THIS is an open challenge to MP Shaikh Adel Al Mo'awada. Further to my previous open letter to MPs asking them to justify their various attempts to ban things that have until now been legal and tolerated in Bahrain.
So far not a single reply from any MP. No surprise there!
Therefore, I am writing a second open letter, but this time to Mr Al Mo'awada who claims he is prepared to 'accept failure in the economy if alcohol is banned' and that he 'will handle the consequences'.
Sir, what do you mean? Exactly how do you intend to 'handle the consequences' when I doubt you are even prepared to accept reductions in your own (very generous) salary and perks of office as a sign of solidarity with those who suffer (but please tell me if I am wrong).
Mr Al Mo'awada, I personally enjoy alcohol and I don't care what you think of me for doing so, because I do not remember asking you to tell me what to do or what to think, and who or what gives you the right to think otherwise? How does people living their lives as they choose affect you living your life as a Muslim? Are you unable to travel to foreign cities outside the Arab world because people in another room/building/street may be consuming something that you disagree?
If I were to invite you to my home for dinner and offered you wine, and you politely refused due to your faith, I would respect you for it. But, if you then told me that you refused me permission to do so I would consider you rude and unworthy of respect. I would ask that you leave my home and never return.
Mr Al Mo'awada, please do your job as an MP and do not attempt to impose your religious views on the people of Bahrain, which includes me.
Speaking for myself, if you and other intolerant MPs have your way then I will certainly leave Bahrain. Not immediately, as I have family and business interests to consider, but it will be in my mind to go, as it will be of many people. One eminent businessman told me, over a wonderful 12 year old whisky as it happens, that not only would he also begin making plans to withdraw from Bahrain, but that he hoped 'the last expat to leave would remember to turn off the lights'. A joke, but with serious implications for Bahrain as this man is responsible for considerable FDI (foreign direct investment, in case you don't know), and with it many jobs.
Perhaps you may wish good riddance to people with such contrary views to your own, but such a view would be naive in the extreme because Bahrain needs such people more than it needs people such as you. Any fool can call for bans on things, but it takes immense energy, focus, wisdom, and determination, not forgetting capital, to build a successful economy.
Mr Al Mo'awada, I charge you that what you want is not democracy but totalitarianism. If I am wrong then please put me right, because here is your opportunity to address and explain yourself to many thousands of people whose lives you wish to impede, via the forum of the GDN. Please don't hide behind the doors of parliament because I, and thousands of other people of Bahrain, await your kind response.
PS. To those in very senior positions (ie, above these MPs) I say this - if you can't stop these small people from killing the potential success of Bahrain by their dogma, then what exactly are you for?
Dr Fahad Omar
