A policeman tried to put out fires set by protesters in Budaiya, west of Manama, on Sunday. Hamad I Mohammed/Reuters
Bahrain F1 Race: How A Sunni Backlash Kept An Uprising At Bay -- Christian Science Monitor
The Formula One race in Bahrain today has put the spotlight back on an uprising here that has faltered due to sectarian distrust.
Yaqoub al-Slaise, a young Sunni activist and assistant researcher at Bahrain University, remembers the exact moment when he decided to oppose Bahrain's uprising – once again in the spotlight with today's Formula One race here.
The country's mainly Shiite protesters, who had initially demanded only reform of the Sunni-run government, had shifted to a much bolder call after the regime began to crack down in March 2011. "The people want the fall of the regime," they shouted.
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My Comment: The Sunni population in Bahrain are looking at Iraq and Iran and are seeing for themselves on how the Sunni population are being marginalized and shut out by the Shiite majority .... I guess they do not want that experience to happen to them. On the flip side ..... the Shiite Allawite sect of Syria do not want to be marginalized in a Sunni government .... hence Bashir Assad and his Shiite dominated government are also determined to keep their power.
The old religious animosities between Sunnis and Shiites are now rearing their ugly head.