DAILY NEWSPAPER DETERMINED TO CONFRONT ISLAMISTS

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?'" ****************************************** 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 ********************************************* TUELLER