US embassy cable - 05KUWAIT3583

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KUWAIT 003583 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED 
 
STATE FOR NEA/ARPI, NEA/PPD 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, KPAO, KISL, PREL, PTER, PINR, KU, ISLAMISTS 
SUBJECT: ANTI-WEST, ANTI-ISRAEL AD MAKES ROUNDS OF LOCAL 
PAPERS 
 
1. (U) SUMMARY: A virulently anti-West, anti-Israel 
advertisement calling on good Muslims to fight to defend 
the Quran and their faith appeared in two of Kuwait's five 
Arabic daily papers on three consecutive days this week. 
The ad, placed at considerable expense by an individual 
Kuwaiti said to support extremist causes, has stirred fears 
that it could incite violence and provoked a strong 
response from media analysts and columnists and government 
action against the papers that ran the ad. END SUMMARY. 
 
"It Promotes Terrorism, I Really Believe it Does" 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
2. (SBU) PD contacts and columnists were quick to condemn 
the ad, which is seemingly a response to false news reports 
of the desecration of the Quran by U.S. soldiers at 
Guantanamo Bay. Sami Al-Nisf, a columnist and the media 
advisor to Prime Minister Shaykh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber 
Al-Sabah, told IO, "I don't know why a newspaper will 
accept this. They'll print anything." Al-Nisf said that the 
ad was a dangerous incitement to impressionable youth. "A 
young boy will read it. He will be provoked," Al-Nisf said. 
"He will look negatively at the U.S., even the Kuwaiti 
government, that it didn't act against somebody humiliating 
the Quran." 
 
3. (SBU) An official at the Ministry of Information was 
equally concerned about the impact of the advertisement. 
"Absolutely, 100 percent, it can provoke violence," the 
official said. "It promotes hatred. It promotes terrorism, 
I really believe it does. Every single sentence in there is 
talking about hatred, the defeat of the enemy." 
 
4. (U) Writing in Arabic daily Al-Watan on August 9, 
Liberal Columnist Nabil Al-Fadhel absolves the newspapers 
of blame for publishing the ad, arguing that they are 
businesses, but excoriates the man behind the ad, a Kuwaiti 
businessman and Islamist extremist named Fuad Al-Refai. Al- 
Fadhel writes: "Does not this barking Muslim know that to 
publicly disgrace the star of David, the symbol of the 
people of Israel and their prophet Moses, and the Cross of 
Jesus - which was thankfully deleted from the ad by the 
publishers - is considered a stupid act which will give 
others reason to disgrace our Quran, throw it in toilets, 
and publish the photos on the satellites? Does this fanatic 
think that he insulted Israel with his ad? With this 
idiotic ad he has insulted Islam." 
 
"You are the Party of Satan" 
---------------------------- 
 
5. (U) The advertisement, which appeared as the entire back 
page of Arabic daily Al-Rai Al-Aam on August 7, in the same 
spot in Al-Seyassah on August 8, and again, in a smaller, 
text-only version in Al-Rai Al-Aam on August 9, depicts a 
medieval Islamic warrior, armed with a bow, arrows, and a 
large scimitar. Pictured from behind, he is carrying a red 
banner and a black book, under the words "Oh, Quran . They 
disgrace it!! Whose day is it now???" in bloody black 
script. The banner has Quranic verses reading: "You are the 
Party of Satan;" "The Party of Satan are the Losers;" "The 
Enemies of God and His Prophet are Disgraceful;" and "The 
Words of the Disbelievers are Insignificant." The book is 
held open, and the front and back covers, facing the 
viewer, read, "The Holy book;" "Disbelievers are unclean." 
On the warrior's quiver is written, "Our soldiers will 
defeat them." On his sword are the words, "That day the 
believers will be delighted by God's victory." 
 
