Bahraini Shi'ites complain over settling Sunnis

By Andrew Hammond

DUBAI (Reuters) - Majority Shi'ite Muslims in the Gulf Arab state of Bahrain, home to a U.S. navy base, are increasingly agitated over what they say are government efforts to give Sunni foreigners nationality to dilute Shi'ite numbers.

Bahrain is ruled by a Sunni family and its fragile sectarian balance concerns neighbouring Saudi Arabia, the largest Sunni Gulf Arab country which fears the growing influence of Shi'ite Iran in the region.

Six political groups -- two overtly Shi'ite -- presented a petition to Bahrain's royal court last month over naturalisation that analysts say heightens competition for jobs and benefits.

"The naturalisation is a social problem -- it creates friction and destroys the fabric of the society," said Ebraheem Shareef of the National Democratic Action Society (Waad).

The petition, rejected on the grounds that parliament should deal with such protests, asks for a freeze to all naturalisation until there is national consensus on the issue.

Officially, 5,000 citizens received nationality in the five years to 2008. Bahrain's total population is around 1.2 million.

But the petitioners say the figures don't add up and suspect the real number is 60,000.

They say that the official population growth rate of 2.4 percent does not make sense if there were 406,000 Bahrainis in April 2001 and 529,000 in September 2007, according to official figures. The gap, they argue, is made up by settling Sunnis.