Kim Kardashian brings out fans, Islamists and police in Bahrain
MANAMA (Reuters) - Television celebrity Kim Kardashian brought out screaming fans, angry Muslim hardliners and police throwing stun grenades on Saturday when she visited Bahrain to launch a milkshake franchise, witnesses said.
About 100 Sunni
Salafists demonstrated with banners outside The Walk Bahrain, an
upmarket mall in the capital Manama, after some MPs tried to block the
visit over what they called her "bad reputation", according to a local
newspaper.
Thousands of fans, who had paid up to 500 Bahraini
dinars ($1,360) a ticket, broke into hysterical screams as the
32-year-old celebrity launched the Millions of Milkshakes franchise
inside the mall.
Witnesses said police dispersed the demonstrators with stun grenades as the inauguration proceeded inside. There were no reports of casualties.
Kardashian stirred
controversy even before she arrived in Bahrain from Kuwait, where she
opened another
store last week.
Hardline Sunni Muslim
MPs presented a motion to parliament calling her "an actress with an
extremely bad reputation", according to Bahrain's English language Gulf
Daily News.
The assembly did not vote on the motion, the newspaper said.
Many Kardashian
fans tweeted their displeasure, saying the "MPs should focus their time
on solving key political, economic and social issues", the newspaper
reported.
Bahrain, where the
U.S. Fifth Fleet is based, is trying to overcome nearly two years of
unrest among its majority Shi'ite Muslims demanding political reforms
and equality with the Sunni Muslims who rule the kingdom.
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