Page 63 - Begrave Thesis_Neat

times men cutting their foreheads with knives and swords. These occasions are

usually charged with religious emotions from both sides, as the Shi’ites recalled

stories relating to the death of Hussain whereas the Sunnis viewed the practices of

the celebration as a religious bida’a. 132

Although the Bahraini Administration did not expect a massive conflict

between Sunnis and Shi’ites during the coming festival, Bahrain’s then Political

Agent JW Wall in a report to the newly appointed Resident Sir Bernard Burrows, 133

claimed that security measures were carried out locally to prevent any possible

disturbance amongst the Shi’ites of Persian origin. The reason for the concern was

the growing feud between supporters of Mosaddegh and those of Fazlollah Zahedi

and the fear was that it might be carried onto the streets of Manama. 134 Zahedi

organised a coup d’état aided by pro-Shah demonstrators to overthrow Mosaddegh

and counter communist infiltration in a covert operation with the CIA and Britain’s

Military Intelligence, Section 6 (MI6) known as operation AJAX. 135

132 Bida’a: Literally translated into a religious innovation. It’s a religious practice or form of worship
regarded by Muslim religious scholars [in this case Sunnis] to be neither prescribed by the Muslim
holy book the Qu’ran or Prophet Mohammed’s sayings, and or by early Muslim generations.
Therefore any religious act or practice or form of worship that falls under this category is forbidden.
133 Sir Bernard Alexander Brocas Burrows was born in Britain on 3 July 1910. For his education he
attended Eton and Oxford’s Trinity College. He started working at the FO in 1934. Burrows was
transferred to Cairo from 1938 to 1945. He returned to London in 1945 and was transferred later to
the British Embassy in the US as the Head of Chancery. During the time he had worked in the US he
crossed-roads with the notorious British spy for the Soviets Guy Burgess who was appointed to work
at the embassy in 1950. Following his work in the US he was appointed as Resident in the Arabian
Gulf region, succeeding Hay on 27 July 1953. See ‘Cool Briton in Hot Spot: Bernard Alexander Brocas
Burrows’, New York Times 29 July 1957, 4; and A. Lownie, Stalin’s Englishman: The Lives of Guy
Burgess (London: 2015), 200.
134 TNA, FO 371/104263, Wall to Burrows, 5 October 1953.
135 D.B. Kunz, The Economic Diplomacy of the Suez Crisis (Chapel Hill, NC: 1991), 32; Eisenhower,
Mandate for Change 1953-1956, 164; P. Calvocoressi and G. Wint, Middle East Crisis (Harmondsworth,
Middlesex: 1957), 34; W.S. Lucas, Britain and Suez: the Lion’s Last Roar (Manchester: 1996), 10; and
Eveland, Ropes of Sand, 108.

© Hamad E. Abdulla 42