Gulf States Intensify Crackdown on Shiite
Communities Amid Iran Conflict
Dozens of Gulf citizens have been
accused of belonging to Iran-linked terrorism cells as the war accelerates a
shift toward deeper authoritarianism in the region.
·
Several Gulf countries, including Kuwait, United
Arab Emirates and Bahrain, have arrested or penalized Shiite citizens following
the outbreak of the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.
·
Authorities accuse the detainees of terrorism,
disloyalty, links to Iran-backed groups, or threats to national security.
·
Human rights activists and scholars say the actions
reflect growing sectarianism and rising authoritarianism in Gulf monarchies.
Key
Developments
·
Iran retaliated against Gulf states hosting U.S.
military bases after the war began on February 28, launching attacks that
reportedly hit energy facilities, hotels and residential areas.
·
Gulf governments subsequently intensified security
crackdowns, particularly targeting Shiite citizens accused of sympathizing with
Iran.
Country-wise
Actions
·
Kuwait
o
Authorities claimed to have dismantled at least
three alleged terror cells linked to Hezbollah.
o
Officials said six people were arrested for
allegedly plotting to assassinate state leaders.
·
Bahrain
o
The government revoked citizenship of 69
individuals accused of supporting or sympathizing with Iran.
o
Bahrain later arrested 41 people allegedly linked
to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps.
o
Rights groups stated many detainees were Shiite
clerics and described the crackdown as sectarian persecution.
·
United Arab Emirates
o
Authorities arrested 27 men accused of belonging to
a “secret Shiite terrorist organization.”
o
The government alleged the group attempted to
recruit youth and undermine national unity.
o
Rights advocates criticized public release of
detainees’ identities before trial, calling it stigmatization of the Shiite
community.
Sectarian
and Political Context
·
Sectarian tensions between Sunni-led Gulf
monarchies and Shiite-majority Iran have existed since the 1979 Iranian
Revolution.
·
Many Gulf Shiites have historically complained of
discrimination and political marginalization.
·
Analysts say recent Gulf-Iran diplomatic
rapprochement has been disrupted by the current conflict.
Concerns
Raised by Activists and Scholars
·
Experts warned of a revival of state-backed
sectarian rhetoric portraying Shiites as a “fifth column.”
·
Bahraini activist Ala’a Shehabi said the current
nationalism is exclusionary and targets minorities.
·
Academic Toby Matthiesen described the developments
as a return to state-sanctioned sectarianism combined with hyper-nationalism.
Government
Position
·
Bahrain stated that all arrests were related to
violence, incitement or threats to national security, not religious identity.
·
Gulf governments maintain that the measures are
necessary to protect national stability during wartime conditions.
In
Kuwait, officials arrested six people who they said were plotting to assassinate
the country’s leaders. In the United Arab Emirates, the authorities accused 27 men
of belonging to a secretive terrorist organization. And in Bahrain, the government
has stripped dozens of their citizenship.
The
allegations may be different, and in many cases vague, but all these men have one
thing in common: They are Shiites, members of one of two major branches of Islam,
according to their governments and human rights activists.
After
the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran began on Feb. 28, Iran retaliated by launching thousands
of attacks at Gulf states that host U.S. military bases. Some of those countries
have since arrested dozens of Shiite citizens, calling them traitors loyal to Shiite-led
Iran.
Scholars
and rights activists say there has been a surge in nationalist rhetoric in the region
that has echoes of past eras when sectarianism was more widespread. It also underlines
the ways that the war has accelerated a shift toward deeper authoritarianism in
several of the Gulf monarchies.
“It
is understandable that at times of war, nationalism increases, but this is a form
of rabid nationalism that is exclusionary and subjugates a significant minority
of citizens who have complained for years about discrimination,” said Ala’a Shehabi,
a Bahraini academic and pro-democracy activist.
Gulf
governments typically reveal little information about cases related to terrorism
and national security. Such trials are rarely open to journalists, and counterterrorism
laws are broad enough to encompass political dissent. That makes it difficult to
determine the details of the accusations levied against the men who were arrested,
or the veracity of the charges.
Sectarianism
has often played a role in the political tensions between Iran and its Arab neighbors. Iran is majority Shiite, with Twelver Shiism as its
state religion. Most of the royal families on the Arab side of the Gulf are Sunni,
members of the other main branch of Islam, and rule over Sunni-majority populations,
with Shiite minorities. Other countries in the Middle East, like Iraq and Lebanon,
also have mixed Sunni and Shiite populations.
Since
the 1979 Iranian revolution, the Iranian government has often portrayed the Gulf’s
royal families as puppets of Western imperialism, and in some cases, has sought
to stoke dissent among local Shiites.
While
the status of Gulf Shiites differs from country to country, many have long
complained of marginalization and discrimination. In Bahrain — where a Sunni royal
family rules over a Shiite-majority population — the government violently
crushed a pro-democracy uprising more than a decade ago.
