AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): On the eve of the 11th anniversary of the Bahrain people's revolution, which created a turning point in the history of the pro-justice movement in the small island nation, the political conditions remain tense and the ruling Al Khalifa regime maintains its pressure and crackdown on the political activists and leaders of the revolutionary movement. Most of them are either behind the bars after largely show trials or living in exile.
Meanwhile, despite unabated government repression and pressure, popular protests against the regime's discriminatory policies and revolutionary demands have not ended since 2011, with the cities and villages often witnessing nighttime demonstrations against the government.
Along with the people, most of the leaders of the revolutionary movement, despite the heavy pressures imposed by the regime, have not backed down from their past positions and continue to play the leading role in the uprising even in prison or exile.
Sheikh Ali Salman, Secretary-General of the Al-Wefaq National Islamic Society of Bahrain, who is in prison since 2015, issued a statement on Thursday January 14, emphasizing the continuation of peaceful demands and not walking back from the "legitimate demands" of Bahrainis.
According to Al-Ahd news network, Sheikh Salman insisted that his arrest was arbitrary according to the international laws and human rights organizations.
He hailed the solidarity with him, adding: "It is for these honorable people to enjoy their simplest decent rights and manage their affairs away from [foreign] orders, appointments, and isolation."
Emphasizing that he is with the people on the path to victory, stability, and peaceful demands and will not retreat in this way, he continued: "The political reforms in question are in the interest of all, including the rulers and the people, and make a basis for the quality of service to citizens and political stability."
Pushing forward the uprising against the ruling regime
Though such statements draw the ire of the Al Khalifa regime and, as a result, increase the pressure on Sheikh Ali Salman and make him undergo mental and physical torture, the irreconcilability in defending the rights of the nation and the ideals of the uprising is a matter of keeping the revolutionary movement alive and moving forward.
The reality is that the defining feature of the revolution which is the Shiite majority discontentment remains firmly in place though Al Khalifa for some time on the strength of the Saudi military intervention and Western green light managed to suppress the uprising. Statements from leaders in prison or opposition figures in exile, which infuriated the rulers, are examples of these non-compromising stances.
Revolutionary enlightenment for the young generation of Bahrainis
Whereas the government still uses false ruses and labels to criminalize the political prisoners and justify its repressive actions against the pro-justice and democracy movement, the enlightening statements of the national and religious leaders from prison enormously help keep the flames of the uprising burning and send messages of the revolution out to the world and to the humanity's awake conscience.
Meanwhile, over a decade after the February revolution of 2011, a new generation which ten years ago was young and off the political circle has now stepped in the political and social developments and plays a role in dynamizing the revolutionary movement and continues the path of the martyrs.
In this important path, the instructions and messages of revolution leaders, especially Sheikh Ali Salman, are key, as Al Khalifa, which promotes fake propaganda against the them abroad– like accusing them of espionage for Qatar– and labels them terrorists, internally runs massive media campaigns to mislead the younger generation about the reality of the uprising.
One of the main lines of the regime's false and purposeful propaganda about the revolutionary movement is constantly labeling as terrorist the revolutionary movement and as radical its demands. Revealing and neutralizing this blackening propaganda is quite obvious in the statements of Sheikh Isa Qasim, the spiritual leader of the revolution, as in the recent statement he emphasized the peaceful demands of the protest movement and held that implementation of political reforms would be for the stability of the country and in favor of the government as much.
To conclude, as long as Al Khalifa's approach to the peaceful demands is coercive, revolution leadership's statements from the prison remain nightmarish to the rulers and enlivening to the revolution.
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