6. (U) The warrior is standing, facing a setting sun, in a 
desert landscape littered with broken flags that appear to 
be the flags of Israel, Germany, the Soviet Union, and 
England, as well as a version of the U.S. flag with a star 
of David superimposed over the field of stars. Inset in the 
lower left corner of the illustration is a picture of a 
toilet with what appear to be the Israeli, U.S., and Soviet 
flags crammed into the bowl, an obvious reference to Quran 
desecrations alleged to have occurred at Guantanamo Bay. 
Two more stars of David are drawn on the tile floor of the 
bathroom. An inscription on the raised toilet seat says, 
"All of these people are Kufar [non-believers]." At the 
bottom of the ad is another line of bloody black script 
reading, "Oh Mua'tisem..." This is a reference to the 
Umayyad period of early Islamic history, when a group of 
Muslims were threatened and issued a plea for help to 
Mua'tisem, a ruler of that era. 
 
7. (U) Text at the bottom of the ad says that posters of 
the ad's image are available "for the price of a prayer 
from a good Muslim." The text lists phone (535-0782/3), 
cell (979-7132), and fax (535-0781) numbers, and encourages 
those who obtain the poster to display in a clean place, 
since it bears the name of Allah. Calls to the numbers were 
answered by an Egyptian who identified himself as "Abu 
Ibrahim," who gave the address of a house in the Qurtoba 
neighborhood of Kuwait City. 
 
8. (U) A senior editor at one of the papers that ran the ad 
said that the version that appeared in the paper was 
considerably sanitized. He said the paper changed the 
colors of the American flag to obscure the reference -- it 
is blue and red with no white stripes in one depiction, and 
has green and red stripes in another -- and removed a cross 
that had been pictured jammed in the toilet. The editor 
said that the ad, while distasteful, was legal. He said 
that the back page of the paper costs 5,000 KD (about 
$18,000). 
 
A Wealthy Businessman, and the "Most Extreme of the 
Extremists" 
--------------------------------------------- ------------ 
 
9. (SBU) The editor and other PAS contacts confirmed that 
the man who purchased the ad is Fuad Al-Refai, a Kuwaiti 
businessman in his mid-fifties. Characterized by contacts 
as both "a wealthy businessman" and "a nut," the contacts 
agreed that Al-Refai has a long record as an exceedingly 
extreme Islamist. According to contacts, Al-Refai was a 
playboy in his younger days who began subscribing to an 
extreme brand of Islam in the late 1970s, after 
experiencing a troubling dream. Two contacts said that they 
understood that Al-Refai had once been detained by Saudi 
security services there, and another said that in the 
1990s, weapons had been found on his farm in Wafra, a rural 
region of Kuwait. The editor said that Al-Refai 
periodically distributed Islamist cassette tapes and had 
previously purchased religious-themed advertisements. Media 
Advisor Al-Nisf said, "He's a bad guy, definitely. There's 
no limit to what this guy will do. He's one of the most 
extreme of the extremists." 
 
"We Will Not See This Again" 
---------------------------- 
 
10. (SBU) Contacts confirmed that the Government was moving 
to punish the papers that ran the advertisement. Media 
Advisor Al-Nisf said that the Prime Minister expressed his 
displeasure with the ad at the August 7 meeting of the 
Council of Ministers. Al-Nisf noted that just last month, 
the Prime Minister hosted all editors-in-chief for a 
special meeting at which he instructed them to moderate 
their coverage so as not to enflame sectarian tension. 
 
11. (U) Both Al-Nisf and an official at the Ministry of 
Information said that the Minister of Information was "mad" 
and that he is preparing criminal cases against both Al-Rai 
Al-Aam and Al-Seyassah, the papers that ran the ad. Kuwaiti 
press law makes it illegal for newspapers to incite 
sectarian strife and to damage Kuwait's relations with 
friendly nations. While the law does not define what 
exactly constitutes a violation of these laws, they are the 
statutes under which the papers could be prosecuted. 
"Everybody should know that this is not acceptable," Al- 
Nisf said. "We will not see this again." 
 
****************************************** 
Visit Embassy Kuwait's Classified Website: 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/kuwait/ 
 
You can also access this site through the 
State Department's Classified SIPRNET website 
********************************************* 
 
LEBARON