Let us first agree on one matter: Bahrain has a genuine sectarian problem. This issue is at the heart of the political crisis of the last three years, nay, three decades in fact. The Shiite opposition's adamant refusal to engage in reconciliation efforts in the name of advancing its sectarian agenda has led to the deaths of protesters and police officers. It is no longer acceptable for the international community to conceive of what is happening in Bahrain as anything other than a violent insurgency motivated by a sect-based agenda.

It is not about democracy, justice or “awakening.” Rather, it is about various makeshift Shiite youth brigades engaged in violence on the streets, carrying out fatal bomb attacks and attempting to obtain shipments of arms, explosives and ammunition to carry out major terrorist attacks, which thus far have been foiled by joint US and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) intelligence efforts. Why are they doing this? For one reason and one reason only: to advance their sectarian, i.e., exclusive, repressive and anti-democratic agenda.

For generations, this progressive island has prided itself on its pluralistic and tolerant social laws. The nation's numerous state-funded mosques, husainiyas, churches and synagogues are testimony to the religious freedoms and liberties that the state and its pluralist supporters have fought hard to defend. In the face of threats ranging from pan-Arabism and socialist Baathism to the Iranian Revolution, the mobilization of Shiite militancy and the lashing out of groups like Hezbollah and al-Qaeda, Bahrain has steadily and successfully carried out its nation-building efforts in the name of creating a progressive society.

Today, however, the challenge is singular and fierce. It is in the form of sectarianism led by a radical Shiite agenda. The Bahraini state has been actively engaged in countering what it views as a sectarian epidemic consuming its domestic politics. For this reason, it has fostered the coexistence of its people through a national, not a sectarian, identity. There are no state registrars or mechanisms that allow for discrimination based on denomination or religion, let alone alleged state policies intended to oppress citizens because of their beliefs. All Bahrainis are entitled to free education, free health care, housing and other civil liberties and rights as granted by Bahrain’s constitution. Like all developing nations, Bahrain has economic, social and political grievances and has faced complications in its state-building efforts. This has affected Bahrainis of all stripes, but is not exclusive to any denomination.