Did mourning Mughniyeh awaken sectarianism in Kuwait ?

Did mourning Mughniyeh awaken sectarianism in Kuwait ?

Sunday, 2 March, 2008 @ 7:48 PM

Kuwait- Hundreds of Shiite activists including Bahrainis , Iranians , Kuwaitis and Lebanese took part in a rally last month to mourn slain Hezbollah commander Imad Mughniyeh. This caused an uproar in this nation

where one third of the citizens are Shiite Muslims.

Mughniyeh was assassinated in Damascus, Syria last month and Lebanon’s Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah accused Israel of being behind his murder, but Israel denied any involvement. But Mughniyeh’s widow, an Iranian citizen accused Syria of helping the Israelis in assassinating he husband

Now Kuwait wants to deport all the foreigners that participated in the rally

Kuwaiti Interior Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Khaled Al-Sabah declared

“We will deport any foreigner who took part in the mourning rally. This is a decision we will implement and we will not back down,”

The interior minister was not specific on the number of people Kuwait intends to deport , nor when the ministry will start implementing this directive

Last month Four Kuwaiti attorneys filed a lawsuit against two Shiite MPs accusing them of being founders and members of Hezbollah Kuwait .

“We accused them of being founders and members of Hezbollah Kuwait, undermining national unity and declaring loyalty to Lebanon’s Hezbollah,” attorney Dhaidan al-Mutairi said after meeting with the public prosecutor.

The lawsuit named Kuwaiti MPs Adnan Abdul Samad, who spoke at the rally, and Ahmad Lari.

The parliamentary Popular Action bloc, which includes prominent opposition members, said it “utterly rejects and condemns” the participation of lawmakers Adnan Abdul Samad, and Ahmad Lari in the Mughniyeh eulogy which “bloodied the hearts” of Kuwaitis

The parliamentary bloc said on February 20 that it has “expelled the two Shi’ite lawmakers from its bloc for eulogizing Hezbollah’s, Imad Mughniyeh, because they disregarded the feelings of their fellow Kuwaitis.”

MP Abdul Samad described Mughniyah as a hero during his speech at the rally. This has sparked public outrage in a country that considers him a terrorist and holds him responsible for hijacking a Kuwait Airways flight and killing two of its Kuwaiti passengers 20 years ago.

The two lawmakers were only expelled from their bloc but remained in the legislature, although some lawmakers have said the two should resign from the 50-seat house.

Kuwait and sectarianism

Kuwait Interior Minister has informed his Bahraini counterpart Sheikh Rashed Abdullah Al-Khalifa about the participation of some Bahrainis in the mourning rally for Moughniyeh. But then he said “Our Bahraini brothers will always sympathize with us no matter what happens to Kuwait.”

He said he had discussed various security issues concerning Bahrain and Kuwait with Sheikh Rashed “We agreed on the need to reject any phenomenon that will push our nations toward sectarianism. Kuwait abhors discrimination and it will not tolerate any move to put a wall between Sunnis and Shiites. We are all Kuwaitis regardless of our religious or sectarian affiliations,” he added.

The Minister added “we will not allow the incident witnessed in Kuwait over the last few days to disturb our national unity, democratic process and freedom. We will also foil attempts to propagate ideologies that threaten our national unity. Anybody with such ideas should practice his beliefs in other countries as this is totally unacceptable in Kuwait.”

Obviously Kuwait is aware that awakening sectarianism will be bad news for its national unity, specially since it is sandwiched between Iran , Iraq and Saudi Arabia ( see map) . Besides one analyst said ” all Kuwait has to do is look at Lebanon and see what sectarianism has done there to its national unity. This should be the best lesson to Kuwait to steer away from sectarianism “

Lebanon to skip Paris book fair over Israel

BEIRUT: Lebanon is to stay away from this year’s Paris book fair in protest at the invitation of Israel as guest of honor, Culture Minister Tarek Mitri announced on Wednesday. “Lebanon will not participate this year in protest at the cultural event’s organizers’ decision to select Israel as guest of honor,” Mitri said in a statement.

Lebanon is the first Arab government to announce a boycott of the event, which runs March 14 through March 19, after organizers announced that 39 Israeli writers were being invited to mark the 60th anniversary of the Jewish state.

On Tuesday, the 50-nation Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization called for a boycott of the event by Islamic states.

“The crimes against humanity that Israel is perpetrating in the Palestinian territories … constitute, in themselves, a strong condemnation of Israel, making it unworthy of being welcomed as a guest of honor at an international book fair,” the group said.

Twenty-five Egyptian groups have announced that they would not take part, as has the Union of Algerian Writers.

In Sanaa, the head of the state-run Public Book Authority, Faris al-Saqqaf, said that Yemen would not be participating in the event at the request of the Arab League.

Bahrain and Qatar said they do not normally take part in any case. – AFP