http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/16/world/mi...=rssnyt&emc=rss

Stephanie Kuykendal for The New York Times

Shiites last week in Manama, Bahrain, demanded the release of detainees arrested during earlier protests

By HASSAN M. FATTAH
Published: April 16, 2006

MANAMA, Bahrain, April 10 — Just minutes after the call went out over chat boards and cellphone text messages late Sunday, a group of young men trickled into a main street in the village of Sitra, about 20 minutes southeast of this city

مجموعة من شبان من قرية سترة

The young men, local residents say, blocked traffic, set fire to tires laid on the street and prepared for the arrival of special security forces — and for a potentially violent confrontation. But by most accounts, the conflict proved tame: some stones were tossed, the police dispersed the crowd and arrested a few young men and the incident was over within half an hour.

In recent months, organized confrontations between Shiite youths and national security forces have become almost weekly events in Bahrain's squalid Shiite townships and villages.

The cycle of confrontation, spawned in December when a Shiite cleric from Bahrain was arrested at the airport, is today the most visible sign of the rising sectarian tensions tugging at this sliver of a nation.

Bahrain, whose population of about 500,000 citizens and 200,000 expatriates, is two-thirds Shiite, faced sectarian strife bordering on civil war a decade ago. Now it is often seen as a bellwether of Sunni-Shiite relations as Shiite influence in the region continues to grow — and with it, fear of Iranian meddling. And increasingly here, tensions are bubbling to the surface.

"We don't like going out and demonstrating and closing off streets," said Ali Hassan Mushaima, 23, a leader of the Unemployed Youth Movement, a group that agitates for labor rights. "But there is no other way to put pressure and get the attention of the government. All we are asking for is that our civil demands be met."

This once sleepy island, long a weekend playground for Saudis, has become one of the most strategically important spots in the Persian Gulf. It is the base for the United States Navy's Fifth Fleet, produces a notable amount of oil and remains a banking hub. Construction projects, the fruits of Bahrain's share of the oil boom, dot its coastline.

Politicians see it differently — as an enclave that mimics the heavily Shiite demographics of Iraq. In recent years this kingdom has made a series of changes to become a constitutional monarchy. But moves intended to give citizens more say in the government faltered, opposition figures say, and sectarian tensions began to grow as Shiites found their hopes of increased clout dashed.

Hard-line Sunnis in Bahrain portray the country as the edge of a so-called Shiite Crescent that is to be controlled by Iran and is threatening to menace the vastly larger predominantly Sunni Arab world. Sunnis and Shiites have no doubt that this small state is heavily affected by what happens in Iraq and Iran.

"It is only natural that we'd be affected by Iraq, but that effect has begun to hurt us," said Jassim Reda, deputy head of the municipality of Manama, the capital, and a Shiite politician. "Whenever things in Iraq go haywire, it reflects here."

When the Askariya Shrine in Iraq, a mosque revered by Shiites, was bombed in February, the protests in Bahrain were the largest in its history, with more than 100,000 demonstrators expressing condemnation, including many Sunnis. When United States-led forces laid siege to Falluja in late 2004, Mr. Reda said, Sunnis in Bahrain also marched in significant numbers to show solidarity with Iraq's Sunnis.

Shiite politicians insist their demands are simple: they want jobs, equal opportunity in the country's institutions and greater representation in government. But to many Sunnis here, such aspirations sound more like threats to take control.

They often see Shiites as inextricably linked to Iran and question their allegiance to Bahrain, pointing to incidents in which demonstrators held up pictures of Iranian leaders and the leaders of the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah. Portraits of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Iran's former supreme leader, and other Iranian clergy hang in many Shiite homes.

Mr. Mushaima's group, meanwhile, has adopted a yellow flag. He says it is merely a coincidence that it resembles Hezbollah's trademark banner, but photographs of Hezbollah leaders hang prominently on the walls in his family home.