The sewing machines have been furiously churning out red and white Bahraini flags at a basement workshop in downtown Baghdad, and Iraqi customers are snapping them up to wave at protests, unfurl from buildings and fly from car antennas. The fervour is testimony to the solidarity Iraqi Shias feel with their religious brethren in Bahrain battling for more rights.
It is also a sign of how the crushing of the Bahraini Shia protests by the island nation’s Sunni monarchy, with the help of Saudi Arabia and other Gulf allies, hikes up sectarian tensions around the region. Hundreds of Iraqis have taken to the streets in demonstrations against Bahrain’s ruling elite and Saudi Arabia. Politicians railed against Bahrain in parliament. Iraq’s Shia prime minister, who’s been largely silent on most of the turmoil in the Middle East, said Bahrain’s actions were threatening to inflame sectarian violence.
The Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani – revered by many Shias both inside and outside of Iraq – has called on the Bahrain government to cease the crackdown.