Group Conflict and Political Mobilization in Bahrain and the Arab Gulf by Gengler Justin;

Author:Gengler, Justin;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Published: 2015-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Map 4.1. Confessional map of Bahrain.

To the west is the Shi‘a-dominated Northern Governorate, where settlements follow al-Budayyi‘ Highway. The road, site of many an opposition demonstration and march, straddles a dozen or so rural Shi‘a villages before terminating in the Sunni enclave of al-Budayyi‘ situated on the far northwest coast of Bahrain. Several large, reclaimed islands being constructed to the direct north were uninhabited at the time of surveying, and much of the area surrounding al-Budayyi‘ village proper consists of expansive, privately owned gardens. South of al-Budayyi‘ the coastline is dotted with spectacular mansions and resorts, interrupted only by the King Fahd Causeway to Saudi Arabia. The large islands connected by the causeway, Umm al-Na‘san and Jiddah, are privately owned by the king and prime minister, respectively.

South of the causeway entrance, the seaside compounds continue until al-Zallaq in the Southern Governorate, interrupted, as far as one can tell, only by a lone public beach. Caught between these private coastal plots and the extended western border of newly constructed Hamad Town are the rural Shi‘a villages of Dumestan, Karzakan, al-Malkiya, Sadad, Shahrakan, and Dar Kulaib, among the most destitute places in Bahrain and not infrequently the sites of violent confrontations with the government. The extreme discrepancy in the apportionment of land in this western coastal region helps fuel one of Bahrain’s most explosive political issues, one that unites Sunni and Shi‘i alike against the perceived excess of the Al Khalifa and members of historically allied families, who appear inexplicably well-endowed of premium property while ordinary citizens are suffered to make the best of the remainder—if, that is, one is lucky enough to own property at all.

The Central Governorate,20 finally, exhibits a similar pattern of segregated population centers. Here, though, the eastern coastline is dedicated primarily to industrial and naval use: the northern portion of the Sitra peninsula (once an island) is a warehouse zone; and the southern and eastern regions are used by the Bahrain Petroleum Company (Bapco) and other petrochemical firms for refinement, storage, and distribution. Directly south of the Bapco complex is an equally large Aluminum Bahrain (Alba) installation, which uses the adjacent coast for its own smelting operations. The only notable non-industrial users of this shoreline are the unfortunately located al-Bandar Resort and neighboring Bahrain Yacht Club.

The interior portion of the peninsula is divided between a half-dozen Shi‘a villages, whose residents complain bitterly of the transformation of their landscape once known for its verdure and natural springs. One villager told how two local children had recently drowned when the beach they used for swimming was unknowingly dredged for sand, creating a precipitous drop but a few feet from shore. When asked what had been done to remove the danger, he pointed to a tattered fence bearing a “Keep Out” sign erected, he said, by the responsible company. Owing perhaps to such circumstances, and to their geographical isolation, the Shi‘a of Sitra are commonly held to be among the most “extreme” in their anti-government views and xenophobia, and I

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