Manama: For hours, the social media in the Arab world, usually greatly diversified in its approaches and themes, had only one issue: the killing of more than 50 people in separate terror attacks in Kuwait and Tunisia on Friday.
While some media attempted to report the news that shook the two countries and their neighbours to the core, other were working on making the news through disseminating details or statements that could be neither confirmed nor supported.
However, all the news, genuine and fake gradually melted into impressive messages of sympathy with the families of the victims and of condemnation of the blast perpetrators.
However, while the Tunisian attack and its 37 deaths drew comments on how one of the most peaceful counties in the Arab world was being struck by deadly blasts and how the act of terror would hit tourism, a major pillar of the local economy, the attack in Kuwait quickly waded into the issue of sectarianism and focused on the ominously online growing divide between Sunnis and Shiites.
Bahrain’s Foreign Minister Shaikh Khalid Bin Ahmad Al Khalifa did warn against the long evil arm of sectarianism and called for common mosques and common prayers that would defeat sectarianism and would discourage suicide bombers.
However, his tweets triggered support and rejection in equal measures. The task of bringing together Sunnis and Shiites closer looked formidable, particularly on social media where antagonism has seemingly become the rule, rather than the exception.
“I was surfing through the Net when I saw how the messages of sympathy and compassion were turning into bitter comments, then questions, doubts and eventually and invariably into insults,” Ahmad Al Ansari, a Bahraini blogger, said. “The Shiites complained they were being regularly targeted by Sunni extremists who enjoyed tremendous financial and logistical support, while the Sunnis accused Shiites of hypocrisy by their refusal to condemn attacks on Sunnis in Iraq and Syria and pushing for secession with support from Iran,” he said.
Samer, another Bahraini, said that the sectarian divide has been exploited by politicians and religious figures who use sectarianism to their advantage.
“It is really sad because when I grew up, we never used the terms Sunni or Shiite,” he said. “But now, these two words bombard you wherever you go, never allowing you to have a true peace of mind. You try to shrug them off, but the television channels and especially the online media and, more ominously the group messages you get on your smartphone do not leave you in peace. These are powerful tools that we thought would make our lives easier, but unfortunately, and because of the meddling of toxic sectarian minds, we have to suffer, and sometimes to become the victims of deadly terror attacks,” he said.
For Bahraini citizen Esmail Khalid, sectarianism is a ‘new invention’ that is alien to him. “We should unite to defeat this, despite its prevalence on social media,” he said.
Dubai-based Hiba Mahmood said sectarianism has rippled across the Gulf and that the now regular antagonistic standoffs between members of the two communities needed to be seriously addressed.
“People are simply not ready for democracy and civil debate,” she said. “Most people do not know what democracy is and simply do not practice or believe in it. The West may boast about it and want to apply it in the Arab world, but it is not a product you import. Like charity, it begins at home and it should start at an early age. A father who beats his young son and does not sit with him to discuss issues, cannot believe in democratic principles or in living peacefully with communities that are different from his own,” she said.
Society should teach children the importance of tolerance, she said. “We need a strong leader who imposes the virtues of mutual respect on society and punishes those who violate those virtues,” she said.
