BAHRAIN .. McCARTHYISM OF THE 21st CENTURY

During the McCarthy era in the United States between late 1940s and through the 1950s, thousands of Americans were, recklessly, accused of being communist or communist sympathizers. In process, they were subjected to aggressive investigations and punishments. As a result, hundreds were falsely imprisoned, and twelve hundreds lost their jobs for unsubstantiated accusations. This was in North America in the middle of the 20th century, and is considered by most of scholars as an era to regret in the American history. And those who had been subjected to such accusations, are mentioned as victims.

In Bahrain, lessons of the 20th century went untaught. Authorities, after they brutally crushed a popular uprising last month with the help of Saudi troops, started their own version of McCarthyism. Hundreds of bloggers, medical stuff, media personnel, and workers are detained, or lost their jobs for participating in the uprising, or being sympathizers to it. Tens of Bahraini students who are studying abroad lost their state sponsored scholarship. 

Bahrain's McCarthyism is administrated by committees recently formed in 16 companies and government's ministries. According to media reports, Companies like Bahrain Telecommunications Company (Batelco), Gulf Air (National airliner), Bahrain Airport Services and APM Terminals laid off more than 200 of their workers due to the March strike. On the whole, the opposition estimates about a thousands workers have been fired so far, and expects the number to rise. Unofficial reports estimate the number of workers under investigation by the mentioned committees is to reach five thousands, mostly Shiites. 

Bahrain's McCarthyism does not stop in laying off workers, Shiite shrines and mosques had been demolished. Shiite villages are raided frequently by security forces, eight hundreds detainees so far, and the only opposition newspaper had been suspended for one day, before allowing it to resume printing the next as two of its top editors had been sacked and arrested. All this is happening amid an unjustified international silence. A silence sounds as deadly as the discrimination itself.

Through the fifth decade of the 20th century, around two thousands Americans fell victims to the anti-communist pursuits of U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy. In Bahrain, a month was enough to surplus this number. And it is not over yet. In the 1970s, U.S. authorities recognized most of McCarthyism's punishments as it came about through trial verdicts that was later overturned, laws that were declared unconstitutional, dismissals for reasons later declared illegal. History will show that Bahrain's McCarthyism is driven, in addition to unconstitutional laws and illegal claims, by a sectarian discrimination, and under the watch of the international community. A watch that is unjustifiably silence.