Al Wefaq
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Al Wefaq National Islamic Society (Arabic: جمعية الوفاق الوطني الإسلامية; transliterated: Jam'iyat al-Wifaq al-Watany al-Islamiyah) is Bahrain's largest political party with seventeen MPs elected in 2006's parliamentary election.
Al Wefaq's political orientation is Shia Islamist and is led by a cleric, Sheikh Ali Salman. It bases its appeal on the provision of social services and mosque outreach programmes, campaigns on so-called 'morality issues', and supporting to the direction of King Hamad's political reforms. The party is close to a Shia clerical body in Bahrain, the Islamic Scholars Council, which describes Al Wefaq as the 'Bloc of Believers'[1]. The party has 1,500 active members[2].
In 2006's election it received the backing of the Islamic Scholars Council and Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani, which helped it win all but one of the eighteen seats it contested. It is currently looking to form alliances with other parties that will allow it to build a majority in Bahrain's forty seat lower chamber, the Chamber of Deputies.
Many of Al Wefaq's leaders returned to Bahrain under the reform process initiated by King Hamad when he took over and amnestied all those victims of the 1990s government violence. Its leadership backed King Hamad's National Charter for political reforms after the King assured the country's leading opposition clerics, through a signed statement, that only the elected chamber of parliament would have legislative power, as stipulated by the 1973 Constitution. However the Al Wefaq leadership withdrew support when the ruling regime later announced the 2002 Constitution which mandated a chamber, appointed directly by the King, that would share legislative power with the elected chamber. Al Wefaq boycotted the 2002 parliamentary election, with three other political societies: the former Maoist National Democratic Action Society, the pro-Saddam Hussein Baath affiliated Nationalist Democratic Rally Society and Islamic Action Society. However Al-Wefaq did put forward candidates for the municipal elections that same year - giving an indication of the type of policies that Al Wefaq MPs will pursue when they enter parliament in this year's elections after the party announced that it was ending its election boycott.
Recent political campaigns by Al Wefaq's leaders include the forced segregation of men and women at Bahrain University (where the party is represented on the student union) and other so-called 'morality issues', such as underwear hanging on clothes lines and the display of lingerie mannequins. Al Wefaq councillors in Muharraq are also backing changes to the building regulations pushed by salafist party Asalah that would see new apartments fitted with one way windows to prevent residents seeing out. Other prominent Al Wefaq leaders include the head of Manama City Council, Murtada Bader, and Muharraq Councillor, Majeed Karimi, who came to prominence leading the party's campaign against lingerie mannequins in shop windows.
The party's policies on race came under scrutiny when its most senior elected leader, Manama Council head, Murthader Bader, called for the introduction of racial segregation in the city with the removal of South Asian nationals from the city to other parts of the country. Racial segregation it was argued would address tensions between locals and third world expatriates that saw race riots against immigrants in March 2004. In 2006, the call was reiterated by Manama councillor Sadiq Rahma who said that Asian labourers 'make the neighbourhood dirty'. The move has been slammed by Bahraini human rights groups as a 'a violation of basic human rights'.
Like religious parties across the world, Al Wefaq has had to address the relationship between spiritual and secular authority. On the contentious issue of reform of Bahrain’s family laws, Al Wefaq stated in October 2005 that neither elected MPs nor the government has the authority to change the law because these institutions could 'misinterpret the word of God'. Instead, Al Wefaq has insisted that the right to legislate on issues related to women and families is solely that of religious leaders. The demand represents a reversal of Al Wefaq's reasoning behind the boycott of 2002's general election which was on the grounds that only elected MPs in the Chamber of Deputies should have the authority to pass legislation.
In a show of strength against a demonstration by women's rights activists, on 9 November 2005 Al Wefaq jointly organised with clerics a much larger counter demonstration against the Supreme Council for Women's (secular women organization) campaign for the introduction of a personal status law (see Gulf Daily News for details).
[edit] 2006 elections
- See also: Bahraini parliamentary election, 2006
Al Wefaq announced that it would reverse its elections boycott and participate in the 2006 general election. The party hopes to win 12-14 seats in the poll to take place in November 2006. The party has denied that it will not field any women candidates, dismissing the allegations as 'pure speculation'. Along with salafists, such as Ali Mattar, the party objects to the government's ban on candidates using religious sermons to promote their election campaigns. Al Wefaq parliamentary hopeful, Jassem Al Khayat has commented: "The ban is senseless because the mosque, as an integral part of people's daily lives, has always been close to the political scene."[3]
Both radical Shia and Sunni Islamists were unhappy that Al Wefaq announced it would participate in 2006's parliamentary election. Salafist MP Jassim Al Saeedi campaigned to get the party banned from standing in the poll on the grounds that the party did not recognise the 2002 Constitution. When his demands were rejected by the government, Mr Saeedi accused the Minister of Justice, Dr Mohammed Al Sitri, of being the party's 'front man' and acting as their 'lawyer'. Mr Saeedi told Dr Al Sitri during a session of parliament: "It seems they chose you to be there front man, because you are defending them well." [4]
Al Wefaq today has 17 out 40 parliment members which makes it the strongest political movement in Bahrain.
