The reason for so little media coverage of the on-going uprising in Bahrain is that it makes chopped liver out of the Islamophobia that has become a propaganda hallmark of US foreign policy. The unflinching tenacity of protestors against US-bankrolled tyranny & US-armed police repression is a wonder to behold & a beacon to suffering humanity.
Violence against protestors is extreme & the use of tear gas excessive. Since February 2011, over 80 people, including many children, have been killed by police violence; hundreds of others have sustained disabling injuries. Forty-seven doctors & nurses who treated protestors were rounded up, tortured, prosecuted in a kangaroo court, & sentenced to between 5 and 15 years of prison on charges of possessing unlicensed arms, seizing medical equipment, & provoking sectarian hatred. They were also accused of refusing to treat injured cops.
Hundreds of activists, from teenagers to adults, have been convicted without due process & after torture. Some were charged with attempted murder for the use of firebombs against riot cops armed to the teeth with stun grenades & tear gas & were sentenced to 15 years in prison. Eight opposition leaders were sentenced to life in prison for allegedly plotting to overthrow the state.
And yet, over two years later, the protests continue undaunted. This protestor in Diraz, Bahrain (May 6th) is watching riot cops storm the rallying point for a demonstration to disperse protestors as they arrived for a march in support of jailed activists.
We don't know who wrote that slogan on the wall in English in an Arab-speaking country but it is likely addressed to the US government, so implicated in the treacheries against protestors. For us it is a call to action. Our fullest respect & solidarity with the Bahraini protestors! No US aid or arms to Bahrain! Bring the 5th Fleet home!
(Photo by Hasan Jamali/AP)
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