The Religious Policeman

...which is what some of us call Bahrain. It's at the end of a 15 kilometer causeway, 400 kilometers from Riyadh, and many of us go there for the weekend, to have some fun by the seaside. There are bars and restaurants serving alcohol, women don't wear veils, drive themselves, and even stand for the elected parliament. You get the picture. Normality. Like the rest of the world.

Sadly, however, the Religious Policeman mentality ("I'm holier than thou so I'm going to tell you what you can or cannot do, for the good of your soul") is rearing its ugly head in Bahrain.

Islamists threaten Bahrain diners

More than 100 Islamists have invaded a restaurant in Bahrain and threatened diners with knives, say witnesses.
The youths stormed La Terrasse restaurant near the capital, Manama, on Wednesday night because it was serving alcohol, the owner said.
...The owner of La Terrasse, Jahanshah Bakhtiar, told the Reuters news agency that there were about 40 customers in the restaurant at the time of the attack, including seven Westerners.
He said: "About 100 young men, shouting 'God is great', came to the restaurant carrying knives and shouted at the customers, 'Why do you drink?'"

The diners were mostly Gulf Arabs, including Saudis. It must have been very scary, once they realised it wasn't the cabaret. Let's hope it was a one-off.