In all the news coverage of the civil war in Libya and the disaster in Japan, another event seems to have slipped under the radar. In Bahrain, Shi’ite protestors are rising against the Sunni King of the country, and are being brutally crushed by the government.
In the main square of the capital of Bahrain, protestors have been gunned down. Hospitals caring for wounded protestors were raided in a crackdown. Corporations in Bahrain have fired hundreds of Shi’ite employees unaffiliated with the protests. Foreign troops have marched into the nation to help stop the pro-democracy movement.
So why hasn’t the drama in Bahrain been covered equally alongside the revolution in Libya and Egypt, or the tragedy in Japan? Because support for the movement has come mostly from Shi’ite Iran, and the foreign troops helping to massacre the Bahraini people are Saudi Arabian, our allies. Innocent people fighting for democracy are being killed, and the U.S. Government won’t take their side because it would offend one of our chief suppliers of oil.
If our government and news agencies will remain silent in the face of this human tragedy, then the American people will have to take up the banner and show the world we will not stand by while dictators do as they please. Our whole childhood we’ve been told we can change the world. It’s time to put that to the test, and not just in Bahrain, but everywhere were there is wrong.
