ANTI-WEST, ANTI-ISRAEL AD MAKES ROUNDS OF LOCAL

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."

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LEBARON