Karim Miknas from top Bahrain night club Likwid downplayed media reports this week that Americans have been advised to leave the area in advance of an imminent war with Iran, telling Skrufff вЂ?that story was in the local paper today but it’s been completely refuted by both the Bahraini government and the US.’
The story emerged at the beginning of the week on usually reliable Israeli website Debka, who quoted US financial sources in Bahrain as saying American investors in Bahrain were advised to pack up business operations and leave’ by officers with US Central Command 5th Fleet. Karim said expatriates in the region remain aware of regional tensions вЂ?but no one is worried to the point that they’re skipping town.’
“We do hope, however, that the US doesn’t do the wrong thing and attack Iran. The same goes for the British government, it is a good time for everyone to just act responsibly, including the Iranians,” Karim added.
Likwid, a small venue holding just 150 clubbers, has been operating out of Manama’s City Centre Hotel (close to the headquarters of America’s Central Command) for seven years and is Bahrain’s only club to invite international tech, house and electro DJs every week, though Karim said clubbing on the island remains underground and under pressure generally.
“We’ve been affected by so much over the last seven years it’s a miracle we still have a scene in Bahrain at all,” he said. “You’ve got the wars since 1991, the attacks on residential compounds in Saudi Arabia a few years back, and the current tension with Iran coupled with growing hyper-conservatism to deal with. We’re really fighting to keep what we have alive,” he said.
Kennedy Stephenson, editor of lifestyle/ dance magazine Remix (which publishes in the nearby Gulf statelet of Dubai) was equally robust about tensions in the region. “Maybe people are leaving Israel in fear of a retaliation by Hezbullah or Iran, but it’s business as usual in Dubai,” he told Skrufff, “Global Underground, Tom Middleton and Jori Holkkanen are here tonight (Thursday April 5) and Sebastian Leger, Tocodisco, DJ Sneak tomorrow.”
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