“Bahrain is forgotten,” says AbuKhalil

On Tuesday, a bomb exploded in the village of Diraz wounding four police officers, raising U.S. State Department concerns. Despite concerns about the increase and violence and calls for the government of Bahrain to permit peaceful protest made by the State Department, Bahrain’s Foreign Minister issued a statement saying, “The Kingdom of Bahrain authorized the peaceful expression of opinion within the constitution in the law.” He said that the security forces “exercise maximum restraint even though they are regularly the target of acts of violence.”

Meanwhile, the search for hunger striker Abdulhadi Al Khawaja continues. The Gulf Daily News reports that Al Khawaja has been drinking “nutritional supplements” for the past two days and has done so intermittently throughout his protest. “Reports that he has gone missing are not true—and I saw him coming out of the bathroom where he was in high spirits,” says an unidentified source. Khawaja’s family says his whereabouts are unknown. Ban Ki-Moon has urged the Bahraini authorities to “resolve Mr. Khawaja’s case…without any further delay.” Esther Adomo writes in Open Democracy that al-Khawaja will not die; his cause is too important.

“For all intents and purposes, Bahrain is forgotten,” says As’ad AbuKhalil. He writes in Al Akhbar that Bahraini activists interviewed by BBC  “were treated like criminals,” while Syrian opposition members are able to make ‘baseless’ claims. Also, while the Bahraini people’s struggle can by no means be reduced to merely a sectarian struggle, western media continues “unfailingly” to relay this message. “The majority of the people in Bahrain happen to be Shia and that is sufficient to demonize the entire population of Bahrain,” says Khalil.