Monday, May 26, 2008

Racism and Xenophobia in Bahrain

Consider this IMAGINARY quote from an IMAGINARY news article:

A nationalist parliamentarian in Belgium has called for the expulsion of Moroccan immigrant workers after one of them was accused of a gruesome killing.

“We need to expel all the Moroccan workers that are in our country,” said Bart Debie of the hardline Vlaams Belang, according to a report in the local newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws.

“We cannot tolerate the way in which these people continue to repeat crimes,” he said.

Can you picture the uproar that would greet such a story in Belgium? The accusations of neo-fascism, racism, xenophobia, etc., etc.?

In order to construct the above quote I changed a handful of proper nouns and phrases from the article below. Now read the original from AKI:

Islamic MP calls for expulsion of Bangladeshis

Manama, 26 May (AKI) — An Islamic parliamentarian in Bahrain has called for the expulsion of Bangladeshi immigrant workers after one of them was accused of a gruesome killing.

“We need to expel all the Bangladeshi workers that are in our country,” said Abdel Halim Murad of the hardline Salafi bloc according to a report in the local newspaper Akhbar al-Khalji.

“We cannot tolerate the way in which these people continue to repeat crimes,” he said.

Murad said this during a political debate on Sunday after a Bahraini citizen was allegedly killed by a foreign worker from Bangladesh who worked as a mechanic.

The victim was said to have fought with his killer because they could not decide on the price to pay to repair a car.

“The society in Bahrain has been hit by this barbaric incident and now we have to rise above every limit. It is necessary to have zero tolerance with regards to them,” said Murad.
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Murad also said that an example should be made of the punishment handed out to the Bangladeshi who has been accused of murder.

“He should be immediately sentenced to death and the punishment should be carried out in a short time in order to make an example to everyone,” he added

“It is also necessary to have a plan which will foresee the gradual expulsion of all these people from our country,” he said.

There are an estimated 106,000 Bangladeshis living in the small Arab country.

[…]

Bahrain is not the only country in the Emirates which has had to deal with problems associated with Asian immigration.

An MP in Kuwait had on 28 April called for the expulsion of all foreign workers.

“All the Bangladeshi immigrants who have committed crimes in our country have to be immediately deported,” said Muhammad Hayf al-Mutairi.

This was also suggested by an Islamic politician, who has gained a lot support because of these types of proposals with regards to foreigners.

“Their presence here represents a major danger for our national security because of them, there has been a rise in the number of crimes committed and for this reason the interior ministry must immediately expel them from the country,” said al-Mutairi in an interview on the Arabic satellite television network, Al-Arabiya.

Those Arabs really sound like all those racist xenophobic right-wing extremists in Europe, don’t they?

What makes this story even more interesting is that these dangerous foreigners are not even infidels: both Bangladesh and the Bahrain are Muslim countries.

“Zero tolerance”, indeed.


Hat tip: insubria.

9 comments:

Nilk said...

It would indeed be interesting to see what happens to the economies of those countries relying on foreign workers.

They are, from what I gather, the ones who actually.... work.

Perhaps if the native populations had to do some work for a change they might have other things on their mind rather than jihad and reducing the rest of the world to their narrow view.

They also might get over their massive inferiority complexes and just get on with things.

Anonymous said...

If Mr. Murad immigrated here and ran for governor of California, I'd vote for him.

no2liberals said...

Uhhh....say what?
Dutch police encouraged to read Koran.

Anonymous said...

no2liberals, my initial reaction was, the Dutch really need an establishment clause (no establishment of religion). Then I realized, this Koran reading business is a good thing! When Dutch police, who are probably practical people, read the Koran, they'll see what the problem is, if they didn't before.

Afonso Henriques said...

Would you blame them?

I whish no harm to Barhein so I hope them to expell whoever they want to. It's their fricking island after all.

no2liberals said...

latte island
I don't know. The copy they are offering, at half price, is the one recommended, as well as a book on Ol'MohPed's life.
If they also "encourage" them to see "Fitna," and read this blog, and TROP, then there could be some balance and understanding.
"Encourage" in bureaucratize has another meaning, and that is, forget about any preferred assignments, or timely promotions, if you don't comply.

Snake Oil Baron said...

I think everyone should be encouraged to read the Koran and the rest of the Islamic holy scriptures. It's all really bizarre.

Snake Oil Baron said...

And expelling the Bangladeshis would be economic suicide and it would send a clear message to Asians about what Arabs think of them.

Unknown said...

Yesterday, a Bahraini woman wanted to arrogantly overtake me in one of the cramped central governorate streets. When I didn’t give her the chance to do so as a reaction to her snobbism and lack of manners, she slightly hit my car to intimidate me and force me to stop. I didn’t stop though, so the maniac kept following me, beeping the horn incessantly, flashing her lights at me, then she went completely insane; she drove close to me, flipped me off and called me a B**** and a W**** .It didn’t end up there, when we got to my workplace the zombie got out of her car: She was spitting at me, calling me names and saying she wanted me to be deported because she was sick of foreigners!!! At that moment, I called the security and the police officers who came to stop her. My question is: why all this obscenity and violence in the streets of Bahrain after all? Is it simply because we are foreigners and are supposed to be submissive? And what is this “I will get you deported” threat that locals throw at our faces? Locals should respect the law as we do!!