Gulf Countries Arrest Shiite ‘Traitors’ Amid War With Iran

In Kuwait, officials arrested six people who they said were plotting to assassinate the country’s leaders. In the United Arab Emirates, the authorities accused 27 men of belonging to a secretive terrorist organization. And in Bahrain, the government has stripped dozens of their citizenship.

The allegations may be different, and in many cases vague, but all these men have one thing in common: They are Shiites, members of one of two major branches of Islam, according to their governments and human rights activists.

After the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran began on Feb. 28, Iran retaliated by launching thousands of attacks at Gulf states that host U.S. military bases. Some of those countries have since arrested dozens of Shiite citizens, calling them traitors loyal to Shiite-led Iran.

Scholars and rights activists say there has been a surge in nationalist rhetoric in the region that has echoes of past eras when sectarianism was more widespread. It also underlines the ways that the war has accelerated a shift toward deeper authoritarianism in several of the Gulf monarchies.

“It is understandable that at times of war, nationalism increases, but this is a form of rabid nationalism that is exclusionary and subjugates a significant minority of citizens who have complained for years about discrimination,” said Ala’a Shehabi, a Bahraini academic and pro-democracy activist.

Gulf governments typically reveal little information about cases related to terrorism and national security. Such trials are rarely open to journalists, and counterterrorism laws are broad enough to encompass political dissent. That makes it difficult to determine the details of the accusations levied against the men who were arrested, or the veracity of the charges.