Sheikh Ali Salman, General Secretary of Al Wefaq, stressed on the need for peaceful protests, during his Friday sermon last week. He argued that the continuation of this tactic, has exposed the regime as lying and has contributed to the growing international condemnation Bahrain has been facing.
He also called for a peaceful solution to the crisis in Syria, calling for a “real democracy where people can freely elect their own government”.
Read a full report on the speech below:
Regime pretends to be modern, acts with Middle Aged mentality
Al Wefaq General Secretary: In front of the whole world, non-violence has defeated the authority’s lies, in both human rights and politics
Friday Sermon – June 1st 2012
“The people’s adherence to non-violent and civilised acts has defeated the lies of the authorities in front of the world, refuted it’s claims and besieged it in human rights and politics. This is why we saw wide condemnation of Bahrain at the Human Rights Council in Geneva on 21st May,” Said Sheikh Ali Salman, Al Wefaq General Secretary.
“It is inconceivable for the world to accept unfair measures, unjust trials or tyrannical laws that are made in an attempt to justify the repression and humiliation of the people. Thus, the international community is still calling for the release of all political prisoners, because the trials they have been subjected to and the related local laws are meaningless compared to international law and the corresponding conventions.”
Salman, speaking during his Friday sermon on 1st June, added, “The regime acts with a middle aged mentality. It feigns modernity and humanity, but in reality it doesn’t practice these principles. As soon as the oil-led media empires end the current falsification, the true awful picture of the regime will be uncovered. This regime is as farcical as the Gaddafi’s was.”
“Despite the repressive brutal measures practiced by the regime in order to crush the pro-democracy movement, the people of Bahrain will peacefully continue their civilised struggle, without violence.” He said.
“Although there are differences in slogans, whether for a constitutional monarchy or a republic, the demands for real democracy, dignity, equality and justice are a consensus between all political figures in the movement. All parties insist on peaceful methods to achieve the raised slogans. This was adopted before and after the detention of the political figures. From their detention centres, they continue to call for peaceful acts as the best way to achieve legitimate popular demands.”
Salman added that, “We, the political powers, have condemned violence on countless occasions, regardless of who this violence is committed by. As a result, last month, the regime was widely condemned by 66 countries during the United Nations Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review of Bahrain, with even the non-member states participating and condemning the regime. All democratic countries in Europe, America, Australia and even some countries from our region, such as the Kuwaiti delegate who thankfully called demanded the holding to account of those responsible for violations, called for BICI to be implemented. This shows how the regime is internationally condemned in a clear and tough way. During the UPR many countries have been reviewed but none of them were condemned like Bahrain.”
He added those condemnations were directed to the regime because of our successful and peaceful approach to the movement. It’s true that the path has been complicated and it takes time to reach the conscience, but what happened in Geneva was a result of the ongoing documentation and work with human rights organisations, along side the peaceful approach of the movement.
He insisted upon keeping to this peaceful approach and expressed his support for new and creative forms of peaceful protest, whilst rejecting the use of Molotov cocktails or any form of violence.
“There is a clear decline in the use of Molotov cocktails and that is a good thing as the people are continuing their peaceful approach. The regime has nothing but lies and makes propaganda about the smallest issues, based on the following; outside intervention, violence and sectarianism of the movement. These are all lies, repeated time and time again, by the regime.”
“However we must besiege the regime by adhering to our peaceful approach and having faith in our cause. This will bring the international community against the regime both on humanitarian grounds and politically. It’s true that many Bahraini’s are banned from travelling but all countries are open to them. Bahraini’s are awarded and appreciated by different political and human rights organisations, from the international community. The regime is besieged and none of its allies wants to welcome it, no matter how often we see officials travelling to Eastern countries. Nobody wants them to attend even their sporting and social events.”
“To take a living experience of Syria as example. There are those who practice violence, not all of the Syrian people but rather a group who has adopted violent tactics to win regime change or to realise political change. Such violence has hurt the image of the pro-democracy movement in Syria and put them into a severe impasse.” He illustrated.
“We ask Allah to relieve the Syrian crisis in a way that is consistent with the will of the people, realising a real democracy, where people can freely elect their own government and political system”.
