DURING the Iranian Rāfiḍī Shia revolution (the one praised and lauded Abū Aʿlā Mawdūdi, the Taḥrīris, and other misguided innovators) numerous parties were established external (to Iran), following the Iranian program and structure with the aim of widening the implementation of Iranian penetration through the Shia present in various regions.

In Baḥrain, Hādī al-Madrasī formed the Islamic Front for Liberation of Baḥrain (al-Jabhah al-Islāmiyyah li Taḥrir al-Baḥrain), through the backing of Tehran. At the beginning it set out its objectives as follows:

a) Bringing down and abolishing the rule of Āl Khalīfah,

b) Establish the Shia organizational structure in concordance with the revolutionary political structure of al-Khomeini in Iran and

c) Making the country independent of the Gulf Cooperation Council, and tying it instead to the Iranian Republic.

This (Shia) Islamic Front would issue and distribute Iranian magazines such as al-Shiʿāb al-Thā’ir, and al-Thawrah wal-Risālah, and the person responsible for all information and notification matters was ʿĪsā Marhūn. At the end of 1979 the Shia of Baḥrain through the planning of the (Shia) Islamic Front began to organize demonstrations, and these were co-ordinated with the demonstrations of the Shia in Saudi Arabia in al-Qaṭīf.

In the tensions that followed, the Rāfiḍīs killed one of the leaders of the Baḥraini intelligence and as a result the government clamped down and imprisoned numerous members of the Front. This led to the Front ceasing these demonstrations but they continued to plot their attempts at revolution. They began to traffic weapons to Baḥrain and in 1981, under the leadership of Muḥammad Taqī al-Madrasī, they attempted a revolution against the government. However, it was foiled and the government arrested 73 individuals suspected of involvement or supporting the perpetrators. In the mid-80s, after meetings with Iranian intelligence, the (Shia) Islamic Front, it was agreed that a military wing should be established for the Front with the name Hizbollah Baḥrain.

Muḥammad ʿAlī Maḥfudh, the overall leader of the Islamic Front, was tasked with recruiting 3000 Baḥraini Shia into Hizbollah Baḥrain and to train them in Iran and Lebanon. The leader of this new party was ʿAbd al-Amīr al-Jamārī, and he was succeeded by ʿAlī Salmān.

Hādee al-Madrasī, the spokesman for the (Shia) Islamic Front was the overall director for this party, giving it tactical support, and Muḥammad Taqi al-Madrasī gave logistical support to the party. With the new party in place, it embarked upon organized and arranged plans to stir up tribulations and revolutions in the country and to wrestle control of certain regions and important facilities.

The primary objective behind these activities for Hizbollah Baḥrain was to implement a coup against the ruling authority and to install a structure in agreement with and allied to the Ṣafawi Shia system in Iran.^[1] These objectives were not hidden, Ayatollah Rūḥāni stated, “Baḥrain follows Iran, and it is a part of the Iranian Islamic Republic”,^[2] and he means here the Shia population of Baḥrain.

In 1994 Hizbollah Baḥrain started off more demonstrations, revolts and subversive activities, and they employed different names and labels such as “Organization for Direct Action” and “Movement for Liberating Baḥrain” and “Organization of the Stolen Baḥrain”, yet all of these were but Hizbollah Baḥrain.

They would also print and distribute monthly newsletters in London such as “Ṣawt al-Baḥrain (the Voice of Baḥrain)” in which their goals and agendas would be explained. They would also receive financial support from foreign agencies (or governments). Key names of this group “Movement for Liberating Baḥrain” were Saʿīd al-Hishābī, Majid al-ʿAlawi and Manṣūr al-Jamarī.

In 1996 there were more terrible events, all organized and planned in Iran and implemented in Baḥrain. Over a few weeks in March of that year, and over the next few months they commenced a series of activities including burning down shops, cars, and destroying large business and trade centres, and likewise a number of hotels and schools, and they also attacked electricity and telephone lines in the streets and exactly what crimes were committed by electricity and telephone lines against these Shia is not yet known.

They also burned a branch of the Islamic Bank of Baḥrain, and the National Bank of Baḥrain. All of these activities were goaded on by the Iranian media outlets which were inviting to obstinacy and civil disobedience against the Baḥraini state and nation because the request of the Shia were not being met and what they actually meant by “requests of the Shia” was to abolish the ruling authority and replace it with a Ṣafawī Shia nation upon the model of Iran.

The Kuwaiti newspaper, al-Anbā al-Kuwaitiyyah announced in its 10th June 1996 edition that “Hizbollah al-Kuwaiti had been purchasing weapons which were left behind by the Iraqi army in Kuwait and were trafficking them to Hizbollah al-Baḥraini” and the report also explained that these orders had come from Iran to Hizbollah Kuwait to traffick these weapons to Baḥrain without ever being discovered.

This was admitted by Ahmad Kādhim al-Mitqawi, one of the leaders of Hizbollah al-Baḥraini, and this was widely reported in the Baḥraini and Arabia news and media outlets, he stated that in collaboration with Iranian intelligence, weapons were trafficked to Baḥrain on sea.

This was also acknowledged by Jāsim Hasan al-Khayāt, who also explained that the end-goal behind all of this was to implement a coup and replace the government militarily and to establish a Shia government loyal to Iran. Shia clerics such as Abbās ʿAlī Aḥmad al-Hubail also agitated the people against the state in sermons. Likewise, ʿAbd al-Wahhāb Ḥusayn, who played a major role in this party, he would give lessons instructing the party how to deal with the Baḥraini security forces and how to organize social upheaval against the state.

These goals and plans have not ceased till this day, and there is collaboration and support from other proxies of Iran, such as Hizbollah Lebanon, for the Baḥraini Hizbollah, and they continue to work socially, economically, politically and militarily against the Baḥraini government with a view to replacing it with a Ṣafawi Shia government loyal to and essentially run by the Rāfiḍah of Iran.

Footnotes