Bahraini Shi'ites

Mahmood's Den has a link to this interesting article about discrimination against Shi'ites in Bahrain. Shi'ites make up the majority of Bahrain's population, but the Sunni ruling family tends to favor other Sunnis in the patronage connections that are such a key part of Gulf political life. I didn't notice any sort of theological opposition, though, so this is a different situation than one finds in the Hasa region of Saudi Arabia. I'd be interested in learning more.

UPDATE: I have learned more. Moojan Momen's An Introduction to Shi'i Islam protrays the Bahraini Shi'ites as largely a rural class members of which have migrated to the cities in recent years as unskilled laborers. There have also reportedly been a number of violent incidents during the 20th century involving Shi'ite plots against the Khalifa dynasty, though here again there's no mention of a theological agenda, except marginally in the case of purported sympathies for Iran, which has at various times claimed Bahrain. I'm now curious of the extent to which the Khalifa monarchy is identified with Sunnism in terms of its political legitimacy, or whether there has been some attempt to create either a Bahraini dynastic nationalism or more generalized Islamic framework.