Man, govt-made rifts – ‘Kuwait was not like this’

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I do not watch TV at all, and therefore I cannot pass a judgment on the performance of Jaafar Mohammad, the presenter of the Al-Shahed TV, except for some video clips on YouTube which I receive on the social media.

A video clip which was recently posted is about diseases people of Kuwait are suffering from. Referring to what he has mentioned, I say in my words that the Kuwaiti society— the ruler and the subjects — was secular and tolerant towards those who came and lived in the country.

For example, there was a Shiite mosque next to a mosque for Sunnis, not far too from a church, or a place of worship for the Christians or a cemetery for the Jews.

 The people of Kuwait transformed the liberalism of the ruling family and the secular rule to something else especially after the adoption of the Constitution, in which every sect, party or tribe, demanded privileges, whether geographical or religious.

And as a result we ended up with satisfying their demands by building a mosque for the Shirazi group, another for the Muslim Brotherhood and yet another for the Mohammad Al-Fadlallah group; a fourth for the Salafis, fifth for the Ash’ari, sixth for the Hasawis and the seventh for the Bahraini Shiites and so on.

Then a Sharia court for the followers of Jaafari (Shiite) was established and the Quran teaching centers became incubators for terrorists. The discord between the components of the society flourished to the point we hated each other so much that after death we did not want to be buried next to each other. Our residential areas remain divided and dispersed as every tribe or sect has a neighborhood or the people of the entire country have turned against each other.

All that has been mentioned by Mr Jaffer Mohammad is true and very close to reality, but holding the citizen alone responsible for division and repulsion in society is not true.

The role of the government is the largest and the most serious, and the responsibility is crystal clear given the current tragic situation.

It is the government which has chosen a specific minister, and a group of interior ministers, consequently, granted the Kuwaiti citizenship, at one time, to scores of thousands of strangers, to satisfy their desire to modify the demographics, or hoping to win their votes, and to ensure their loyalty in the future.

All of this happened only for a short time, and the positive influence disappeared and the problems of those who were naturalized surfaced. Those who took the decision for naturalization did not consider the danger posed by these naturalized people to the ‘soft’ social fabric of the community.

It is also the government that agreed to the ethnic cleansing operations, so to say, remained silent in the face of the cleansing operations of each sect, that is to say only the affiliates of one sect lived in that area, to guarantee collective votes during election time.

And it is the government that rejected the idea of teaching the Constitution in schools. It is also the government which rejected the teaching of national education and ethics in schools, because some members of the religious parties found them in violation of their rusty concepts!

It is the government which rolled out the red carpet for religious parties to tear apart the society based on the principle of ‘divide and rule’.

The government is still the safe fortress for religious parties, with all the spectra, in the belief that these parties will stand by the government in times of need without taking into consideration that the learned and the united people who have professed love for their homeland are the guarantors and supporters of the ruling system and have professed love for the ruling family, not the leaders of religious parties or senior community members. Most of them are loyal to others.

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By Ahmad Al-Sarraf

This news has been read 16774 times!