Bahraini Human Rights Defenders Maryam and Abdulhadi Al Khawaja. She is exiled from the country, he remains in jail.
If you scored an invite to the 12th Manama Dialogue next weekend, you might want to think about what to say when you get there.
The annual conference will include senior government security officials from the United States and about 20 other countries. There’s much to discuss, not least the likely impact of the Trump administration on regional dynamics.
If you’re going you’ll have seen the agenda and the accompanying marketing blurb. Amid the vacuously titled “Looking Forward” and “Finding Urgent Solutions to Problems” billing there’s one session where you should think about saying something. There’s 75 minutes set aside on Saturday December 10 on Combating Extremism in the Middle East and Beyond.
Bahrain’s ruling family clearly has its own problems in this area, where its intensifying repression of civil society and fueling of sectarianism is promoting the extremism destroying the region. It could instead combat violence promoted by ISIS, Iran and others by adopting an inclusive politics.
Here’s what you can do, however uncomfortable it feels to criticize your hosts: point out that the Bahrain regime is contributing to the problem of extremism in the region.
This isn't about manners or biting your lip on criticizing your hosts. This isn’t visiting someone’s house and not being rude about their awful curtains. This is being invited into a home where there is obvious evidence of ongoing domestic violence. You have a responsibility to say something. Bahrain’s attacks on its local human rights activists constitute serious abuse, not something you can ignore as a guest.
Domestic violence experts advise listening to the targets of abuse, and asking them how you can help.
In the case of Bahrain’s human rights activists we already know what they want from the U.S. - for Washington to stop enabling the repression with arms and political support to the violent dictatorship.
So if you’re going to the conference, show up at the 12.30pm session on combatting extremism. Raise your hand, point out it’s December 10, International Human Rights Day, and don’t be afraid of asking the awkward questions of your hosts, the perpetrators.
Ask them why, if they’re committed to fighting extremism, they don’t:
- Release leading human rights defenders including Abdulhadi Al Khawaja, Nabeel Rajab and Naji Fateel from prison.
- Allow a peaceful opposition to exist to help Bahrain out of its political and economic crisis, or let opposition figures such as Ali Salman and Khalil AlHalwachi out of prison to join that effort.
- Create a safe space for prominent Bahraini civil society figures forced out of the country to return - Zainab and Maryam Al Khawaja, Hussain Jawad, Said Yousif Almuhafdah and many others are powerful forces for countering extremism, but are unable to return to Bahrain because of their peaceful criticism of the monarchy. Ask why they’re so afraid of them and their intellectual debate.
- Encourage a free press, let international journalists including Nick Kristof of the New York Times into the country, and let the world’s leading human rights organizations visit Bahrain.
- Diversify their security forces beyond a “Sunnis-only” base.
- Stop sham trials and coerced confessions that fuel grievances.
You have a duty not to remain quiet. The U.S. government promotes a See Something Say Something policy when it comes to reporting activity that could result in terrorism. Bahrain’s current behavior does exactly that. Don’t be a silent guest at the conference. If you want to stop violent extremism ask the awkward questions.