America, What if Bahrain Were North Korea?

Double standards between Bahrain and the United States continue to exist. It was recently revealed that police arrested 85 activists from the Occupy Wall Street protests in Oakland, CA. The police claimed that they were trying to clear the grounds occupied by protesters in the California city. The streets were closed to traffic during the police operations, which aimed to evacuate the protesters from Frank Ogawa Plaza. Not to mention the arrests of hundreds of demonstrators and occupiers in the squares and parks of New York and other U.S. cities. Every day, we are witnessing new reports of police raids — whether they are in America, Britain or other European cities — that are aiming to evacuate the squares where citizens are crying out against companies, banks and the economic crisis. As this is happening in America and Europe, there has been no human rights organization to protest the security measures being taken by the authorities against the demonstrators. We in Bahrain were conspiring to overthrow the regime and establish an Iranian Islamic Republic last February. The Bahraini authorities moved to stop this conspiracy by evacuating the circle and cleansing the occupied Salmaniya Medical Society and the banking and finance harbors. We witnessed the Western media, as well as politicians, political parties, and members of Congress in the U.S., stand against the administration in Bahrain, yet they considered us the outlaws! Meanwhile the real criminals in their eyes have become innocent freedom fighters for democracy!

In addition, the U.S. sent official delegations to Bahrain to ensure the removal of employees who were working in companies and the ministries. They are targeting those individuals who were absent from work during the crisis and the conspiracy to overthrow the government in February!

Isn’t America playing both sides with Bahrain? It’s time for you to see that it is your right to promote security and stability in the streets of New York, San Francisco, Washington, Oakland and other American cities. You must also allow the police to raid the occupied parks and arrest the protesters and demonstrators there and then take them to trial. Yet when we do the same in Bahrain, in order to promote stability and security, you consider the government of Bahrain a repressive dictatorship!

We all hope that America will be more objective and impartial in dealing with these traumatic events that have been experienced in Bahrain. We want you to realize that we were trying to overthrow Iranian conspiracies at the heart of our system of government and defend against Iranian influence in Bahrain in the name of the Arab Spring!

All of this, and still they say in their speeches, “Bahrain is an ally and friend to America!” If they were really a friendly country, we would be continuing with our protests. But what if Bahrain were North Korea?!