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Tag: Bahrain

  • John Legend Responds To Critics Who Say He Shouldn’t Perform In Bahrain Amid Reported Rampant Human Rights Violations

    John Legend was under fire recently for agreeing to perform in Bahrain for the country’s Spring of Culture festival in Arad Fort.

    After all that talk at the Oscars about human rights and African-American rights being trampled on in his own country, many say John Legend shouldn’t perform in a country that is widely known for its human rights violations.

    In his acceptance speech for the song “Glory”, John Legend lamented, “We live in the most incarcerated country in the world. There are more black men under correctional control today than were under slavery in 1850.”

    John Legend also stated that the problems of Selma are the problems of now, including socio-economic gaps and general racism.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8F3g6lkKleY

    However, in the country he will be performing in, the Sunni-dominated regime has been accused of widespread human rights abuses. They have been known to use excessive force against protesters. They have also been accused of atrocities like extra judicial killings, arbitrary detention, and torture.

    Dr. Ala’a al-Shehabi, a prominent human rights activist from Bahrain Watch, is hoping that John Legend will reconsider. She said, “Bahrainis have been enduring a civil rights struggle for decades. Having John Legend sing in Bahrain should be in honor of the people who have lost life and limb in this struggle. Not in honor of the regime that wants to use him to burnish its bloodied reputation.”

    She continued, “Bahrain is facing a human rights calamity given its small size and small population… Scores of ageing and peaceful political leaders are behind bars. If Martin Luther King was Bahraini today, he’d be serving a long prison sentence, for all of the island’s leaders are in prison, on trial or in exile.”

    Sounds like the issues that the people of Bahrain bemoan may be out of John Legend’s realm of understanding.

    Thank you Los Angeles! I had a great time at @power106LA Valentine's Crush!!

    A photo posted by John Legend (@johnlegend) on

    Sayed Yousif Almuhafdah, the vice president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, held a similar sentiment.

    He said, “I’d like to tell John Legend that my people, the people of Bahrain, are fighting the same injustice and discrimination African-Americans suffered in the United States. They’re living under a dictatorship that has stripped them from their most basic human rights, democracy, justice, and freedom of speech.”

    He added, “Bahrainis’ democracy campaigners are being attacked on daily basis, arrested, tortured, and unjustly detained. The people of Bahrain are paying their lives as a price for their freedom.”

    It's about that time. #GLORY. #GRAMMYS

    A photo posted by John Legend (@johnlegend) on

    However, John Legend is going through with it anyway. He said, “The solution to every human rights concern is not always to boycott. Often, the best way to drive progress is to show up and participate in the conversation.”

    He added, “Part of my mission in life is to spread love and joy to people all over the world. I intend to do just that in Bahrain, regardless of my disagreements with some of their governments’ policies and actions.”

    What do you think? Is John Legend’s decision to go on with his appearance, despite pleas from Bahrain’s human rights leaders, hypocritical?

  • Arcapita Bahrain US Bankruptcy Exit a 1st for US

    Arcapita, an Islamic investment firm in Bahrain, emerged from US bankruptcy today under Chapter 11 rules. It is the first of the Gulf companies to do so. This move may help clarify how Western courts deal with Islamic finance, marking the first time a question of an Islamic ruling (fatwa) had been presented to a US bankruptcy judge, according to Reuters.

    The exit was enabled by a $350 million Goldman Sachs International loan. Arcapita represents one of several Gulf-based companies forced to restructure billions of dollars of debt after lending dissipated and asset values toppled with the advent of the global credit crisis.

    The firm plans to transfer assets into a new holding company, RA Holding Corp., which will dispose of the assets gradually to pay down debts to creditors including Barclays, CIMB, Royal Bank of Scotland, Standard Bank and Standard Chartered. The Central Bank of Bahrain was the largest of the creditors, owed $255.1 million. The plan came into effect on Tuesday.

    According to a spokesman speaking to Reuters, “We expect to have a complete exit of the portfolio over the next four to five years. Exits so far have been better than expected, and the reorganization plan allows exactly just that in order to maximize values.”

    This case presents an early foray into dealing with Islamic law (shariah law) as applied to finance industry contracts and disputes through Western courts. Shariah is not codified in legal form, making it a tricky concept to cover in the US courts system.

    The Arcapita case also presented a difficult example as it filed for bankruptcy protection in March of last year with approximately $7.4 billion of its assets under management spread across the globe, as a $1.1 billion Islamic loan came due. The Arcapita portfolio includes holdings in 30 different investments covering private equity, real estate, infrastructure and a small portfolio of venture capital investments.

    [Image via Arcapita official website.]

  • Anonymous Defaces F1 Racing Sites For #OpBahrain

    Anonymous is involved in a lot of operations, but many of them don’t get much attention until they do something drastic. It’s unfortunate in a way since it takes a defacement to actually get our attention. Today’s defacement is centered on #OpBahrain, an operation that seeks to remove Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Al Khalifa from power.

