Saturday, May 31

"Bahrain names Jewish ambassador, Bahrain's king has appointed a Jewish woman as the country's envoy to the United States," BBC News, May 29, 2008

From: Edward C. Corrigan

Here is an interesting news item that flies in the face of the image of the Arab World that is being portrayed in the North American media. It will be interesting to see how many North American newspapers report on this story.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7426806.stm


Bahrain names Jewish ambassador

Bahrain's king has appointed a Jewish woman as the country's envoy to the United States.

Houda Nonoo said she was proud to serve her country "first of all as a Bahraini" and that she was not chosen for the post because of her religion.

She is believed to be the Arab world's first Jewish ambassador.

Ms Nonoo, 43, has served as a legislator in Bahrain's 40-member Shura Council for three years and is head of the Bahrain Human Rights Watch.

"It is a great honour to have been appointed as the first female ambassador to the United States of America and I am looking forward to meeting this new challenge," Ms Nonoo told the Associated Press news agency.

Her family is originally from Iraq, having moved to Bahrain over a century ago.

Bahrain has one of the world's oldest and smallest Jewish communities. It was, at one time, home to as many as 1,500 Jews. Today the community has a synagogue and numbers around 50 people.

Bahrain is a close US ally but has no diplomatic relations with Israel.

It has a Shia Muslim majority, roughly 65% of the population, but the ruling elite is Sunni.

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