Yet
in recent years, rhetoric portraying Shiites as a “fifth column” seeking to undermine
the state had largely faded away, and several Gulf governments had been working
to repair their relationships with Iran, viewing it as a pragmatic way to foster
regional stability.
The
war has shattered that fledgling diplomacy. As Iran’s attacks struck energy installations,
hotels and residential towers, killing at least 19 civilians, Gulf countries have
accused some of their own citizens — largely Shiites — of undermining national security.
The
authorities in Kuwait announced they had foiled at least three terrorism cells linked
to Hezbollah, a Shiite militant group in Lebanon that is backed by Iran, including
one that officials said included five Kuwaiti citizens plotting to assassinate the
state’s leaders. The Kuwaiti Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to
a request for comment.
Announcements
of arrests in the Emirates and Bahrain have been more opaque.
In
Bahrain, the authorities announced on April 27 that they were withdrawing Bahraini
citizenship from 69 individuals, including dependents, whom they accused of “glorifying
or sympathizing with the hostile Iranian acts, or engaging in contacts with external
parties.” All of them were Shiite Bahrainis of Persian descent, according to the
Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy, a human rights group in London, which
researched their backgrounds and interviewed some of them.
And
on Saturday, Bahrain’s interior ministry announced the arrest of 41 people, saying
that they had belonged to an organization linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The same human rights group said in a statement that the arrests had included 37
Shiite clerics, and called the accusations of links to Iran “a blatant pretext for
launching an ugly campaign of persecution against the Shia faith in the country.”
Ms.
Shehabi, the Bahraini academic and activist, said that “hate speech is becoming
so acute that some Sunnis with Shia names have published statements declaring their
sect and loyalty to the ruling families.”
“The
harder that Iran hits a Gulf state, the harder it cracks down on its Shia citizens,
treating them as a fifth column and accusing them of terrorism,” she said.
In
a statement to The New York Times, the Bahraini government said that it “is rightly
acting against those few individuals in Bahrain who pose a threat.”
“Under
Bahraini law, all persons are subject to equal treatment, without regard to personal
characteristics, gender, or religious background,” the government added.
It
said that all of those arrested were “suspected of committing violence, inciting
violence” or of “threatening national security, including by sharing sensitive information
or intelligence to hostile actors.”
Throughout
the 1980s and 1990s, Shiite militants were blamed for attacks in several Gulf countries
— “real terrorism in a sense, real bomb attacks,” said Toby Matthiesen, a senior
lecturer in global Islam at the University of Bristol.
Since
the war with Iran began, none of the Gulf countries have reported any domestic terror
attacks, Mr. Matthiesen said, although such attacks could not be ruled out. Without
more clarity on the substance of the charges, he added, the discourse around the
arrests suggested a return to state-sanctioned sectarianism, combined with a hyper-nationalistic
message to “rally around the flag.”
That
trend has been most visible in the Emirates. In April, the authorities announced
that they had arrested 27 men who belonged to a “secret Shiite terrorist organization”
affiliated with Iran. A statement published by the official Emirati news agency
accused them of engaging in “activities to harm national unity and destabilize the
country,” saying that they had tried to recruit Emirati youth, “incite against the
U.A.E.’s foreign policy” and “portray the country negatively.”
An
official video accompanying the announcement purported to show materials confiscated
from the men, including a small drone and wads of cash. The display also included
everyday symbols of Shiism, including turbans worn by Shiite clerics, academic books
and decorative banners commemorating the martyrdom of the prophet Mohammed’s grandson,
Hussein, whom Shiites revere.
The
government published the detained men’s photographs alongside their first and middle
names — unusual in a country that typically only releases the initials of defendants
to protect their privacy. On social media, pro-government commentators swiftly began
to name and shame the men, in some cases calling them traitors who deserved to be
executed.
“The
fact that the state decided to release images of arrested individuals before they
have undergone a fair trial suggests a verdict has already been reached to villainize
them and their communities,” said Mira Al Hussein, an Emirati sociologist based
in Britain.
Ms.
Al Hussein lamented “the state of paranoia” that the Emirates has descended into
as it has become more politically repressive in recent years.
She
said that a Shiite friend back home had told her that the community was “on a knife’s
edge” and that “if society rejects us, we don’t know what to do.”
Shiite
religious leaders in Pakistan also estimate that as many as thousands of Shiite
Pakistanis have been deported from the Emirates since mid-April, as Pakistan’s ties
to the Emirates have deteriorated.
The
Emirati foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment.
On
April 24, a religious sermon televised across the Emirates warned listeners against
people who betray their nation.
“Have
they not realized that wise leadership has cared for them, and encompassed them
with goodness,” said the preacher, Abdullah Ibrahim Abdul-Jabbar.
He
urged worshipers to report anyone they suspect of betrayal — “even if that person
is among those closest to him.”
“The
homeland is more precious than everything, and love for it does not admit division
between two loyalties,” he said.