Crackdown on Shiites Stirs Sectarian Tensions in Kuwait

Source: Agencies, 14-03-2008
KUWAIT CITY: A crackdown on leading clerics and politicians from Kuwait's Shiite minority has stoked sectarian tensions in the oil-rich Gulf state, raising questions about its aim and timing, analysts say. Claims that Shiite activists who took part in a controversial rally in February are seeking to topple the regime "amount to a sectarian campaign by the security agencies ... against prominent figures of the Shiite community," a group of leading Shiite clerics said in a statement on Wednesday.
"If you're a Shiite in Kuwait, you have to swear five times a day after each prayer that you hate Iran and love 'Israel' " in order to prove loyalty to the majority Sunni country, Shiite writer Abdulhameed Dashti lamented in the Arabic newspaper An-Nahar.
Some commentators have blamed the regional standoff between the United States and Iran for the crisis which began after a rally by Shiite activists to mourn Hizbullah commander martyr Imad Moghniyeh, who was killed in a Damascus car bombing last month, triggered the arrest of eight prominent activists.
They included two former MPs, a cleric and senior members of the National Islamic Alliance (NIA), a Shiite political grouping which holds two seats in Parliament.
Instead of being questioned about the rally, the activists were accused of being members of "Hizbullah Kuwait," a group not known to exist, and of working to overthrow the regime, their lawyer said. The men were also accused of spreading false news about Kuwait to undermine its position abroad, Abdulkarim bin Haider told AFP.
The charges "were based on information from the 1980s" when Sunni-Shiite tensions peaked at the height of the Iran-Iraq war, he added.
Seven of the eight men were released on bail after paying hefty sureties. The eighth, former MP Abdulmohsen Jamal, remained in police custody until Thursday, when he was also released on bail and banned from leaving the country.
The public prosecution also asked Parliament to strip two Shiite MPs, Adnan Abdulsamad and Ahmad Lari, of their parliamentary immunity so they could be questioned in the same case. Parliament is expected to debate the request next week.
The crackdown has angered the Shiite community, which makes up at least a third of Kuwait's native population of one million, sparking two noisy demonstrations during which anti-US and anti-'Israel' slogans were chanted. Shiites have only four MPs in the 50-member Parliament and two ministers in the 16-member Cabinet.
"I love Kuwait. It is my country, but actions like these make me feel I am not welcome," said Abbas, a young Kuwaiti Shiite.
Shiites were also angered by calls in some Kuwaiti papers for those who took part in the Moghniyeh rally to have their citizenship withdrawn and be deported to Iran.
"The issue has snowballed from an action against the Moghniyeh rally into a major crackdown on a political grouping known for its bold national positions," said the chairman of the Kuwait Society for the Advancement of Democracy, Nasser al-Abdali. "It has raised sectarian tensions. I really don't see any threat by the group that warrants making such serious accusations against its members."
The scope of the accusations reminded Shiites of a crackdown launched two decades ago when Kuwait backed Saddam Hussein's Sunni-dominated Iraqi regime in its 1980-1988 war with Shiite Iran. Some liberal Kuwaiti writers have claimed that the crackdown was instigated by the United States and some neighboring countries to rein in potential pro-Iran elements.
"I'm afraid that Kuwait has become a target - like Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine and Pakistan - for the so-called 'creative chaos' plot launched by the neoconservatives in Washington," Ahmad al-Dayeen wrote in Aalam Al-Yaum daily.
However, columnist Nabeel al-Fadhl charged that Iran was behind the current escalation, with the aim of deterring Kuwait from providing the launch-pad for any future US military action against it.