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.
