The Bahrain Freedom Movement ( ar, حركة أحرار البحرين الإسلامية, Harakat Ahrar al-Bahrayn) is a London-based

Bahrain Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and an ...

i opposition group which has its headquarters in a north London mosque. Its main medium is the Voice of Bahrain website which was blocked for several years by

Batelco BTC is the primary telecommunications provider for the Bahamas, headquartered in Nassau, New Providence. It is partly government owned and offers telephone, internet and wireless services. BTC is an initialism for the Bahamas Telecommunications ...

, Bahrain's sole

Internet service provider An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise private ...

, on orders from the Ministry of Information. The BFM played a leading role in the 1990s uprising in Bahrain. It is led by Said Al Shehabi, who was formerly a member of Bahrain's main

Shi'a Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest Islamic schools and branches, branch of Islam. It holds that the Prophets and messengers in Islam, Islamic prophet Muhammad in Islam, Muhammad designated Ali, ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his S ...

Islamist party, Al Wefaq Islamic National Society but resigned along with several other members in September 2005 after it ended its boycott of parliamentary elections. Shehabi is a columnist with the London-based Arab newspaper, '' Al Quds Al Arabi''. The Bahrain government's political reforms in 2001 saw two of the BFM's most prominent leaders leave the movement. Under the reforms, all exiles were invited to return to Bahrain to participate in the political process, and leading members returned to their homeland. Although all of its members have received political amnesties and most have returned to Bahrain to participate in the political process, several have remained in London where they hold the status of asylum seekers. On March 7, 2011, Al Shehabi alongside

Hasan Mushaima Hasan Mushaima ( ar, حسن مشيمع) is an opposition leader in Bahrain and the secretary-general of the Haq Movement, an important opposition party in Bahrain. Before forming Haq, he was a founding member of Al Wefaq and a leading figure in t ...

, the leader of the

Haq movement The Haq Movement for Liberty and Democracy ( ar, حركة حق حركة الحريات والديمقراطية) is an opposition political organization in Bahrain founded in November 2005 with Hasan Mushaima as its secretary general. Several of ...

and

Abdulwahab Hussain Abdulwahab Hussain Ali Ahmed Esmael ( ar, عبدالوهاب حسين علي أحمد إسماعيل) is a Bahraini political activist,Bahraini uprising of 2011 The 2011 Bahraini uprising was a series of anti-government protests in Bahrain led by the Shia-dominant and some Sunni minority Bahraini opposition from 2011 until 2014. The protests were inspired by the unrest of the 2011 Arab Spring and prot ...

External links

Video: Bahrain – The Story of Constitutional Uprising

Carlton TV documentary about Bahrain Uprising

Channel 4 video of Bahrain Uprising

References

Bahraini uprising of 2011 Islamic organisations based in the United Kingdom Islamist groups National liberation movements Political parties in Bahrain Republicanism in Bahrain 1982 establishments in the United Kingdom Political parties established in 1982 Organizations of the Arab Spring Political opposition organizations Organizations designated as terrorist by Bahrain {{Bahrain-stub

See also

External links

References