understands that the existence of human rights helps secure the peace, deter aggression, promote the rule of law, combat crime and corruption, strengthen democracies, and prevent humanitarian crises.”

At the same time, it claims Americans live in the “land of the free.” Why then were around 1,000 peaceful Occupy Wall Street protesters arrested in the early weeks of their campaign? Police brutality was brutal and unconscionable. It continues to reflect despotism, not democracy. America furthers “international disorder.” It tramples on the rights of global citizens and its own.

It operates the world’s largest domestic gulag. It’s also one of the most repressive. Press freedom is a figure of speech. Dominant media sources produce propaganda and other forms of managed news and information. Truth is a scarce commodity. Constitutional freedoms are denied. Money power runs America.

Resisters face harsh crackdowns. Poverty is at record levels. So is homelessness, hunger, and overall deprivation. Racism is institutionalized. Basic needs go unmet. Praying to the wrong God is called terrorism. Numerous other human rights abuses reveal a nation unfit to live in. America’s human rights record is appalling. Political prisoners fill its gulag. Dissent is criminalized. Police state laws target resisters. Torture is official policy. So is permanent war on the world. Peace, stability and security are four-letter words.

Read here for more.

Regardless of all of the above, the Obama Administration seems to forget another very important Resolution adopted by the General Assembly.

2131 (XX). Declaration on the Inadmissibility of Intervention in the Domestic Affairs of States and the Protection of Their Independence and Sovereignty:

No State or group of States has the right to intervene, directly or indirectly, for any reason whatever, in the internal or external affairs of any other State. Consequently, armed intervention and all other forms of interference or attempted threats against the personality of the State or against its political, economic and cultural elements, are in violation of international law.

And yet An American Marines’ blog – old but priceless can enlighten you all a little more.

I can sum up the United States in simpler terms:

America is the popular girl in high school, always involved in every single drama. While the rest of the world admires her for her personal charm, she is also despised because of her nosiness. The United States would do well to avoid interfering with foreign nations, and focus on it’s own domestic affairs.

In the FCO site it states: Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt has also urged the Bahraini Government to implement the remaining BICI recommendations. He said: “We are concerned by some of the recent decisions taken by the Bahraini Government, particularly on human rights.” Human Rights? Don’t they have their own that they just deny? I guess he forgot the General Assembly too.

No State may use or encourage the use of economic, political or any other type of measures to coerce another State in order to obtain from it the subordination of the exercise of its sovereign rights or to secure from it advantages of any kind. Also, no State shall organize, assist, foment, Finance, incite or tolerate subversive, terrorist or armed activities directed towards the violent overthrow of the regime of another State, or interfere in civil strife in another State.

And yet a member of the Bahrain Freedom Movement that has plotted against the Bahrain Monarchy, speaks quite regularly in the House of Lords. But then again according to Index on Censorship he is a British Citizen .

So he is not stateless….

Democracy Now goes on  to state, “Protests have continued in Bahrain for nearly two years despite a U.S. backed-crackdown has seen the use of military forces from neighboring Gulf regimes, the jailing and beating of opposition activists, and the recent ban of all public demonstrations.” First, which “backing” and what they failed to mention is the fact that the ban on rallies is temporary and the reasons:

Manama-Oct31 (BNA)Marches and rallies will only be halted –rather than banned- until the security situation in Bahrain stabilizes. “The decisions aims at preserving national unity, protecting social cohesion and avert all for forms of extremism”

In a briefing to reporters last week, two State Department officials warned that Bahrain could “break apart” if the protests continue, an outcome they say would be beneficial to Iran while detrimental to the “enormous [U.S.] security interests” in Bahrain, which hosts the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet. – I seriously wonder how Bahrain can break apart as claimed and seriously the American base are not guarding our interests, but American interest.

Democracy Now- “The officials gave the briefing on the condition they not be identified by name”- so a question we could ask Democracy Now  is, do those officials hide behind what they say? Or perhaps these officials don’t exist?

“The White House says it is calling on Bahrain to heed the calls of an independent commission that urged political reforms one year ago” , how about we call them to take heed of their own.

At the United Nations, a spokesperson for the High Commissioner for Human Rights criticized Bahrain’s recent moves against the opposition, including revoking the citizenship of 31 political figures  (although some hold another citizenship ) as well as sentencing medics who treated wounded protesters to three months behind bars.

News channel aired a video of medics and paramedics, who appeared to join the protesters in hitting injured Indian workers who had been hospitalised. According to Al Arabiya, foreign workers were being assaulted by protesters in order to undermine the national economy. You can watch one here.

