A FRIEND gave me five chapters of a book on the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt — Hassan Al-Banna — when I visited a Ramadan diwaniya recently. A mosque supervised by the Kuwaiti Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs has distributed copies of these five chapters to the public. Everyone knows the ministry has been taken hostage by Islamic groups in Kuwait, including the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafis. Are the ministry officials and their masters, who have been receiving allowances and rewards, aware of this fact?

We respect the views of Al-Banna in terms of freedom of expression and thought. However, we cannot tolerate any attempt to politicize and militarize our mosques. Al-Banna has been propagating the idea of militarizing and deeply politicizing the Islamic society. His books and that of Sayyed Qutub are being marketed as Islamic books at the Social Reform Society’s book fair and other bookshops but it is unacceptable to distribute them in a mosque supervised by the state! This has been happening in Kuwait — a country that practices maximum tolerance in dealing with various Islamic groups, which turned out to be opponents of the government.

In Syria, radical groups like Hamas and Hezbollah politically support the Syrian government from a regional side. Nevertheless, the Syrian government has intensified its efforts over the last months to limit the power of conservative Islamists and preserve the secular identity. Al-Qubaisat, a religious group for women, was banned from holding symposiums in mosques last spring. The government demanded recordings of Friday sermons and started to impose strict regulations on religious schools. It also instructed the powerful Muslim Women’s Group to limit their activities, such as preaching and teaching the Islamic Sharia.

In addition to this, more than a thousand female teachers wearing the ‘niqab’ (face cover) were transferred to administrative posts. (Al-Sharq Al-Awsat Newspaper - 5/9/2010). We want a moderate country where freedom to practice one’s religion and protection of personal freedom, such as wearing the ‘niqab’ and veil, are respected, without contravening the law, as well as the security and employment regulations. We may not agree with Syria in controlling the conservative Islamists but the hardliners should not go as far as showing off their strength and power by violating the law. They have ruled our societies without any prior notice. Trust that God alternates days among people and things will not remain as they are.

Email: alialbaghli@hotmail.com