US embassy cable - 05KUWAIT1308

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 03 KUWAIT 001308 
 
SIPDIS 
 
NOFORN 
 
STATE FOR NEA/ARPI, INR, S/CT 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/19/2015 
TAGS: PTER, PGOV, KISL, KMDR, PINR, KU, ISLAMISTS 
SUBJECT: ISLAMIC EXTREMIST HAMAD AL-ALI: GOK CONFUSION ON 
HOW TO HANDLE A FIREBRAND CLERIC PREACHING VIOLENT JIHAD 
 
REF: A. KUWAIT 1076 
     B. 04 KUWAIT 3544 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Richard LeBaron for reason 1.4 (d) 
 
1. (SBU) Summary: Extremist Salafi preacher Hamad Al-Ali 
continues to preach violent jihad in Kuwait despite GOK 
attempts to promote tolerance in the society.  Al-Ali was 
recently detained by Kuwait State Security (KSS) for alleged 
links to two of the January shoot-outs between law 
enforcement officials and militants.  He is due to be either 
released or criminally charged in the next week.  The GOK 
blocked access to Al-Ali's website in February and banned him 
from preaching in early March.  Before his detention he was 
actively preaching at his mosque and making anti-U.S. 
statements, which were published in various media outlets. 
He routinely shrouds his calls for jihad in poetry and 
Islamic preaching thus making it more difficult for Kuwaiti 
authorities to find any criminal wrongdoing.  Al-Ali's 
attorney Mubarak Al-Mutawa told EmbOffs that Al-Ali has never 
instructed anyone to commit violent jihad against Americans 
and that the allegations against his client are false. 
Al-Ali was convicted in 2004 of insulting the Kuwaiti Amir 
and other Arab leaders, but was able to have his sentence 
suspended by paying a minimal fine.  End Summary. 
 
Who Is Hamad Al-Ali? 
-------------------- 
 
2. (SBU) "Shaykh" Hamad Abdullah Al-Ali, a Sunni cleric known 
for his radical Islamic interpretations, is the former 
Secretary General of the Salafi Movement (al-haraka 
 
SIPDIS 
al-salafiya), a position he held until 2001.  (Note: The 
Salafi Movement, aka the Scientific Salafis, is a hardline 
offshoot of the conservative Salafi sect of Sunni Islam which 
is heavily influenced by the Saudi Wahhabi brand of Islam. 
End Note.)  Al-Ali, who holds a PhD from an institution in 
Tunisia, was also the Imam of Al-Sabahiyya Mosque and a 
former preacher at the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs. 
 He was convicted on June 19, 2004, and sentenced to two 
years in jail for a variety of offenses: criticizing the 
Kuwaiti Amir's decision to allow foreign military forces to 
use Kuwaiti territory to launch a war on Iraq, describing 
Arab leaders as traitors and failures, calling for an 
unauthorized demonstration in support of Kuwaiti citizens 
detained in Guantanamo, and hosting a jihadist website that 
included links to bomb-making instructions.  He paid KD 1,000 
(approx. USD 3,400) to have his sentence suspended.  Al-Ali 
is also well known for a March 2004 statement in which he 
said "it was not necessary for Kuwaitis to go to Iraq for 
Jihad, rather, Jihad could be carried out just as well in 
Kuwait."  (Note: There is also another extremist-minded 
Kuwaiti named Hamad Al-Ali. Dr. Hamad Hamad Al-Ali earned a 
doctorate in Islamic Shari'a from the Islamic University in 
Medina and is a professor at the Faculty of Shari'a at Kuwait 
University.  He was removed from his position as a preacher 
at Al-Adasani Mosque and detained by police because he 
reportedly violated Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs 
rules and regulations and attacked with religiously-charged 
condemnation the Awqaf and Islamic Affairs Minister and the 
Kuwaiti judiciary. End Note.) 
 
A History Of Spreading the Gospel of Violent Jihad... 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
 
3. (U) In April 2002, Hamad Abdullah Al-Ali reportedly 
proffered a religious ruling which claimed that there are 
circumstances in which it is permissible to kill civilians in 
the cause of jihad without violating the Prophet Mohammed's 
command prohibiting the murder of women and children. He said 
in time of war that it was permissible to kill all citizens 
of Israel and vaguely included general populations that are 
party to anti-Islamic government policies because they pay 
taxes and participate in elections.  Al-Ali also wrote in his 
book "Guiding Mankind to the Virtues of Jihad in the Rules of 
Islam," that "jihad is not negated if the ruler refuses to 
carry its banner, but it is Shari'a that continues until the 
day of judgment."  In a related 2004 sermon after Hamas 
leader Abdal Aziz Al-Rantisi was killed, he said to mosque 
worshippers, "we should walk on the path of jihad without 
looking back.  Victory will come soon and the martyrdom of 
the leaders is evidence that victory is near." 
 
4. (U) Al-Ali has also served as a regular Qur'anic expert 
"Mufti" on IslamOnline.net's "Fatwa Bank" where he dispenses 
his religious teaching and replies to people who log in with 
questions on Islam needing "interpretation."  In response to 
an August 2004 internet question asking what Islam says about 
sending Arab troops to Iraq to support the U.S.-led 
coalition, Al-Ali responded saying it is against Islam for 
any troops to "support and help an occupying force."   He 
continued saying support was forbidden "even if the force is 
formed with the pretense of protecting the UN, because the UN 
is only an instrument used by the infidel to execute his 
plans." 
 
