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Abdulhadi Khalaf: Bahraini Authorities Revoked My Citizenship, Turned Family House to Heritage Site

2018-07-25 - 8:13 p

Bahrain Mirror: Bahraini dissident Dr. Abdulhadi Khalaf, Sociology teacher at Lund University, said that the Bahraini government turned the home where he was born in Manama to a heritage house to preserve the capital's memory, weeks after revoking his citizenship.

He said in an interview with "Citizen" (Muwaten) online magazine issued in the UK, on Monday (July 23. 2018) that "the paradox is that the Bahrain News Agency's announcement about the withdrawal of my nationality along with 30 other opposition activists occurred weeks before the inauguration of my grandfather's house Haj Mohamed Salman Khalaf (the house where I was born) by the culture minister as a cultural house that keeps Manama city heritage".

He added "after about 4 years, I still don't know the reasons behind my citizenship revocation. I haven't even received any official notice about this news," considering that these are "not actions of legitimate power, but those of fait accompli power that does not adhere to referring to its courts and doesn't rely on laws it established."

"The power has become (King of Bahrain) Hamad to me, a fait accompli authority. It has no legitimacy except what it imposes on me and other citizens by repression," Khalaf went on to say.

He further stated "it is not a personal matter, it is an inevitable conclusion based on evaluation of a series of laws, decisions and actions based on conviction of Hamad that he can dispense whoever he wants of his citizens and replace them with others as he pleases."

"Hamad works on reestablishing Bahrain to become a nation with no identity; a homeland where people only compete to please him," Khalaf continued.

The Bahraini dissident explained that "under the slogan that Bahrain is a society of multi identities, religions and cultures, we see that Bahrain deviated from its history and its culture to abandon its geographical and cultural affiliations. This is witnessed by the normalization steps with the Zionist entity and the funding of the royal court of the participation of a sports team supervised by king's son Nasser bin Hamad in a cycling race in Jerusalem coinciding with the 70th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba."

Arabic Version