Rupert Colville: “The High Commissioner urges the government to reconsider this decision, which stands in clear violation of Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states that, ‘Everyone has the right to a nationality’ and, ‘No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality.’

Article 15 stands when you don’t have nationality, however I have already explained, some have dual nationalities and as for the rest, the Bahrain News Agency  states, “The affected persons have the right of appeal”, unlike some in the United States a new legislation would strip you of your citizenship and then the US has a history of stripping citizens as does the United Kingdom.

 

Kristiane Backer: Overcoming prejudices

Here is a recent story I read that I had to share. If only we all took a step in the same direction to overcome our prejudices. A little knowledge goes a long way.

Kristiane Backer thought she had everything a young woman could dream of — until she witnessed the charity of the poorest in Pakistan. Kristiane Backer uses her life story to tell the world about Islam.

It is not every day that you hear of a former MTV presenter writing a book on Islam. “From MTV to Mecca: How Islam Inspired My Life” is a riveting account of how Kristiane Backer went from being one of the most recognised faces on MTV Europe to converting to Islam after meeting with Pakistani cricketing legend (now turned politician) Imran Khan.

“I wrote this book because I have been a victim of Islamophobia,” she tells Weekend Review. “The Islam I read about in the media on a daily basis is not the Islam I converted to and the Islam my teachers taught me. It is such a wide gap that I wrote the book to take people by the hand and show them how I discovered Islam and how I overcame these prejudices. I want to show the true values of Islam.”

I am sitting with Backer in a café at the World’s End, a slightly odd name for a district in west London. She tells me about an amusing incident on August 31, 1997, during a visit to Ireland. “It was the night when Princess Diana died,” she says. “Bless her soul and Dodi. One musician friend at the time, Jim Kerr from Simple Minds, had sorted out backstage passes for me to meet Bono, the lead singer of U2. I was there to pick up the passes with a friend and they said, ‘Have you got your passport? How do we know it’s you?’ I said, ‘No, of course, I haven’t got my passport on me. I’m going to a rock concert.’ We were debating and then everybody in the queue said, ‘Of course, it is Kristiane, don’t you know her? She is on MTV. She is famous.’ All the Irish people in the queue said, ‘This is Kristiane, give her a ticket’ — it was an American guy, you see, he didn’t know.”

Backer joined MTV Europe in 1989 as one of its first VJs. In the years that followed, her stardom rocketed as she presented shows such as “The Coca Cola Report”, “European Top 20” and “MTV at the Movies”. In 1992, alongside working for MTV, she also landed herself a youth show on German national television, Bravo TV. She met and befriended many famous stars at the time such as Prince, Seal, Bob Geldof and Mick Jagger. She even went Christmas shopping with rock star Bryan Adams. “He bought me a hat,” she says. “He doesn’t live far from here. But since I moved here I haven’t actually seen him, although we are Facebook friends. He invited me for dinner with a group of friends. He is a vegan, a very funny and nice guy.”

[image error] At one stage during her MTV years Backer’s fame began to dwarf some of the iconic musician friends she hung out with. In 1995, at the launch of the VH1 party in Hamburg, a PR agent came up to Backer and told her David Bowie would like a picture with her. “David Bowie asking for a picture with me?” she recalls. “I always loved his music. Gosh, I was stunned for words, I must say. But then we chatted about Berlin, he lived there in the Seventies. At that time he said he hadn’t gone back since the wall came down. Did you know, his wife Eman, the Ethopian supermodel, is also a Muslim and — I only found this out recently — he even has a sister who converted to Islam.”

Backer’s line of work meant she was never too far from the limelight. Once, during a rock festival in Nuremberg, the MTV press department pushed her on stage right before Prince to talk about “The Coca Cola Report” competition. “I absolutely had no time to even think about it or get nervous,” she says. “There I was in front of a sea of people as far as I could see. Seventy thousand people — and they were all screaming and clapping. It was as if I was levitating on a cloud of energy while talking away about ‘The Coca Cola report’, this and that. Whatever I said didn’t matter. I don’t think anybody heard it. But they all cheered and clapped.”

Yet, even though she had everything a young person could dream of, Backer felt something was lacking. She was fed up of having to constantly perform — one show chasing the next — and then being home alone again. “I thought what I was missing was love for a man,” she says. “But then I realised that the inner void I’d felt could only be filled by Allah — not by a human being. Because people come and go — love happens, then it disappears again, and then what? Only one love is for ever and eternal and that is the love for God. There came a point when I experienced a personal crisis. I was so stressed out from all the pressure that I was ready to go: ready to die, basically — I felt that depressed. As I was rushing to a show I was supposed to host in Belgium, I thought if the [aircraft] crashed it didn’t matter. Who cares? No joy here. Although we did end up having fun that night in the end.”

