Bahrain Freedom Movement
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Bahrain Freedom Movement (or Islamic Bahrain Freedom Movement Arabic: حركة أحرار البحرين الإسلامية) is a London based Bahraini Islamist opposition group which has its headquarters in a north London mosque. Its main mouthpiece is the Voice of Bahrain website which was blocked for several years by Batelco, Bahrain's sole Internet service provider, on orders from the Ministry of Information.
The Bahrain Freedom Movement operates with two names: a secular name in English but a name which reflects its Islamist roots in Arabic: Harakit Ahraar Al Bahrin Al Islameya.
The BFM played a leading role in the 1990s Uprising in Bahrain.
It is led by Dr Said Shehabi, who was formerly a member of Bahrain’s main Shi'a Islamist party, Al Wefaq Islamic National Society but resigned along with several other members in September 2005 after it made the decision to end its boycott on parliamentary elections. Dr 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 the Kingdom to participate in the political process, and leading members returned to their homeland: Dr Mansoor Al-Jamri to set up and edit a new independent newspaper, Al Wasat, and Dr Majeed Al Alawi to become Assistant Secretary General for the Bahrain Centre for Studies and Research, a Bahraini government think tank, and later to join the government in the post of Labour Minister.
Although all of its members have received political amnesties and most have returned to Bahrain to participate in the political process, several remain in London where they hold the status of asylum seekers.
