As international car racing teams finish up their final practice laps ahead of Bahrain’s Formula 1 Grand Prix tomorrow anti-government groups are preparing for their own big day in the international spotlight. For the past week opposition groups have been mounting demonstrations across Bahrain, hoping to draw attention to their demands for a greater political role in national politics. On Friday, tens of thousands gathered in the capital, Manama, for a protest that quickly turned violent. The chanting crowds were swathed in tear gas as police sought to contain the angry demonstrators. Opposition groups say that one man was shot dead with live fire Friday night. Nevertheless, the protesters returned in force on Saturday, even as armored vehicles patrolled the streets of the capital in an attempt to silence the dissent. Bahrain’s Shia majority has long claimed that it faces discrimination at the hands of the Sunni monarchy. Those grievances took new form in February 2011, when the Arab Spring swept through the tiny island nation, launching a widespread protest movement. The subsequent crackdown has seen more than 50 killed and several hundred detained and jailed. That year the Grand Prix was cancelled over security concerns. Opposition groups were hoping to force another cancellation this year, but the monarchy, desperate to demonstrate that some degree of normalcy has returned to the country after a year of upheaval, pushed ahead. Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al-Khalifa, who brought the Formula 1 to Bahrain in 2004, told reporters on Friday that canceling the race would play into extremists’ hands, according to the state-run Bahrain News Agency. “The Formula 1 race allows us to build bridges between communities, get people working together,” he said. “It allows us to celebrate our nation as an idea that is positive, not one that is divisive.” The debate over whether or not to hold the race this year focused largely on the safety issue, with several teams expressing concerns that they might be attacked for participating. Two members of the Force India team went home after protesters![]()
