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Bahrain: United States
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In the midst of Harken's talks with Bahrain, Mr. Ameen -- simultaneously working as a State Department consultant -- briefed the incoming U.S. ambassador to Bahrain, Charles Hostler. Mr. Ameen ultimately received a fee of about $100,000 from Harken.
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After the dissolution of the National Assembly, organized opposition to the regime came primarily from Bahrain's heterogeneous Islamist movement. Advocates of moderate reform could be found in the Sunni Social Reform Society and Supporters of the Call, as well as in the Shiʿite Party of the Islamic Call. Proponents of more profound social transformation belonged to the Islamic Action Organization (IAO) and the Islamic Guidance Society, both predominantly Shiʿite; demonstrations organized by these two associations erupted periodically during late 1979 and early 1980, culminating in a series of large marches in support of the new Islamic Republic of Iran during April and May of 1980. State security forces broke up these demonstrations by force, killing a number of marchers. In the wake of these events, underground groups, such as the IAO, changed tactics, abandoning mass popular demonstrations and turning instead to isolated acts of sabotage carried out by small groups of committed cadres. This shift was buttressed by the formation of the Islamic Front for the Liberation of
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It is too early to say whether political liberalisation under King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa has augmented or undermined Bahrain's traditional pluralism. The new political space for Shia and Sunni Islamists has meant that they are now in a much stronger position to pursue programmes that often seek to directly confront this pluralism, yet at the same time political reforms have encouraged an opposite trend for society to become more self critical with a greater willingness in general to examine previous social taboos. It is now common to find public seminars on once unheard of subjects such as marital problems and sex[41] and child abuse[42]. Another facet of the new openness is Bahrain's status as the most prolific book publisher in the Arab world, with 132 books published in 2005 for a population of 700,000. In comparison, the average for the entire Arab world is seven books published per one million people in 2005, according to the United Nations Development Programme. [43]
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