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?'"

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