    Today is a pretty big day in the country because it’s the start of the Formula One grand prix. According to the Guardian, the Crown Prince of Bahrain said that canceling the race would “empower extremists.”

    While thousands of Bahrain citizens protest the race, Anonymous is protesting it in their own unique way. They have begun to take down and deface F1 racing sites that are taking part in the grand prix today alongside the usual governmental Web sites.

    The official Formula 1 site is now down with F1-racers.net having been defaced. The defacement contains this message:

    Greetings from Anonymous

    For over one year the people of Bahrain have struggled against the oppressive regime of King Hamad bin Al Khalifa. They have been murdered in the streets, run over with vehicles, beaten, tortured, tear gassed, kidnapped by police, had their businesses vandalised by police, and have tear gas thrown in to their homes on a nightly basis.

    Still the regmine persists to deny any meaningful reform and continues to use brutal and violent tactics to oppress the popular calls for reformation. Not only is the Human Rights situation in Bahrain tragic, it becomes more drastic with each passing day. For these reasons the F1 Grand Prix in Bahrain should be strongly opposed. The Al Khalifa regime stands to profit heavily off the race and has promised to use live ammunition against protestors in preparation. They have already begun issuing collective punishment to entire villages for protests and have promised further retribution “to keep order” for the F1 events in Bahrain. The Formula 1 racing authority was well-aware of the Human Rights situation in Bahrain and still chose to contribute to the regime’s oppression of civilians and will be punished.

    We demand the immediate release of human rights worker Abdulhadi Alkhawaja who has spent over 70 days on hunger strike. He has committed no crimes and is being punished by the regime for advocating people’s basic human rights. Free him and all other political prisoners in Bahrain. End torture. Deport all mercenary police and stop the use of tear gas against civilians.

    We Do Not Forgive. We Do Not Forget. Expect Us.

    On top of that, Anonymous has also issued a press release detailing their grievances with the Bahrain government:

    1) This is NOT a Shia uprising against a Sunni government. It is a popular and peaceful revolt against the medieval concept of absolute monarchy. It is a movement that spans all strata and sectors of society, and all religions in Bahrain. It is a movement that demands only freedom, justice – and democracy.

    2) This government is not quelling violent protests, it is brutally and violently crushing peaceful dissent.

    3) This government is NOT legitimate. It is a tyrannical, barbaric – and human rights violating dictatorship. And ANYONE doing business with this regime have the blood of Bahrain’s Freedom Martyrs on their hands.

    It seems that the group isn’t done yet with the protests expected to last all weekend. It might explode into something much bigger as well with the revelation that the King’s forces may be using live rounds on the protesters to keep the F1 race running smoothly.

    Follow the hashtag #OpBahrain on Twitter to get all the latest details from Anonymous and those protesting the race today. We’ll keep you updated if anything big happens as well.

  • Bahrain Protest Photos Flood Flickr

    Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube often get a lot of the attention when it comes to social media spreading news of revolutions and uprisings in foreign nations, but Yahoo-owned Flickr is reminding everyone that it plays a significant role as well. 

    Photos can say a lot, and Flickr has plenty of those. The company is highlighting user-submitted photos from the protests in Bahrain. 

    IMG_1884

    Flickr has posted a few select images from the protests on its company blog. You can see a lot more, however, if you do a search for "bahrain protest". 

  • URFilez Takes Music Service “Where iTunes & Pandora Fear to Tread”

    New York-based URFilez has developed an MP3 service, launching today in Bahrain, saying this is "where iTunes & Pandora fear to tread". The company says it has content from all four major record labels (Sony, Warner, Universal and EMI). The company has also announced a partnership with Bahrain telco giant, Betelco to offer MP3, on-demand streaming and perssonalized radio mobile apps for BlackBerry, iPhone and Android users. 
    "Digital music services like iTunes, Pandora and Amazon MP3 may be popular in the US, but for those living in the Middle East, piracy and illegal downloads are the only options for consumers wanting to listen to their favorite artists," a representative for URFilez tells WebProNews. "That’s because legitimate services like iTunes, are simply not available in the region."

    "Who knows if iTunes, Pandora, Amazon MP3, or any of the other digital music sites will respond with similar services in the region, but it will certainly be interesting to watch," she says. 

    URFilez launches in Middle East

     

    URFilez is run by former Zing Technology (sold to RealNetworks for $75 million) CEO Hassan Miah, who was also formerly the managing director and leader of the entertainment and media investment activity at Intel Capital.  

     

    "URFilez plans to expand into Saudi Arabia next, followed by the broader Gulf region by the beginning of 2011, and Asia by the end of 2011 – another area that is rife with music piracy and underserviced by the popular digital download sites," the rep says.