Protesters Blocked From Returning to Bahrain’s Pearl Square

Hundreds of protesters were prevented from returning to a symbolic square in Bahrain’s capital, Manama, on Friday, following the funeral of a man the main opposition party said was beaten to death by security forces this week.

Activists said this video, posted on YouTube on Friday, showed members of the country’s national guard deploying in armored vehicles to prevent mourners from marching to an area of the capital formerly known as Pearl Square.

The square, also known as the Lulu Roundabout, was a center of the country’s protest movement in February before it was cleared by force and the monument at its center razed to the ground by the authorities.

FULL ARTICLE FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES

The Latest from Bahrain

The Crisis in Bahrain: Faces of Young Foretell a Grim Future for Bahrain

By ANTHONY SHADID

SITRA, Bahrain — Sometimes a name suggests a condition. There was Beirut a generation ago, Baghdad more recently. In Bahrain, a Persian Gulf state so polarized that truth itself is a matter of interpretation, it is Sitra. Here, the faces of young men foretell a future for the country that looks like the rubble-strewn and violent streets of this town.

On a recent night, after clashes that erupt almost daily, one of them entered the house of a relative, squinting as though he had stumbled from a dungeon into the sun. Tear gas. His friend smirked as he showed the smooth scars left by rubber bullets fired at his leg and chest. Another shrugged as he removed his shirt to reveal a back scarred by pellets.

“Sitra,” said the friend, Sanad, “is the crisis.”

FULL ARTICLE FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES

Bahrain’s Crackdown Creates Sectarian Fallout

The Mo’men mosque in Nwaidrat stood in the same location 

for generations until it was bulldozed last month. 

The Sunni-run government in Bahrain has destroyed 

at least 47 Shiite mosques in recent weeks

 

  June 7, 2011

The mass protest movement that swept Bahrain in February and March has since turned into a bitter sectarian confrontation. The tiny island nation — a key U.S. ally in the Persian Gulf — is mostly populated by Shiites, but it’s ruled by a Sunni royal family.

Analysts say the family is now pushing a sectarian agenda that might eventually be its undoing.

From the very beginning, it was no secret that most of the protesters in Bahrain were Shiites. They are the underdogs in Bahrain: They’re generally poorer than the average Bahraini, and they’re kept out of top positions in the government. Meanwhile, the government imports Sunnis from Pakistan, Syria, Yemen and elsewhere to tip the scales in favor of Sunnis.

FULL ARTICLE FROM NPR