He noted that some diplomats have said that the regime in Bahrain has no excuse for the uprising but Iran, whilst it failed to provide any single proof of such unjustified allegations. “Thus, once the regimes trinity of falseness (Iran, violence and sectarianism) collapses, the big question will be raised of why the regime is not responding to the people’s democratic demands? Why has it marginalised the will of the people for more than 40 years?” He asked.
In this context he gave an example of news from the BBC, where the reporter felt compelled to mention the use of Molotov cocktails. “He showed the reality when he said that there were mass rallies with tens of thousands of protesters with legitimate demands, but in order to maintain his credibility, he had to also mention the use of Molotovs.” Salman added.
He asked, “How can we allow this 5 minutes report to include this? Famous international reporters prepare such reports and millions will watch them, so why don’t we try to make it stronger by ensuring we concentrate on our legitimate demands and mass peaceful demonstrations?”
“Nobody from the opposition wants to kill anyone. Killing is refused in our religion. We don’t want to kill anybody. The only group that wants to do killing is this regime. Our blood is valuable. It is true that we are in a middle of a battle but our blood and pain has a value. What we need is wisdom and political forecasting. The strongest path to victory is the one where people adhere to a peaceful approach, whilst insisting on their demands.” The General Secretary said.
He added, “The regime practices violent acts and continues to try to distort our peaceful pro-democracy struggle. We all know this fact very well. So let us not give the regime any chance to do so. Let’s make it very clear to the whole world that the people of Bahrain are protesting in a peaceful and civilised manner, whilst the regime is confronting these protests with excessive violence.”
“Why does the international community call for the release of all political prisoners and consider them as prisoners of conscience, whilst the official discourse keeps denying the existence of political prisoners and describes them a criminals, trying them in front of the courts?” He wondered.
“The regime also claims that the BICI recommendations have been fully implemented, whilst the international discourse unanimously calls for the release of all political prisoners and the inclusive and serious implementation of the BICI recommendations.”
He emphasized, “This means the actions by the Bahraini regime are producing unfair laws in violation of the signed international treaties. This includes the gathering law, terrorism law, political societies law and others which have been active since the repressive National Safety Period.”
“What does the law mean for the one who has the absolute tyrannical power?” He asked. “Before we had Saddam Hussein who defined the law as being whatever he signed himself. It is not a fair law that puts someone in jail for 15 years for tearing the shirt of a policeman. With acts such as this, how can this regime be able to convince the world that Bahrain is respecting the law?”
He stressed, “There is no international recognition for such laws. The world looks at such tyrannical laws with no respect and in disgust. Laws that go against the will of the people are worthless. The whole world stands on one side, whilst Bahrain is on the dark side of history with unfair and tribal standards. That is why they are speaking an out-of-date language. They take nothing from modernity but driving cars and boarding planes, arrogantly away from the spirit of progressing humanity.”
Salman emphasized that the international community is not taking Bahrain’s bizarre standards seriously, including that of the biased judicial system. “The whole world demands the release of the political prisoners and considers them as prisoners of conscience. The international community recognises a lack in basic standards of the judgements. The High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms. Navi Pillay described such trials as politicised, describing their judgements as political persecution.”
He added, “This is not my words to accuse me of insulting the judiciary, nor Mushaima, Singace, AlKhawaja or Barweez. It’s the government that insulted the judiciary when their bad policies toyed with it. It is their right to boycott the trials as they see in them a lack of seriousness. They spoke out against the torture, abuses and many human rights violations, whilst the judge did not say a word on these things. Their decision to boycott the trials is understandable and logical after the court neglected all of their claims and didn’t grant any measures to defend themselves. “
He continued, “If all the evidence are just confessions take under torture, supported by both coroner reports and the BICI, what is real about these trials? What kind of image do they hope to show to the world?”
“The standard of fair trial dictates that confessions under torture must be invalidated. In Bahrain, is there any child or elderly person who has not been threatened? There is no exception, in threats and action.”
Salman pointed out how the detainees revealed their experience of mistreatment and torture. He continued, “If the judge really respect himself he would either resign or tell them you are innocent, because the world does not consider these trials as having any value. Human rights sees as void the regimes attempts to criminalise gatherings, as it violates the international covenant on civil and political rights that guarantees the expression of opinion. International covenant is legally higher than local law.
