ME turmoil offers tough choices for Western democracies

but the fact remains that influential elements in the protest movement use the rhetoric of democracy and human rights to mask a more sinister agenda.

One example would the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR). The inclusion of “Human Rights” in the name of the center is Orwellian. The center was established in 2002, but it is a descendant of the Islamic Front for the Liberation of Bahrain (IFLB) and its founding member Abdulhadi Al Khawaja.

The IFLB was connected to a 1981 Iranian-backed coup attempt against the Bahraini royal family. The spiritual leader behind the 1981 coup, Ayatollah Hadi Al Mudarassi – an Iraqi Shi’a cleric living in Iran – recently described Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Issa Al Khalifa as an apostate “kafir” and called for his assassination.

It may well be the case that members of the Shi’a community in Bahrain feel that they do not have a say in how the country is run which is proportional to their numbers in the population. It may well also be the case that the economic and other benefits the government is distributing do not always reach Shi’a citizens in a manner which they regard as equitable. The Bahraini government would be well advised to address these concerns.

There may not be much of a connection between these concerns and the violent demonstrations against the Bahraini royal family, though. An analysis of the leadership of the protest movement and the organizational affiliation of many of the protesters would show that they are uncomfortably close to Iran and its hegemonic regional ambitions. Not every last protester against the Bahraini regime is an Iranian agent, of course, but we cannot say that about the leadership and organizers of the protest movement.

As the United States and other Western countries pressure the Bahraini government to introduce measures of economic and political reform, they should be mindful of the immediate alternative to the current regime in Bahrain: if the royal family leaves and the anti-government protesters win, Bahrain would become and Iranian outpost.

Western countries may be disposed toward supporting protest movements, especially if these movements cleverly and cynically use the right terminology and confess fealty to the right values, but we should go beyond surface appearances and look deeper. Should the Bahraini government consider some political and economic reforms? The answer is probably “yes.” As we apply pressure to the Royal family to reform, however, we should be careful not to throw out the baby with the bath water.

Ben Frankel is editor of the Homeland Security NewsWire