Offering the Bahraini nationality to Gulf citizens raises doubt on demographic change
Bahrain, Politics, 6/17/2002

The draft law on granting the Bahraini nationality to citizens from other Arab Gulf states raised protest in the lines of the Shiite who constitute the majority in Bahrain and saw in that a maneuver before the date of the next legislative elections.

The controversy started with the "royal directives" issued by HM the King of the Kingdom of Bahrain, Shaikh Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa to amend the law of nationality in a way that any citizen of a Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member state will not be asked to give up his original nationality in order to get the Bahraini nationality.

As for the authorities in Bahrain, granting dual nationality to citizens of the GCC ( including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman) strengthens ties among the GCC member states through regular process to achieve unity.

Bahrain's ministry of the interior secretary for passport and customs affairs Shaikh Rashed Bin Khalifa Al Khalifa said that "the duality of GCC nationality is but one of the concrete steps towards the optimum goal, which is achieving Gulf unity." Last Friday Sheikh Issa Qasem, the prominent Shiite religious figure and the most influential in the Shiite sect denounced the Bahraini project to offer the Bahraini nationality to the GCC citizens. He saw in that as an attempt to rebalance the demographic balance before the legislative elections which will be held on October 24.

In a sermon he made on Friday at al-Sadeq mosque in al-Darraz village, Sheikh Qasem said that this law is rejected by people because of its direct threat to completely abrogate citizen's position and vision. Meantime, the Bahrain's liberals ( an opposition movement with London as a headquarters ) said in a statement that this "serious decision constitutes a step towards changing the demographic structure fundamentally and quickly. It added that this was issued by "a personal decision by the king without consulting the people and that the people of Bahrain will categorically refuse it." The statement questioned on why the ruler in a hurry to issue such a decision before the elections on October and what sort of demography is that which permits a ruler to issue a decision changing the population composition without asking the people.

Previous Stories:
  Kuwaiti- Bahraini talks   (6/12/2002)
  Bahrain licenses dual nationality with Gulf states   (6/11/2002)
  Bahraini opposition asks for official apology from the US   (5/31/2002)

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