Speaking truth to Bahrain: A response to S. Rob Sobhani

A recent post on The Hill's Congress Blog about Bahrain bore all the indicia of the most obsequious boosterism. According to its author, the Kingdom is a strategic ally, land of opportunity, and regional beacon of progress that could do no wrong. “Bahrain is governed by a thoughtful and progressive leader,” Mr. Sobhani effused. “[It] is the most open and liberal economy in the Persian Gulf and has been a leader in economic reform.”

This was not the first time Mr. Sobhani promoted Bahrain in a prominent venue. During the 2008 presidential election, he took to the pages of the Washington Times to make the exact same case by spotlighting the island nation’s “[w]estern-educated and reformist monarch King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa,” whose “pioneering role in promoting human rights, religious tolerance and democratic pluralism” are setting the stage for eventual democratization. (Tellingly, Mr. Sobhani’s Washington Times op-ed was re-posted verbatim on the website of the Bahraini Embassy.)

Alas, Bahrain’s repressive reality contrasts sharply with the rosy picture painted by Mr. Sobhani. Case-in-point: the Kingdom’s recent crackdown on dissident voices, including pioneering Arab blogger and human rights advocate Ali Abdulemam. As The Atlantic’s Max Fisher and the Committee to Protect Journalists have reported, Abdulemam was detained last month by the Bahraini national security apparatus on the bogus charge of “spreading false information” on his website BahrainOnline, a leading pro-democracy and human rights platform. As we speak, Abdulemam – along with dozens of other Shi’a activists – continues to perish in solitary confinement without access to his lawyer and with minimal contact with his family.

Barely acknowledging these troubling developments, Mr. Sobhani casts the recent unrest in Bahrain as instigated by the Iranian regime and the entire Bahraini opposition as nefarious agents of the same. There is no doubt that in seeking to establish regional hegemony and undermine regional rivals in the Gulf and elsewhere, the theofascists of Tehran stoke ethno-sectarian tensions when they can. But this should not lead us to doubt the sincerity of every Shi’a dissident. Abdulemam, for example, is a genuine liberal and an admirer of Iran’s
opposition Green Movement. Indeed, the fundamental values he advocates are the same ones Iran’s dissidents strive for – and the same ones Tehran’s brutal theocrats, like their “moderate” Bahraini counterparts, consider intolerable.

Unfortunately, it seems that the Obama administration is only too happy to follow the line of reasoning put forth by the likes of Mr. Sobhani. Speaking during a visit to Bahrain, Janet Sanderson, assistant secretary of state for near east affairs, clarified that “[w]e are not here, frankly, to impose our views on others, but to encourage the countries of the region to fulfill their priorities in this area.”

Beneath the polished mask of cultural relativism here is the administration’s apparent willingness to abdicate moral responsibility in the name of realpolitik. Arab and Iranian dissidents – not to mention the American people in whose name such cynical words are spoken – deserve much better.

Bahrain should be rewarded for its economic liberalization, for making progress in some (though certainly not all) areas in human rights, and for its strategic partnership with the United States.

But as a friend of Bahrain, the United States also has a role in promoting human rights and respect for the rule of law. Surely, the presence of the Fifth Fleet in Bahrain would not be jeopardized were the American Embassy to release a two-paragraph statement urging the authorities to provide political detainees with due process.

But God forbid we “impose our views.”

Sohrab Ahmari is a law student at Northeastern and an organizer in Boston’s Iranian and Muslim communities. He has written on democratic reform in the Muslim world for the Boston Globe, the Guardian, Huffington Post, Commentary Magazine, and PBS | FRONTLINE.