Global Voices

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The world is talking, are you listening?

Doha News charts reactions from Qatar residents following the aftershocks of an earthquake which hit southern Iran today. The aftershocks were also felt in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, where offices in high rise buildings were evacuated.

From Bahrain, where the ongoing anti-government protests are portrayed in mainstream media as a Sunni/Shia sectarian clash, blogger Nader AbdulEman writes [ar]:

أنا الطائفي الذي اريد حكومة منتخبة أنا الطائفي الذي ارفض التمييز وأطلب العدل والمساواة أنا الطائفي أطلب برلمان كامل الصلاحيات

@NaderAbdulEmam: I am the sectarian who wants an elected government. I am the sectarian who refuses discrimination and calls for justice and equality. I am the sectarian who demands a fully empowered parliament.

Music for a better future. Screenshot from Mideast Tunes’ Indiego campaign video.

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M. Lynx Qualey, blogger, who is interested in Arab and Arabic literature, wrote a series of posts introducing acclaimed Arab poets, novelists, and short-story writers’ favorite Arab reads of 2012. She started with a list of nonfiction books, then followed by a list for poetry [En] and fiction [En].

Protestors in Bani Jamra, Bahrain, angry over the injury of Aqeel Mohsin, a 20-year-old Bahraini by police shot in the face. The banner, in Arabic, reads: The blood of the brave, will overthrow the regime. Photograph shared on Twitter by @angryarabia

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Kim Kardashian completed a visit to Kuwait and is now visiting Bahrain. Here's Brian Whitaker's take on her visit.

“Gulf countries awfully quiet about Gaza,” tweets Foreign Policy editor Blake Hounshell. Lebanese journalist Antoun Issa adds:

@antissa: Amazing how eager GCC are to arm Arabs to fight each other, while disappearing completely when it comes to Palestine. #Gaza

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is made up of Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.

One of four Twitter users, detained in Bahrain and reportedly charged with insulting the country's king, was sentenced to six months in prison today.

Bahraini lawyer Mohammed Abdulameer tweets [ar]:

@wastilawyeR: One of those accused of insulting the King of Bahrain was sentenced by the Criminal Court to six months imprisonment and the confiscation of his laptop and telephone, which were tools in his crime

Bahraini blogger Ali Al Saeed suggests:

@alialsaeed: Perhaps disgruntled citizens from around the world should consider starting their own country? Worth a try.

A screen shot of the censored UN webcast page shared by @MohdMaskati on Twitter

@MohdMaskati: Authorities in #Bahrain put obstacles to access #UN website for live stream because of my intervention in the #HRC21 http://twitpic.com/aucktm

He shares the screenshot above which shows the blocked site with the censorship message. The page can now be accessed in Bahrain.

UAE-based journalist Hassan Hassan Storfies how Iranian translators distorted Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi's speech, at the Non-Aligned Movement meeting in Tehran, replacing Syria with Bahrain and Arab Spring with Islamic Awakening.

Bahraini human rights activist Nabeel Rajab’s teenage son Adam tweets [ar]:

My father was found innocent of insulting the people of Muharraq after he spent two and a half months in prison

Salafist MPs from Bahrain visited Syria, where they provided assistance to the Free Syrian Army, says The Angry Arab News Service.

Mideast Youth has launched an iPad-exclusive application that showcases revolutionary leaders and movements in the past 100 years and allows people to learn about how these revolutionaries and leaders are connected to each other. Check Making of a Century out here.

Bahraini blogger Ahmed Habib tweets [ar]: “They have completed the stage where we have become birds who tweet on Twitter. They are now in the next stage and that is to find cages … for all of us!”

Bahrain riot police fired at a protest, injuring opposition Al Wefaq Society head Shaikh Ali Salman. Online, this video of the attack is being circulated. The society's Twitter account tweeted [ar] saying the politician was injured, along with another young man, who was hit by a sound grenade fired at close range to his head. Protests started in Bahrain on February 14, 2011.

“I think that it’s not only the killer that should be held responsible for his crime for silence isn’t any lesser of a crime, and that the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality,” writes Bahraini blogger Mohammed Hassan.

On Twitter, Bahraini Mohammed Al Maskati, complains: “It's been 443 days since masked police confiscated my MacBook Pro, 2 Hardrives, 3 Blackberry phones, camera AND wifey’s Friend's collection.” Al Maskati was arrested last year after he was threatened with arrest on Twitter.

Bahraini blogger Mahmood Al Yousif expresses his views on opposition leader Ebrahim Sharif, who is in jail. “I feel so powerless and so ashamed of what is happening here. Especially when to me, the solution is staring everyone in the face,” he writes.

Bahraini Twitter user Mohammed Hasan (@Safybh) says he was called for questioning by the Bahrain Intelligence Agency yesterday (June 5). “After my tweet appeared on @ajstream I received an order to go to the #Bahrain intelligence agency today #AJStream,” he reports on Twitter. Al Jazeera Stream is a programme on Al Jazeera English.

“My father [Human Rights Defender] Nabeel Rajab is arrested again #Bahrain @NABEELRAJAB,” tweets Adam Nabeel Rajab from Bahrain. The activist is being detained for seven days pending investigation over comments he published on Twitter.

Marc Owen Jones collects videos allegedly showing Bahrain police forces throwing molotov cocktail (petrol bombs) at protesters and property in this post. Meanwhile, Bahrain has just charged 28 civilians with “attempted murder” for throwing molotov cocktails at policemen.

“Repression and state violence is likely to continue to plague the Middle East and North Africa in 2012,” forecasts Amnesty International in an 80-page report. It documents the extreme violence deployed by MENA regimes when resisting the unprecedented calls for fundamental reform heard in the region in 2011, as well as the amazing resilience of the protest movements. The report adds, “The refusal of ordinary people across the region to be deterred from their struggle for dignity and justice is what gives us hope for 2012.”

Bahraini journalist Mazen Mahdi tweets that he was detained by police today, and later on released. The Committee to Protect Journalists says the Middle East political turmoil and protests is proving to be deadly for journalists.

Bahraini blogger Mahmood Al Yousif shares this message with fellow netizens: “[T]emper your attacks and choose your battles wisely. Refrain from childish attacks on the very bridge who can help your cause. The last thing we want .. is to continue to shout at each other, rather than find the platform to engage and talk to each other to fix the situation and move forward.”

Brazilian cartoonist Carlos Latuff reveals on Twitter that the tear gas devices used for repressing the civilian population of Bahrain is manufactured [pt] in the city of Nova Iguaçu, in the state of Rio de Janeiro, and adds he feels ashamed [pt] for his country exporting such weapons.

Bahraini journalist Reem Khalifa appeals to her followers on Twitter: “Plz my followers make report spam for a fake account @ Reem_Khalifah using my pic, words,articles.”

Bahraini blogger Mahmood Al Yousif lends his support to jailed politician Ebrahim Sharif in this post.

“By our silence we also incur a share in the guilt. This is why we have to support Bahrainis in their quest for freedom,” blogger Lina Ben Mhenni writes on A Tunisian Girl, reminding us of a forgotten and savagely repressed part of the Arab Spring.

Bahraini blogger Mahmood Al Yousif sheds light on the plight of Bahrainis “unfairly” dismissed from their jobs due to the current unrest in the country.