Society 363 / 2013

diplomatie
analyse
Secularism, Al Khalifa‘s
way out of internal crises
A de facto secular constitution which smoothly separates Islam
and the State might just be something worth a trial in Bahrain
to guarantee on paper equality before the law.
Text: Henri Estramant
W
estern stereotypes
of Arab society
bear little resemblance
to life in
contemporary
Bahrain. In spite
of the ubiquitous cliché in European and
North American media coverage lingering
about the nature of the kingdom’s uprising,
Bahraini society is made up of more
than a Shi’a “majority” and an oppressive
Sunni minority. The precise religious
distribution of Sunnis and Shi’a amongst
the country’s population is open to question
as the last official census wherein
religious identification was recorded took
place back in 1941. Albeit it is understood
that the bulk of Bahrain’s 1,3 million inhabitants
profess the Islamic faith, the
reality is far more intricate than that. The
realm differs quintessentially from Saudi
Arabia where social interaction takes a
form that more closely approximates that
of a purely tribal or male-lineage society,
or from Qatar where endemic society is at
the same time more homogeneous in ethnic
and religious terms and more clearly
differentiated into dominant and subordinate
classes. Whilst sharing intricate
characteristics with the other GCC states,
Bahraini society distinguishes itself by the
way in which cleavages based on ethnicity,
class position and national origin overlap
to produce a matrix of social relations
unique to the islands.
•
A diversified demographic
make-up
Bahrain‘s modern pluralism is to a
large extent the result of the diversified
confessional and demographic make-up
of the island-state, which has required -
even if often reluctantly - for Shi‘as, Sunnis,
Persian-Arabs - so-called Hawala - , and
other religious and ethnic minorities to
live and work together: not least to boost
the island‘s trade. The society‘s progressiveness
and openness indeed surpasses
Dubai, the emirate normally labelled in
the West as “liberal”. Politically the country‘s
leading ideologies for several decades
were Arab Nationalism and Marxism,
both of which downplayed religious affiliations
and thus favoured a good sense of
Bahraini unity.
Little attention is notwithstanding
ever given to the other half (!) of the kingdom‘s
societal structure, naturalised immigrants
and their issue, or foreign workers
without whom the Bahraini economy
would collapse. Unlike their counterparts
in other GCC countries, immigrants in
Bahrain are more easily absorbed into the
spider web of society; for the latter is not
so profoundly rooted in family lineage
as it is in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, or Kuwait.
These migrants are also eligible for welfare
benefits such as free healthcare and
education. One often overseen story of
success is the one of Bahrain‘s recently accredited
ambassador to St. James‘s Court,
Alice Thomas Saaman, who since December
2011 is King Hamad II‘s power woman
in the British capital. She is the daughter
of Syrian, Christian immigrants. An unmarried
Christian herself, she became the
Arab world‘s first woman to chair a parliament
when in 2005 she took over the lead
over Bahrain‘s Shura Council, or Upper
Consultative Council.
Yet another “bold move” from Bahrain‘s
government which went against stereotypes
was the surprising appointment
of a Jewish woman to head Bahrain‘s most
important diplomatic post in Washington
D.C. in 2008. Ambassador Houda Ezra
Ebrahim Nonoo has proven to be a skilful
diplomat, joggling many balls whilst
walking on a tightrope and facing a lot of
unsympathetic grimaces for the regime
she represents.
•
The Constitution
of Bahrain
Labelled as an apartheid regime, Bahrain
would do well by implementing a
secular state solution which in the longrun
might foster social cohesion by ignoring
private religious beliefs in the public
sphere whilst also guaranteeing equality
before the law, and the dismantlement of
sectarianism based upon the bifurcation
between Shi‘as and Sunnis.
The kingdom‘s 2002 constitution
stipulates in its article 2: The religion of
the State is Islam. The Islamic Shari‘a is a
principal source for legislation. Though
its article 22 also guarantees freedom of
conscience and religion, this does nothing
to change the hegemony of Islam and
Shari‘a in a country which is home to a
sizeable number of Christians, Buddhists
and Hindus as working residents amounting
to about 49.3 per cent of the overall
population. The inflexibility of an Islamic
state in Bahrain is evident when considering
that Shari‘a canon law is applied by
judges in accordance to the religious affiliations
of the individuals concerned in
a case rather than by a uniform family
or property code for all citizens and residents.
Not to speak of the fact that Shari‘a
judges tend not to be auspicious or sympathetic
to women‘s equality before the law,
even if the latter is equally enshrined in
the constitution.
A de facto secular constitution which
smoothly separates Islam and the State
might just be something worth a trial in
Bahrain. First of all, it would truly guarantee
on paper equality before the law
for Muslims regardless of their sectarian
affiliation, but likewise for non-Muslims
or non-believers. From a political point
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