Bahrain Mirror (Exclusive): After arresting and sentencing him to four years in prison, the ruling Al Khalifa tribe in Bahrain is doing its best to impose a complete siege on him and his freedom of expression. The Al Khalifa family don't want the opposition leader Sheikh Ali Salman to speak at all, not because they don't want to hear him but because they don't want anyone to hear him.

For delivering an address at the Al-Wefaq General Conference in December 2014, the Al Khalifa tribe decided to arrest and imprison him. For posting a number of tweets on his personal Twitter account as well, they decided last Thursday (January 21, 2016) to deprive him of any phone calls and family visits.

His tweets on January 19, 2016 marked the American freedom fighter, Martin Luther King Day. They were inspired by the fight against racial discrimination in the United States, thus called for putting an end to the discrimination practiced by the ruling tribe in Bahrain.

"Let's carry on the 2011 February 14 uprising because if we stop now, our country will be lost in tribal and sectarian discrimination for another 100 years. Our children will suffer from the persecution we lived for years," said Sheikh Salman.

His words were nothing new, but Al Khalifa are very aware of the meaning they convey should they be linked to his trial before the Appeals Court, during which he reiterated his call for putting an end to the Al Khalifa family's monopoly over power. It doesn't seem that his prison sentence will affect his strong political stance and vision towards a solution in which the ruling family see their defeat.

Salman; however, stresses: "We don't want to defeat names and figures in Bahrain, we want to defeat greed and evil, and live like loving brothers on earth (...) What we strive for is a homeland that includes everyone equally."

A bedouin tribe can never comprehend the notion of having the people retrieve their right to be part of the decision-making process but as a defeat. Tribes don't understand the concept of having a country shared by all of its factions. They only understand that it is only a land where they gain power and authority over its resources and treasures by the edge of their swords.

The Al-Wefaq leader; however, continues to declare: "We have to continue to work in Bahrain with love and peace to gain freedom, for it is not gained easily (...) Let us struggle, my loved ones, peacefully, and hold love for our political opponents. Let our hands stay clean as the vast majority of the people has done until now."

There is a massive difference between the two views; the view of fighting to gain monopoly over power and exclude others, facing the view of striving to equally take part in governing the country and achieve coexistence. The former wields a sword while the latter wields a pen, yet the first still seems to be much weaker.

Arabic Issue