THE KEY ISSUE:

Bahrain Experiments with Democracy (Der Spiegel, 12/04/06)

Bahrain's king, Hamad bin Issa al-Khalifa, rules the tiny country at the heart of this tug-of-war. The burgeoning U.S. naval base located between the major mosque and the port of Manama only compounds matters.

"This base is an insult to the people of Bahrain," says Mohammed Khalid. "The 5th Fleet is part of the American occupation of the Middle East." Khalid is no terrorist spewing venom from an underground cave: He is one of 40 delegates in the freely elected parliament of Bahrain, one of the liveliest such assemblies in the Arab world.

In the summer of 2006, five years after 9/11, the delegates debated a new antiterror law. Khalid was so incensed that he stopped in the torrid heat on the way back to his office and vented his rage: "What is an anti-terror law supposed to achieve? There is no terrorism in Bahrain. We don't need a law. The United States is the center of terrorism on this earth. The American president should be indicted."

If only the way of the world were so simple. Khalid's opinion is just one of many in Bahrain's national assembly. Broadcast live on television, the parliamentary debates are tolerably free of royal interference.

Sheikh Adil al-Mauda, Khalid's colleague and a fellow Sunni Islamist, takes a more differentiated line on the Americans. "I hate almost everything they do; I curse them," he says. "But we have had good relations with them for many years. They used to protect us from the communists and Iran. We are members of an alliance with them and our Arab neighbors. Throw out the Americans? That's out of the question."

Sheikh Mauda is the leader of the Salafi parliamentary party - a radical faction. He can talk forever about the three Bahrainis who are still imprisoned at Guantanamo. Two lawyers from New York, of all places, are defending the three men, working pro bono at that. This turn of events has changed his world view, at least marginally. "Ultimately, I feel sorry for the Americans. Perhaps the Almighty will bless them with a decent president one day."

The delegate Jassim Abd al-Al, an independent Shiite, has an entirely different problem with the American presence in Bahrain. The head of a major auditing firm, he was puzzled that the rental payments for the 5th Fleet's headquarters were not listed in the country's budget. He submitted a request for information, and the government responded by publishing the figure - which seemed suspiciously low to Abd al-Al. A mere $6 million a year for the gigantic base, a kilometer-long pier in the port of Manama, and use of the military airport? "I checked the figures and here's the thing: they are low, but they are correct." One skirmish won in the campaign to establish parliamentary democracy.

Emir Hamad came to power in 1999. His father, who had governed the country since the 1960s, had modernized the national economy but shied away from political openness. The son proved more courageous. Shortly after taking office, he released all political prisoners, approved the return of the exiled Shiite opposition and introduced women's suffrage. Amnesty International, which for years had condemned Bahrain for sanctioning torture, spoke of a "truly historic period for human rights."

This all happened in the spring of 2001, just months before September 11. In February 2002, Hamad had himself proclaimed king of a constitutional monarchy and called for parliamentary elections. The U.S. operation in Afghanistan and the looming invasion of Iraq provided the backdrop to a heated political campaign. One man died in demonstrations outside the U.S. Embassy, and graffiti began appearing, similar to that prevalent in Iraq: "The American haircut is the root of all corruption."

When it took its first steps toward democracy, Bahrain suffered the same fate as other states in the years to follow - including Palestine, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The Islamists won a landslide victory; it required some gerrymandering to deny the radicals an absolute majority.

Although women were officially allowed to run, none won seats in parliament. The king took remedial action, appointing six women to the Shura, the nonelected upper house of parliament. His selection included a Christian woman and a Jewish man.

The real headlines, however, are consistently made in the lower house, with its debates about so-called moral issues. Such as whether undergarments should be dried in public view, or whether women should be allowed to drive cars - even wearing full facial veils.

Prostitution and the sale of alcohol also spark controversy, for Bahrain is a notorious paradise for johns and drunkards. In July 2006, the Saudi police arrested an 80year-old man who was carting several bottles of whisky back across the causeway from Bahrain. The man claimed he was an alcoholic and that his sole pleasure in life was to tend to his camels in a state of inebriation. The authorities in Saudi Arabia sentenced the elderly man to 300 lashes and six months in prison. Some lawmakers in Manama are demanding similar treatment for Bahrain's alcoholics.

A strong, sovereign parliament is still a long way off. But serious debates, such as those about the right to demonstrate and the ratification of the International Human Rights charter, have made an impact. As recently as 2002, Sheikh Ali Salman - the young leader of Bahrain's largest Shiite group - refused to participate in elections. His world view has since changed - more fundamentally, in fact, than the position taken by Sheikh Mauda, his counterpart among the radical Sunnis. Sheikh Salman's group will be running in this fall's elections. He is virtually assured of a seat in the new parliament.

On the subject of America, he voices opinions that few Shiite leaders have championed to date: "America is important for democracy," he says. While, he points out, nobody likes foreign troops in their country, the liberation of Iraq has provided an important lesson. Like many other prominent Shiites, he went on a pilgrimage to Najaf after the war - to meet Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the spiritual leader of today's Shiites. "We should deal with the Americans the way Sistani does," says Salman. "Politically, that is."

Before the Iraq war, Salman organized anti-American demonstrations. But afterward he invited representatives of the National Democratic Institute to give lectures. The NDI is a U.S. organization that promotes citizen participation around the globe. The Sunnis were up in arms about this collaboration with the Americans. The government closed the NDI office in Manama, but the ball had already begun to roll. "The focus is no longer on our differences of opinion with the Americans," says Sheikh Salman. "Palestine will always be a source of controversy. But the key issue at stake here in Bahrain is democracy."