By JIM KRANE
The Associated Press
Sunday, November 26, 2006; 11:36 AM
According
to the word of the Lord it is coming to pass – that Radical Islam has embraced
Democracy seeing that this is a means to get what they could not have gotten
under dictatorships. By our having taken out these dictators we have
strengthened Radical Islam and moved up the timetable for their rise to
power.
And once they are duly elected governments how then shall we oppose them?
MANAMA, Bahrain -- Islamist
candidates swept to victory in Bahrain's parliamentary election, splitting the
vote between hardline Shiite and Sunni Muslims while female and liberal
candidates fared poorly in the U.S.-allied kingdom, preliminary results showed
Sunday.
With several races headed for runoffs,
Saturday's vote appeared to reinforce the sectarian divide between the Persian
Gulf island's governing Sunni minority and the underprivileged Shiites who make
up two-thirds of its 700,000 people.
The results also underlined a deepening social and
religious conservatism in Bahrain, which has been among the most liberal of
Arab states in the region and is host to the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet. (We are going to be cast out
of that nation when it fully flips – probably in the next election cycle.)
Of
18 women running, only one won outright _ Latifa al-Gaoud, who was unopposed in
her district. Another, Munira Fakhro, advanced to a runoff next Saturday but
faces a tough race against Salah Ali of the pro-government Muslim Brotherhood,
a hardline Sunni group.
No secular liberal candidates won seats outright. At least
four were headed for tough second-round battles with Islamic hard-liners.
The
runoffs will decide whether parliament's 40-member elected chamber is dominated
by pro-government Sunnis or an opposition alliance of Shiites and liberals. The
latter would likely press for broad reforms to Bahrain's limited democracy,
under which the ruling Khalifa family controls most levers of power.
The religious
sweep in Bahrain mirrored results of elections in Iraq, Egypt and Palestinian
territories, where Muslim hard-liners have made inroads. The vote was watched closely by
neighboring Arab countries planning similar steps toward democracy or dealing
with their own Shiite populations clamoring for power.
"It
looks like our parliament will be dominated by people who see themselves only as
Sunnis or Shiites," said Fowad Shihab, a political science professor at
Bahrain University. "These are the same Islamists that are gaining control across
the Arab world."
The
Shiite al-Wefaq movement, which boycotted Bahrain's 2002 election, emerged with
16 seats, the best showing of any party.
"The
people trusted us and we did well," said al-Wefaq leader Sheik Ali Salman,
a Shiite cleric in a rolled white turban and black cloak.
Analysts
expect al-Wefaq to throw their runoff support to liberals, most of whom face
Sunni opponents from the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafist movement.
The
election, Bahrain's third parliamentary vote, captivated the nation with a
rowdy, sometimes dirty campaign featuring nightly rallies in hundreds of tents
scattered across the island's dusty neighborhoods.
Saturday
brought a huge but orderly turnout. The government said 72 percent of the
300,000 eligible voters cast ballots.
Among
Bahrain's neighbors, Kuwait allowed women to vote and run for office for the
first time in elections held in June. No female candidates won, but a woman was
given a Cabinet post.
Qatar and Oman have held low-level elections and
the United Arab Emirates has announced similar plans. Saudi Arabia held
municipal elections but, alone among Middle East nations, barred women's
participation either as voters or candidates.