From Angry Arab's Bahrain chief Bahrain correspondent:
"I wanted to comment on your post concerning the Bahraini MP, Osama Al-Tamimi who burned the Israeli flag. I had written to you about Al-Tamimi before Although Al-Tamimi is a member of parliament, he has been very vocal against the royal family and recently called for the Prime Minister to resign. I had written to you about him previously. . Soon after his call for the Prime Minister to resign, he was targeted by masked gunmen who shot thirty bullets into a gym owned by him. Of course we have no evidence of who conducted the attacks but as I have repeated several times, guns are illegal in Bahrain. The only people who have access to guns are members of the security forces, police and army as well as members of the royal family - which can of course provide these guns to friends and family.
"I wanted to comment on your post concerning the Bahraini MP, Osama Al-Tamimi who burned the Israeli flag. I had written to you about Al-Tamimi before Although Al-Tamimi is a member of parliament, he has been very vocal against the royal family and recently called for the Prime Minister to resign. I had written to you about him previously. . Soon after his call for the Prime Minister to resign, he was targeted by masked gunmen who shot thirty bullets into a gym owned by him. Of course we have no evidence of who conducted the attacks but as I have repeated several times, guns are illegal in Bahrain. The only people who have access to guns are members of the security forces, police and army as well as members of the royal family - which can of course provide these guns to friends and family.
Now the funny thing is that after Al-Tamimi's flag burning stunt, nine MPs
(all pro-government of course, 2 of them salafis) wrote a letter to the
chairman/head (not sure what the correct word is) of the Parliament request that
Al-Tamimi be punished for burning the flag. The letter which you can read here does
not mention the nature of the incident (I guess saying they are complaining
about the burning of an Israeli flag would be too embarrassing) and states that
A-Tamimi put the lives of others at risk. You have to remember that this was in
the middle of Israel's bombardment of Gaza. I guess the MPs were not too happy
to see a flag of a friendly nation being burned in parliament.
On Kim Kardashian. When I heard that she was coming to Bahrain, I figured
that she was on some PR campaign sponsored by the government and/or royal
family. However I later read that she was there for the launch of A Million
Milkshakes - a milkshake place that recently opened in Bahrain. The interesting
thing is that if you go to the website of Sheeraz Hasan, the owner of the
milkshake bar and its promoter you see this line: "Sheeraz Inc. has the
opportunity to bring deals and investment opportunities from around the world to
present directly to the royal families of Qatar and Bahrain." http://sheerazinc.com/ Whats even more
interesting is that according to his bio, he was approached by the Bahraini
royal family in 2012, the year of the uprising. What's funny about Kim
Kardashian is that her presence did not only manage to piss off Bahrain's
opposition but also the regime's Islamist supporters who protested against her
(a lot of western media is incorrectly reporting that Bahrain's anti-government
were the one's protesting but this isn't true).
Another funny story you might have missed. The state department was going to
send Andrew W.K., some rock star that I've never heard of, as their cultural
ambassador to Bahrain. Apparently he was going there to promote "music,
freedom, and positive party power." Someone must have told them that its a bad
idea so they cancelled his trip last minute. You can read about it here:
I guess this is how they spend taxpayers money."
