“Bahrain has nothing to do with regional or world events, other than our sympathy for the victims,” Interior Minister Rashid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa told a group of dignitaries from Duraz last month. The village has over the past year been a scene of protests in solidarity with Palestine and more recently Lebanon. At the same session, the interior minister further highlighted the serious domestic impact of regional escalation, calling for sermons in Duraz’s main mosque to be focused on “religious and not political” affairs to avoid unrest that may prompt a securitized response.

Following Israel’s Sept. 27 assassination of the head of Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement, Hassan Nasrallah—which sparked condemnation from many Bahrainis and led to calls for protests—Manama quickly moved to...