Shortly after came a turning point in her life. In 1992 she met Imran Khan at a friend’s dinner and they began to see each other frequently. Khan incidentally at that time was finding his own faith. He was reading a lot of books about Islam and enthusiastically started sharing everything with her. “I was somehow receptive to that because I had always had an interest in philosophy, ethics and religion in school,” she says. “He talked to me about God, our purpose in life and a higher goal to look at.”

One of the books she read, which deeply influenced her, was “The Road to Mecca”, by Mohammad Asad, formerly a Jewish journalist who famously converted to Islam in Berlin in 1926 after travelling the Arabian lands. “He described the beautiful noble Arab soul so eloquently before the arrival of oil,” Backer says. “That was when he was there in the Arabian peninsula, hanging out with the Bedouin. He describes beautifully how you could travel throughout the whole Arabia and never pay a penny as the people were so hospitable. He observes the striking contrast between the warmth of the Arabian people he encountered in the desert and the miserable and stressed passengers of the Berlin tube. When Asad came home he opened the Quran and read, ‘You are obsessed by greed for more and more, until you go down to your graves.’” And he thought this was the answer to what he had seen on the tube.” Backer’s own encounters with Muslims had some strange parallels to Asad’s.

As their relationship developed, Khan invited Backer to travel with him to the northern regions of Pakistan. Backer was impressed by the hospitality of the village people she met who were living with so little.

“We passed many poor people who had a light in their eyes,” she says. “When I returned I had an experience similar to Mohammad Asad’s. You realise people are miserable because they can’t get the latest Prada handbag that has sold out. Or they haven’t got the right VIP all-access pass. I was commuting between two worlds. I saw for myself the difference between attitudes. OK, I will give you an example.”

She recounts her experience on the flight back from Pakistan. Backer was sitting next to a Pakistani man and they began chatting. “At the airport in London a whole tribe was waiting for him,” she laughs, “And he noticed I was alone. So he suggested he and some of his family members take me home first. This delayed the family visit by an hour or so. Unbelievable, I didn’t even know these people.”

Shortly afterwards Backer went to Germany to participate in a major TV event. “The boss of my TV station asked my producers who were then driving back to the hotel and if he could get a lift,” she says. “In the car, they debated among themselves briefly and concluded time is money — that would be a ten-minute detour, so no, couldn’t give a lift.”

But it wasn’t just these contrasting experiences which drew her to Islam. For Backer the attraction to the religion was on different levels. “I saw so many people on the team of Imran Khan’s cancer hospital,” she says. “They all donated their time, money, and effort just to help build this hospital for the people of Pakistan, where the poor would be treated free of charge. Pakistan never had a cancer hospital, or indeed a health-care system — it was sad. Imran built the first cancer hospital there with an army of volunteers, and I was really touched by that. When I travelled through the Karakorum mountains, I saw very poor people who lived in little mud houses and slept above their animals so that the heat rose and kept them warm. It was heartbreaking — I’d never seen anything like it. Yet, what touched me was their generosity. When we got out of our jeep and visited the villages the people offered us whatever they had — almonds, apricots, walnuts — with a ‘Bismillah’, ‘in the name of God’.”

However inspired she may have been by the simple Muslim people she encountered, her interest in Islam ended up costing Backer her job. In 1995 she was celebrating the 100th episode of her show on Bravo TV. One journalist had done his research really well and asked if she had already converted for her boyfriend. “I had never said I had a boyfriend because of respect for Imran’s culture and religion,” she says. “Imran wasn’t known in Germany, so that was never a subject anyway. So I said no, but that I was a Muslim at heart. I had still not converted at that time. This little remark practically ended my career. A negative media campaign followed, the press accused me of having lost the plot, presenting my youth show from behind the burqa or supporting terrorism. On top of all that, a week later, Imran broke up with me. It was during those tumultuous times that I then converted to Islam, and shortly after, I lost my youth show. It all happened at the same time, unbelievable.”

Prior to the press demonisation there hadn’t been any problems with Bravo TV. “What can I say?” she says. “The contract was just signed. Then they pretended the contract didn’t exist. It practically finished my career.”

Backer credits her faith for pulling her through all her professional difficulties. “I lost everything at the same time,” she says, “my job, my relationship. But I had gained my faith, the most precious gift of all. I was going to a certain mosque where there were a lot of spiritual people, Sufis. They helped me see these difficulties from a higher perspective and understand that there is some good even in suffering. The great theologian and mystic poet Jalaluddin Rumi likens suffering to chickpeas being cooked in the boiling water so they become delicious and soft. That is what happens with your soul when you experience difficulties. It is a cleansing process and it is good for you. If God loves you, he afflicts you, a Hadith says. And who experienced the most difficulties? The prophets. So I suppose anybody going through a difficult time is a good sign, God loves you.” She also forged a close friendship with the late Gai Eaton, a well-known convert to Islam, an author and intellectual who became a mentor and close friend.

