MUHARRAQ, Bahrain, 5 August 2006 — A strong perception of US and Israeli aggression toward Arabs and Muslims in the region was at the center of a protest where Bahraini Shiites and Sunnis joined forces yesterday to express support for resistance groups in Lebanon and Palestine.
Hundreds of Sunnis and Shiites marched in Muharraq, the northernmost island of the Bahrain archipelago that served as the capital until 1923, chanting “Death to Israel, Death to America” as they waved the Lebanese, Palestinian, Iraqi and Bahraini flags.
The protesters also carried pictures of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and the late founder and spiritual leader of Hamas Sheikh Ahmad Yassin in a sign of unity of support for all resistance groups.
It was the first time that protesters came out in support of Hezbollah in Muharraq, about 2 miles (3 km) north of the capital, which in recent months has witnessed demonstrations in support of Sunni resistance groups in Iraq and Palestine.
The opposition’s National Democratic Action Society, Waad (“Promise”), central committee head Abdulrahman Al-Nuami said that holding the protest in Muharraq — which is a Sunni stronghold — with the large participation was a clear indication of the unity of the people in facing the aggression directed at the Islamic nation.
“Hezbollah is leading the resistance in Lebanon, but there are other Lebanese groups involved in the fight. In Palestine Hamas is leading the resistance but other groups are involved because this is an issue that concerns all the people,” he said.
Al-Nuami said that Arab governments were no longer influential in determining the outcome or end of this ongoing conflict. He also criticized the GCC countries for not holding a joint meeting to come up with a unified position.
Well-known Sunni scholar Sheikh Naji Al-Arabi, who also took part in yesterday’s protest, said that Sunnis and Shiites were brothers and accused those who spoke in ways that brought division to the unity of the nation at this time of being “delusional” and having “no love for the nation”.
“Those who give such fatwas seek to divide the nation and weaken its resistance at this critical fight,” he told Arab News. “The enemy realized that our unity was the key to our success and that is why they are seeking to flare up such differences between us.”
Al-Arabi, who described such fatwas as “daggers in the back of the nation”, also said that the US and Israel “had dug their own grave by picking this fight.”
“I tell Israel and those who reside in the Black House (in reference to the White House) keep up your aggression so these children will grow up knowing you for who you really are,” said the scholar.
Well-known Shiite scholar Sheikh Hussain Al-Najati downplayed Israeli threats of assassinating Nasrallah, pointing out that the resistance would continue because it was not centered on a certain figure. Al-Najati did not rule out that if the Israelis took such a step they would involve themselves in long-lasting hostilities with the Shiites in the region in particular even if peace were achieved.
An across-the-board rejection of US plans for a “new Middle East” dominated the demonstration where protesters had also placed the Israeli flag on the ground to be stepped on. “They promised freedom, liberation, and peace when they invaded Iraq but the Iraqis are not better off today than they were under Saddam,” an angry female protester said. “In addition to falling under occupation they are being killed in the hundreds each month, they have no peace and their country is on the verge of a civil war.”
The woman questioned the true motives of the US in the region.
“They claim that they want to bring democracy and justice to the region, but it is clear today that they are using Israel to usher in a new age of imperialism where they directly or indirectly occupy us,” she said. “They armed the Afghans and Saddam and both turned to be tyrants who turned on them and they used them as an excuse to occupy their countries, and what is taking place now is an extension of that.”
National Pan Arab Democratic Gathering Vice Chairman Dr. Hassan Al-Aaali, meanwhile, called on the Nobel Prize committee to reconsider the peace prize it awarded to Shimon Peres in 1994.
“He was prime minister when the Qana massacre took place in 1996 and he is deputy prime minister now when the second Qana massacre took place and it is an insult to the Noble Prize to have murderers as champions of peace,” he said.
