US embassy cable - 05KUWAIT3288

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KUWAIT 003288 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR NEA/ARPI; NEA/PPD; LONDON FOR TSOU; PARIS FOR ZEYA 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/25/2015 
TAGS: PTER, KPAO, KISL, PREL, KU, TERRORISM 
SUBJECT: DAILY NEWSPAPER DETERMINED TO CONFRONT ISLAMISTS 
ON TERRORISM 
 
REF: A. KUWAIT 3246 
     B. STATE 131453 
     C. STATE 121757 
 
Classified By: CDA Matthew Tueller for reason 1.4 b 
 
1. (C) SUMMARY AND COMMENT: In a July 24 meeting with IO 
following the Sharm El-Sheikh bombings earlier that morning, 
the local editor of Al-Qabas newspaper reiterated his 
determination to confront Islamists on the issue of 
terrorism. He said that it was now the paper's "mission" to 
highlight Kuwaiti Islamists' reactions to regional terror 
attacks, highlight and discredit what justifications they may 
proffer for terrorism, and challenge them to define "Islam" 
rather than simply deny that Islam condoned terror and that 
terrorists are not good Muslims. This determination could 
change the nature of public discussion of terrorism in 
Kuwait. Al-Qabas is a widely-respected daily considered the 
"paper of record" among Kuwaiti officials, academics and 
intellectuals of all ideological stripes. Al-Qabas boasts the 
second-largest circulation among Kuwait's dailies 
(approximately 65-70,000), and while the paper is not the 
home of Kuwait's leading Islamist commentators, its status as 
a public agenda-setter and determination to tackle this issue 
will force Kuwait's other dailies, and the Islamists who 
occupy their opinion pages, to answer Al-Qabas' calls. END 
SUMMARY AND COMMENT. 
 
"Enough Fooling, and Enough Lies" 
--------------------------------- 
 
2. (SBU) Adnan Qakoon, the editor in charge of local news for 
Al-Qabas, first mentioned his desire to use the paper to 
confront Islamists in a meeting with IO July 13 (ref. A). He 
said at that time that he was determined to highlight the 
comments of Islamists after terrorist attacks, in order to 
expose what he referred to as their empty justifications and 
dangerous obfuscations regarding terrorism and the role of 
Islam in breeding extremism. The Sharm El-Sheikh bombings 
offered him the first chance to put this plan into action, 
and he did so. Along one side of an interior spread of photos 
in the paper of the Sharm carnage, Qakoon devoted an entire 
column to the reactions of various Kuwaiti Islamists from the 
Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist strains. 
 
 
3. (U) The reactions, Qakoon said in the July 24 meeting, 
were typical of what he referred to as justifications for 
violence that "are no longer valid." In one example, Hussein 
Al-Saedi, the spokesman of the Hizb Al-Ummah (the Nation 
Party), a self-declared political party currently under GOK 
scrutiny, composed primarily of Salafi Islamists, said, "The 
chaos and unrest in the world these days from terrorist 
activities are no doubt the fruits of tyrant regimes in the 
Arab and Muslim worlds. The attacks on democratic countries 
(such as England) were caused by these countries' support for 
such tyrant regimes." Qakoon forcefully dismissed such 
arguments, saying, "enough fooling, and enough lies." 
 
"The Paper Has A Mission Now..." 
-------------------------------- 
 
4. (C) Qakoon said that his treatment of Kuwaiti Islamist 
reaction to the Sharm bombings was just the beginning. "The 
paper has a mission now," he told IO, "to reveal to the 
public what the Islamists are saying, especially their 
justifications, and saying: 'your justifications are no 
longer valid.'" He cited and dismissed the argument 
frequently heard from Islamists across the Arab World that 
the plight of the Palestinians and Coalition operations in 
Iraq spawn terrorist attacks. Qakoon said that he had the 
full support of the paper's editor-in-chief, Walid Al-Nesf -- 
 like Qakoon, a close PD contact and staunch liberal -- in 
this new "mission." 
 
5. (C) Qakoon said that the paper's campaign would go beyond 
simply printing Islamist reactions by pushing the Islamists 
to offer their definition of Islam. Most Kuwaiti Islamists 
routinely denounce terrorism by saying that "this is not 
Islam," or that terrorists have "perverted Islam." In 
Al-Qabas's post-Sharm coverage, Qakoon quoted Abdullah 
Al-Mutawa, the chairman of the Social Reform Society, the 
charitable arm of the local Muslim Brotherhood, as saying 
that Islam is innocent and had nothing to do with the Sharm 
attacks. Al-Qabas quoted Bader Al-Nashi, the secretary 
general of the Islamic Constitutional Movement, the political 
arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in Kuwait, as saying, "the 
solution lies in spreading moderate ideologies and tolerant 
Islamic values." Qakoon said that he would use the paper to 
press for specifics, and hold the commentators responsible 
for their remarks. "Define Islam," Qakoon said. "What is 
'moderate Islam?'" 
 
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