Backer’s book comes with some impressive reviews. One is from renowned Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan, who has described it as “journey of a woman who shows how converting to Islam gave her a sense of liberation”. Another is Imran Khan who praises her as someone who “not only loved the sacred music and the desi food but had an open mind to study and look beyond the headlines”. And then there is Bob Geldof, who was a guest at her book launch in London, and is quoted on the front cover saying: “From MTV to Mecca? From babe to burqa is more like it!”

Backer believes there is a message in the book for people caught up in today’s materialistic lifestyle. “A lot of young people want MTV, entertainment, culture,” she says. “I had all that and I can tell you it doesn’t bring lasting happiness. I would never want my old life back. That emptiness I felt before I converted is now filled with meaning. I have a focus, a purpose in my life and that constant connection with God — an anchor in heaven.”

She also makes a distinction between religious practices and the culture, which people often mix up. “For an European, converting to Islam doesn’t mean wearing the abaya in London,” she says. “The abaya is a cultural custom. We can wear our modest European clothes, pray, give charity and abstain from alcohol — adhere to the principles but not necessarily take on other cultural traits. I don’t need to wear a shalwar kameez or an abaya, although I have a few of each and enjoy wearing them when suitable. But normally, in the West, I wear my European clothes. Basically I try to practise Islam with my European understanding of things.” Backer feels certain essential values which can be characterised as European, such as a respect for human rights and concern for the environment, are also Islamic values. Yet these are missing in a lot of Muslim-majority countries. “Mohammad Asad, in the last century, said you find a lot of Islam in Europe but few Muslims, yet you find a lot of Muslims in the East but very little true Islam,” she says.

Being a convert to Islam has its challenges, acknowledges Backer, particularly with regard to finding a like-minded social circle. Even more of a struggle for converts can be to locate a suitable marriage partner, as many are stuck between two worlds. Backer herself is divorced and finds life at times can get a bit lonely. “Muslims are so keen on converting people to Islam,” she says. “But I always say, what about the aftercare? That is when the real work starts. Don’t just think about converting someone and then leaving them to their own devices. I am fortunate to have developed a good network of friends in faith by now. Thank God. But how many Eids have I not celebrated because I am on my own? And every Eid it is the same, going to the mosque, and then it is business as usual for me, unfortunately. Unless I am really lucky and someone invites me, but it doesn’t always happen.”

However she is not alone in this experience. “Often, on Eid, I end up having dinner with one convert friend who also doesn’t have a Muslim family,” she says. “And on Christmas, we are both not really welcome among our own families anymore either because they think we have chosen something else. It’s the same in Ramadan. I don’t have anyone to share sahoor with in the morning, or open my fast with — except of course when invited for iftar. A degree of isolation is a part of being a convert or a revert, although, of course, we are now always in the best company of all — God. And it is the faith that pulls us through any challenge, although I have heard of a number of new Muslims who gave up again because of a lack of support from the Muslim community. Only yesterday I met a lady who was a practising Muslim for ten years or so and then later became a Christian minister.”

Backer keeps busy with efforts to improve the public image of Islam in Britain. She was one of the names behind an “Inspired by [Prophet] Mohammad [PBUH]” campaign in London that aimed to present a positive message of the religion by displaying adverts at bus stops, tube stations and cabs. Her picture was featured on the posters with the words, “I believe in protecting the environment, so did [Prophet] Mohammad [PBUH].” The campaign was positively received in the media. More recently she was interviewed by the BBC to talk about the controversy surrounding the anti-Islam film “Innocence of Muslims”.
One of her concerns remains that a majority of people in the United Kingdom draw their knowledge about Islam from what the media tells them. “People don’t go into Islamic bookshops and buy books by Gai Eaton or other scholars,” she says, “They just read the Daily Mail or watch TV, and then form their opinion on Islam. I believe it’s all about education. That is why I usually do all these interviews. When The Sun calls, a lot of people say, ‘Oh, I don’t want to speak to The Sun.’ I do it because even if I could just get a drop of the truth into that ocean it could have a ripple effect.”
Syed Hamad Ali is a writer based in London. This article was taken from Gulf News, Weekend Review
From MTV to Mecca is available in Virgin Megastores in the Arab countries. Translation for the Arabic edition is under way. Follow
  @ KristianeBacker  on twitter.