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| Arabia |
| Soddies flexes Gulf grip with Bahrain 'union' plans |
| 2012-03-05 |
| During a sermon last week at Bahrain's Grand Mosque, the pro-government prayer leader offered sweeping praise for one of the Arab Spring's counter-revolutions: Gulf rulers bonding together against dissent with powerful Saudi Arabia as their main guardian. The widening Saudi security stamp on the region is already taking shape in Bahrain, where more than a year of Shiite-led unrest shows no sign of easing and the Saudi influence over the embattled Sunni monarchy is on public display. Portraits of the Saudi King Abdullah — some showing him praying — dot the airport in Bahrain's capital Manama. Bahrain's red-and-white flag and the green Saudi colors are arranged with crossed staffs. State media continually lauds the Saudi-led military force that rolled into Bahrain last year as reinforcements against the uprising by the kingdom's Shiite majority. "Gulf union is a long-awaited dream," said Sheik Fareed al-Meftah at Friday prayers in Manama's main Sunni mosque, referring to proposals to coordinate defense affairs and other policies among the six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council stretching from Kuwait to Oman. "The first step is here," al-Meftah added. Abdullah and Bahrain's king, Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, have met to discuss "union" plans, which are expected to be outlined in May. For the moment, few details have emerged. Gulf leaders have stressed the need for greater intelligence and military cooperation. It's unclear, however, how deeply Bahrain and Saudi Arabia will attempt to merge in the first steps. The increasingly blurred national lines in Bahrain are a possible sneak preview of the wider Arab Spring backlash in the oil-rich Gulf, where Saudi power seeks to safeguard the region's Sunni leadership and its strong opposition to possible attempts by Shiite giant Iran to expand influence. Meanwhile, Gulf rulers have selectively endorsed rebellions elsewhere, such as in Libya and Syria. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #1 The notion that a non-constitutional monarch would have his picture distributed in prayer is very different from most of these autarchs who run the middle-east, who put up their big-brother picture everywhere. By putting up his picture of a monarch in prayer, the monarch is conveying that he is bound by the same religious laws as the subject. In fact, he is saying that he is a subject to God just as they are. This is powerful and important. Just as we Americans demand that our officers swear an oath to the Constitution -- a higher power than themselves -- for the Saudi monarch to be portrayed abjuring himself to the Lord is to let the people know that there are rules and norms that are shared and will be respected. This is progress in the middle-east. Thanks be to God. |
| Posted by: rammer 2012-03-05 21:59 |