Al Muntada
Al Muntada (or The Forum) is a Bahrain society set up by academics, journalists and businessmen to promote liberalism in the Kingdom. It was established in 2001 to provide a place for liberals to debate how they could meet the challenge of religious extremist domination of political life, which has been a consequence of Bahrain's democratization process; Shia and Sunni extremists have been the best organized and most popular political parties and have quickly filled the new political space opened by reforms. Al Muntada has since met monthly to debate the most recent political issues. It is chaired by Adel Fakhro, the vice chairman is Gulf News columnist and South Asian specialist, Dr Abdullah Al Madani, and other leading members include journalist Sawsan Al Sha’er and Dr Ahmad Juma, the head of Al Meethaq. The major challenge facing Bahraini liberals is their small number, while Islamist parties such as Asalah and Al Wefaq are mass organisations. Al Muntada does not pretend to have the same scale of support, but has sought to hold meetings to address issues of interest to a growing portion of the population. Because of the number of liberals, the group has not sought to become another