Islamic Sectarian Misunderstandings

In Bahrain an apprehended insurrection took place during its "Arab Spring" last year where the majority Shia population took riotous exception after years of being oppressed by a Sunni minority government headed by the royal family of Sheikh Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa.  

When the demonstrations were ongoing and becoming disturbingly violent, Saudi Arabia invited Sheikh Al-Khalifa to visit for his safety.  Whereupon Saudi Arabia and Qatar thoughtfully helped out a neighbour by dispatching their troops to Bahrain to aid and assist the regime's military in settling the unruly Shia population back to order.

During the conflict, however, when Shia protesters were injured the only doctors who cared about their welfare were those of the Shi'ite sect who undertook to minister to their wounds, despite orders that they be left untreated.  As a result, those doctors and nurses who defied those orders and looked after the injured whose faith they shared, were arrested as traitors. 

Obviously, the concept that medical doctors have an obligation to those requiring their ministrations regardless of who they are, is not popular in the Middle East.

Thousands of Shi'ites were arrested during the concluding government crackdown on unrest and dissent.  The government refused to permit greater political freedoms for the majority sect, and order was soon restored, although a creeping resentment is inevitable. 

Under a dictatorship resentment is a way of life as populations are seldom given the human rights entitlements they feel they might like to share with the more favoured of the population sharing the rulers' religious beliefs.

The largest public hospital in the capital Manama, became involved in the conflict as protests were held at the Salmaniya Medical Complex as well as at a city public square.  Security services raided the wards of the hospital.  When it was discovered that wounded Shia protesters were being treated arrests followed. 

The country's official policy of sectarian division and discrimination is one echoed in many parts of the Middle East, most notably now Syria where conflict rages - and Iraq where the Shia-led government spurns equality for its Sunni population.

Because of its obvious human rights abuses the United States discreetly criticized the ruling monarchy.  And, because of the severity of the conflict between the government and the protest movement, where people were summarily arrested and brutality against the protesters reigned supreme, the United States though maintaining its political alliance stopped military sales for a period of seven months.  Since resumed.

Now, an appeals court in Bahrain has upheld the convictions of the nine Shi'ite doctors who were charged with crimes relating to the treatment of injured Bahrainians.  The sentences were somewhat reduced, but the charges - inclusive of plotting to overthrow the monarchy and illegal protest gatherings remain in force.

As though to emphasize that the United States has continued to embrace alliances with human rights abusing totalitarian states, the appeals court verdicts were announced while the U.S. assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labour happened to be visiting Bahrain.