Page 185 - Arabia the Gulf and the West

182 Arabia, the Gulf and the West

persecution by the Sunni community only served to strengthen the links
between the two groups.
Today, although the Shia comprise a majority of the population, they do

not command, in proportion to their numbers, the positions of wealth and
power that the leading citizens of the Sunni community occupy. Apart from a
handful of well-to-do merchant families and senior government officials, the
most prominent and influential individuals among the Shia are the mullahs
the religious dignitaries. The present Al Khalifah ruler, Shaikh Isa ibn
Salman, has made considerable efforts to conciliate the Shia. He recognizes,

as did his father, the previous ruler, Shaikh Salman ibn Hamad (who died in
1961), that both the Shii mullahs and the Sunni divines possess substantial
authority in their respective communities, and he is usually careful to consult
them over questions of a politically sensitive nature. Despite his endeavours
to identify them with his government and its actions, however, they remain
an independent and unpredictable force in Bahraini politics, one that is more

likely to be exercised on the side of extremism than it is on that of modera­
tion .
Politics is a livelier business in Bahrain than it is in Kuwait. The percentage
of educated and semi-educated citizens is higher, and the revenues of the
shaikhdom are not sufficient to allow the Al Khalifah to indulge their subjects
in so lavish a fashion as the Al Sabah have indulged theirs, especially by
creating lucrative posts for them as government functionaries or by providing

them with the funds and opportunities for real-estate speculation. As a conse­
quence, the Al Khalifah have had to contend much more with manifestations
of popular discontent in the form of demonstrations, strikes and riots. Though
much of the agitation has undoubtedly arisen from economic causes, some of it
has been generated by the political ambitions and resentments of the literate or

semi-literate younger generation of Bahrainis, who feel that their educational
attainments and progressive views entitle them to a decisive voice in the
government of the shaikhdom. The urban sophisticates of Bahrain have long
been avid consumers of whatever radical political ideas happen to be in vogue
in the larger Arab countries, and the various recreational, cultural and sporung
clubs which abound in the island have served them as a forum for the intermin­
able political discussions in which they delight. In the 1950s, taking their cue

from events in Egypt, Iraq and Syria, they were all wildly republican an
nationalist in sentiment, crowding the streets of Manamah and Muharraq, e
two main towns, at every opportunity to protest with equal vehemence agains
the autocratic rule of the Al Khalifah and the continued presence 0 ntam as
the protecting power in the Gulf. The British presence was particular y evl en

in Bahrain, with the political residency for the Gulf and the Royal ava a
both located at Ras Jufair, and the RAF in charge of the airfield on u
Island. When the demonstrations and riots of the mid-i95os ag31118
Baghdad Pact and the Suez expedition were quelled with British assistance