Pope Francis, right, is given a style of the task of building the largest Catholic church in the Gulf region, through Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa in a personal audience at the Vatican, Monday, May 19, 2014. Pope Francis is taking the first papal vacation in Bahrain Nov. 3-6, 2022, prompting calls from the country’s Shiite majority and human rights activists for the pontiff to raise human rights considerations in the small island nation. (AP Photo/Claudio Peri, Pool, Folder)
BEIRUT (AP) — Pope Francis will make the first papal visit to Bahrain this week, prompting calls from the country’s Shiite majority and human rights activists for the pontiff to raise human rights considerations in the small island nation.
The island off the coast of Saudi Arabia is ruled by a Sunni monarchy that violently suppressed the 2011 Arab Spring protests with that of its allies, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
In the following years, Bahrain jailed Shiite activists, expelled others, stripped many of their nationalities, banned the largest Shiite opposition group, and shut down its main independent newspaper.
“There’s a huge elephant in the room in this situation,” said Devin Kenney, Bahrain researcher at Amnesty International. it will not be maintained. “
Bahrain maintains that it respects human rights and freedom of expression, despite repeated complaints from local and foreign human rights activists, as well as UN human rights special rapporteurs.
Francis is visiting Nov. 3-6 to participate in a government-sponsored convention on East-West discussion and to care for Bahrain’s small Catholic community, as part of his efforts to continue discussion with the Muslim world.
While some Shiite opposition leaders welcome the visit, they hope Francis will sidestep the factor of decades of sectarian strife.
“The other people of Bahrain live under the influence of sectarian persecution, discrimination, intolerance and systematic government repression,” said Al-Wefaq, a Shiite opposition party banned and dismantled by court order in 2016.
The scale marks Francis’ moment in a Gulf Arab state and his moment in a Muslim-majority country in as many months, evidence that the argument with the Muslim world has become the cornerstone of his nearly 10-year pontificate. UAE in 2019 and traveled to Kazakhstan for an assembly of devoted leaders in September.
In addition to meeting with Muslim leaders in Bahrain, he will also celebrate Mass at the National Stadium for the country’s Catholic community, most of whom are expatriates from the Philippines and India.
Asked if he would raise human rights considerations on his visit, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni cited Francis’ common calls for devout freedom and interreligious dialogue.
“The position of the Holy See and the pope in relation to devout freedom and freedom is transparent and known,” Bruni told reporters at the Vatican. He declined to say whether Francis will deal in any way with the Bahraini government’s remedy to his Shiite community.
The island’s kingdom, the length of New York and with a population of about 1. 5 million, has struggled with years of economic problems.
Bahrain, which means “two seas” in Arabic, discovered its first oil well in 1931, the first among its Persian Gulf neighbors. Today, however, there are still debts of tens of billions of dollars and it counts on donations from neighbors to stay afloat. Its capital, Manama, aspired to an economic hub but was overshadowed by neighboring Dubai.
Bishop Paul Hinder, the Catholic apostolic administrator of Bahrain and neighboring countries, said the festival with other Persian Gulf countries likely prompted the Al Khalifa royal family, which has ruled Bahrain since the late eighteenth century, to invite Francis to the country.
Hinder said he hoped any “problematic” issues regarding Bahrain’s Shiites would be raised through the pope, but “behind the curtains” and necessarily in public statements.
“I know a little bit about the taste of this part of the world,” Hinder said. “They don’t like open criticism. “
Bahrain’s human rights groups, almost all in exile amid a years-long crackdown on dissent, are critical of the monarchy.
The Bahraini government practices “tangible persecution” and discrimination among Bahrainis, said Jawad Fairooz, president of Bahrain’s Democracy and Human Rights Federation. The former lawmaker living in exile in Europe highlighted the arrest and exile of prominent figures, as well as many other detainees. .
“We see that the environment in Bahrain is not conducive to an interfaith gathering,” Fairooz said, adding that the state is conducting a “systemic crusade that contradicts those principles. “
Regional politics plays a role in Bahrain’s repression. Bahrain accused Iran’s Shiite theocracy, across the Persian Gulf from Manama, of fomenting dissent and arming militants to destabilize the country, which Tehran denies. Teams of Shiite militants have carried out low-level attacks in the country.
Bahrain’s government, reacting to a series of questions from The Associated Press, said the island “is proud of its values of tolerance and its long history of nonviolent coexistence. “
“Freedom of faith and worship are constitutional rights, and the kingdom has a zero-tolerance policy towards discrimination, persecution or promotion of the department based on ethnicity, culture or faith,” the government said.
While overt police repression has faded in recent years, government policies still disproportionately push Bahrain’s Shiites into satellite villages and downplay their history, said Simon Mabon, a professor who studies the Middle East at Lancaster University in the United Kingdom. The country’s media also continues to be heavily muzzled. while critical hounds have had their government-issued press cards revoked.
“It’s done in such a granular way,” Mabon said. It’s insidious. “
Nury Turkel, chairman of the U. S. Commission on International Religious FreedomHe said he would like Francis to raise with Bahrain’s government some of the issues that may make it “uncomfortable,” such as considerations about the Shiite majority’s remedy.
“The country, in general, is tolerant of its Christian population and the scale of the pope deserves not to hinder understanding this systematic discrimination against Shia Muslims,” Turkel said.
Despite lingering concerns, the U. S. commission is not allowed to remain in the U. S. The U. S. Department of State’s report last year’s report on devout freedom situations in 2020 did not propose for the first time in years that Bahrain be placed on the U. S. State Department’s special watch list. U. S. The change, according to the report, reflects “continuous improvements” in the technique of government to the Shiite majority in 2020.
Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Fam from Cairo. Associated Press editor Nicole Winfield in Rome contributed to the report.
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