Bahraini uprising saw no support despite peaceful nature - UK Journalist

(AhlulBayt News Agency) - On the sidelines of "The International Conference in Support of the Yemeni People", journalists and activists shared their views on the current situation in Yemen and countries of the Gulf region, including Bahrain.

Among the participants in the conference was British journalist Mohammad Ali Carter, who during the past couple of months went deep into the Yemeni conflict while working on a documentary about the Saudi Arabian regime for the London-based Ahlulbayt TV.

"I've been looking into the Yemen conflict in the past couple of months in preparation for a documentary which we did, which focused on Saudi Arabia as a regime, its history, what it's doing now, and what its potential future could be," said Carter.

"Saudi Arabia has been involved in a major foreign policies which affected the whole region, and now are starting to affect its actual community in very negative ways," he added.

According to Carter, there are two types of countries in the Middle East, those that are very interesting, and those that capture the heart and mind.

"The Yemen conflict for me was something that I was personally attracted to as a British journalist looking into the Middle East", Carter noted.

He clarified that Yemen is not the richest country in the world in the sense that you do not see the biggest skyscrapers or fancy cars that one finds in other Gulf countries, but it is rather rich for its "unique history, legacy and heritage that you don't find anywhere, as it has true culture".

"I look at countries like Qatar for example, and they say they are great Arab countries, but they have absolutely no culture and no identity, they are essentially a piece of New York or London in the Middle East. Yemen on the other hand posts a prestigious and all inspiring legacy. That is what attracts me as a historian and someone who enjoys other cultures," Carter further stated.

Dwelling on the documentary, which is available on Ahlulbayt Youtube Channel, the London-based journalist said: "Our documentary called "Saudi Arabia: A Regime Declining?", actually looked into other conflicts as well. The uprisings in Bahrain and the Eastern province of Saudi Arabia were also covered in the documentary."

He expressed that "both countries [Yemen and Bahrain] exhibit a very similar case of sectarian division and oppression happening in those regions."

Mohammad Ali Carter reiterated the sad notion that "Bahrain is a county that has a Shiite majority, but that majority has absolutely no voice or representation in the government."

Describing the peaceful nature of the ongoing Bahraini revolution, Carter said that, "They are one of the only Arab countries that post a peaceful revolution, and they've kept it peaceful the entire time, and despite their peaceful intentions they've not achieved or been allowed to achieve any results, in a region where only violence is getting results.

This is a real crime, because if we don't support the peaceful uprising in Bahrain or give them what they deserve, which is justice, then we're essentially encouraging Arabs across the region that unless you've got a gun, not one is going to care about what you have to say, and that is quite dangerous and devastating to the region."

"In our documentary Ayatollah Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr is one example where an individual who spoke against the oppressive regime that he's faced from Saudi Arabia in specific. He was arrested, brutalized, and then executed, just for speaking his opinions," he further stated.

Reflecting his thoughts on the international conference, Carter said that conferences like this are very important because they help people connect; whether they are from Bahrain, Yemen, England, Italy, or Palestine; all who were present at the conference connected and talked about the same issue, and this therefore opens more possibilities for building solutions.

"If we connect and share ideas and combine efforts, then we can effectively make pressure movements and speak out more to the media across the world, and we can pressure our governments, which is very important," Carter concluded.



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