Bahrain Mirror: "With full confidence I say that the crime rate has returned to normal as it was in 2008 and 2009. We will need to be vigilant towards new threats emerging from technology, such as cybercrime and the use of drones to carry out strikes. We are alert and prepared to deal with known challenges such as ballistic missile threats," said Bahrain's Interior Minister Rashid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa during an event held in London by the Bahraini-British Friendship Society.

"I think one of the most significant threats to national security is those who seek to divide us against each other, who want us to see ourselves not as citizens of our nation, but rather through a sectarian, religious or ethnic perspective," he added. "I am convinced of the importance of reaffirming our Bahraini identity to confront this ideological threat in order to remember what binds us as loyal citizens and what brings us together."

He claimed that "the national plan to strengthen national belonging and consolidate the values ​​of citizenship, aims at strengthening patriotism and prioritizing our common Bahraini identity, rather than dividing it by religion or denomination. I am convinced that such initiatives are our best protection against sectarianism and division, especially given the current regional situation."

"In the long term, these initiatives will form an integral part of what we might call our national security policy in the broadest sense, along with measures such as the new, pioneering alternative penal code, which, for instance, allows for non-custodial sentences such as community service, training or addiction treatment."

Arabic Version