5. (U) On February 9, 2005 a poem by Al-Ali was published by 
the Kuwaiti liberal weekly Al-Talia.  In it, Al-Ali wrote 
"the Imam has no other function but jihad and ruling by 
Shari'a, just as the prince of the armies Abu Mus'ab has 
beheaded 'the American,' killing them if their evil becomes 
great, breaking their backbone and aggression.  If there are 
women and children in their ranks leading to suspending jihad 
against them, shooting is a verdict of obvious preponderance. 
 And we blow up enemies from a distance with mines as mighty 
volcanoes shredding the enemies into strips of flesh." 
 
...While Clouding His Role in Militant Violence 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
6. (SBU) Despite being convicted in 2004 of insulting the 
Amir and promoting bomb-making, Al-Ali has managed to stay 
out of serious legal trouble by couching his calls to 
violence in strict Islamic terms, an approach that Kuwait 
finds difficult to criminalize.  During April 2004, Al-Ali 
was questioned by public prosecutors investigating 
allegations that he promoted bomb-making to worshippers at 
his mosque.  One Arabic daily reported that Al-Ali's personal 
website provided directions for making explosives, however, 
no directions were found at the site days later.  His 
website, currently shutdown by the GOK, contains religious 
edicts and information about the Iraq crisis from an 
anti-American perspective. 
 
7. (S/NF) Al-Ali is believed by liberal opponents to be a key 
facilitator of militant jihadists heading to Iraq but he 
denies any involvement in such activities.  Some detained 
Kuwaiti militants during interrogation have alleged that they 
were recruited by Hamad Al-Ali into a terror cell and in the 
spring of 2004, a Kuwaiti citizen submitted a complaint to 
Kuwait State Security (KSS) claiming that Al-Ali was the 
person who recruited his son to fight in Iraq and arranged 
his son's travel to Syria to enter Iraq. 
 
8. (U) Al-Ali denies the presence of an organized terror 
network in Kuwait and mentioned on his website in early 
February that he didn't know any of those involved in the 
January shoot-outs.  He also said that their motives were 
mysterious and called the press coverage of the incidents 
"spiteful press sensationalism."  According to a security 
source, Al-Ali was placed under surveillance during this 
period.  In February, the Awqaf and Islamic Affairs Ministry 
seized thousands of copies of a provocative religious tract 
entitled "The Gift of Jihad in the Service of Almighty God." 
The tract, which included a message on jihad by Al-Ali, had 
been distributed in several mosques in Al-Ahmadi in rural 
southeastern Kuwait. 
 
9. (S) Like fellow Sunni Islamic extremist Jaber Al-Jalahma, 
Hamad Al-Ali was contacted by KSS director Shaykh Athbi 
Al-Fahd Al-Sabah and told to "calm things down," according to 
an Embassy contact (ref A).  Kuwaiti contacts have informed 
PolOff that Al-Ali, like Al-Jalahma, serves as a routine 
point of contact for Shaykh Athbi to communicate with 
extremist elements in Kuwait. (Comment: This relationship, 
which some contacts are convinced is current and ongoing, 
suggests that Al-Ali not only has links to militants but is 
able to exert some control over them. End Comment.) 
 
10. (C) A senior member of the ruling Al-Sabah family told 
PolOff in late 2004 that Hamad Al-Ali plays a significant 
role in the organization of the spring and summer youth 
camps, which are known to promote intolerant strains of Islam 
(ref B).  The Al-Sabah family member also claims that Al-Ali 
remains closely affiliated with the Scientific Salafis and is 
a key thinker for the group. 
 
Detained For "Just Talking" 
-------------------------- 
 
11. (U) On March 12, Hamad Al-Ali was detained and reportedly 
interrogated by the public prosecution for allegedly 
collaborating with suspects involved in two January 
shoot-outs with security forces.  It was later announced that 
he would be detained for 21 days and it is expected that KSS 
will either release or charge him in the coming days.  Salafi 
Movement MPs Dr. Walid Al-Tabtabaei and Abdullah Akkash met 
on March 14 with Attorney General Hamad Al-Othman in an 
unsuccessful effort to secure Al-Ali's release.  The Salafi 
Movement, surpised at the circumstances of his detention, has 
expressed public solidarity with Al-Ali and is calling on the 
National Assembly's Human Rights Committee to verify that 
Al-Ali is being treated appropriately.  The GOK blocked 
access to Al-Ali's website in February and banned him from 
preaching in early March.  Al-Ali's lawyer, Mubarak Saadoun 
Al-Mutawa, publicly complained that Al-Ali has not been able 
to have his attorney present during certain periods of his 
detention, which according to the Attorney General is in 
keeping with some secret phases of the investigation. 
 
12. (C) In a late-March meeting with EmbOffs, Al-Mutawa said 
that Al-Ali's sermons and speeches were misused and 
misrepresented by young people unknown to him in ways he did 
not intend.  He claimed that Al-Ali never fomented violent 
jihad in Kuwait and that he "just talked" in his lectures and 
the mosque.  Al-Mutawa argued that just because Al-Ali says 
something does not mean he should be responsible for others 
should they take action.  When asked about the link to 
bomb-making instructions reported to be on his website in 
2004, Al-Mutawa said that "it was a long time ago and it 
wasn't him."  He also said that Al-Ali never directly called 
for anyone to commit jihad against Americans in Kuwait or 
anywhere.  Instead he explained that Al-Ali's message of 
jihad was not direct, it was only "hinting."  Al-Mutawa said 
that he is confident that his client is not being tortured 
and he expects Al-Ali to be found innocent. 
 
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LEBARON