"Fundamentalism," i.e., dislike for U.S. occupation, domination is growing in Kuwait

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

ARABS AND AMERICA
Saved by U.S., Kuwait Now Shows Mixed Feelings
By CRAIG S. SMITH


KUWAIT, Oct. 11 - Muhammad al-Mulaifi, head of the information department at
Kuwait's Ministry of Islamic Affairs, tried momentarily to suppress a smile,
then broke into a broad grin when asked if he supported the terrorist
attacks on the United States last year.

"I would be lying if said I wasn't happy about the attack," he said, sitting
on the floor of his air-conditioned home office, a carpeted, cushioned oasis
amid the harsh heat of this small, dry country. Mr. Mulaifi said that many
Kuwaitis were delighted about what had happened to the United States and
that he had attended parties held in celebration.
"Only then did we see America suffer for a few seconds what Muslims have
been suffering for a long time," he said.

His view is not an uncommon one among Muslims in this part of the world, but
it is surprising coming from someone whose country the United States rescued
from Iraqi domination just over 11 years ago.
And although Mr. Mulaifi may not be in the majority on this issue, his
opinions do represent the extreme end of an anti-American sentiment that is
spreading among Kuwait's 800,000 people.
Forty-year-old Talal al-Amer, who calls the faithful to prayer at the Anas
Din Manik Mosque in a quiet middle-class neighborhood of villas and palm
trees, said he suffered "double vision" when looking at the United States.
"As a Kuwaiti, I am happy with America's presence here," he said, "but as a
Muslim, I don't like it."

That ambivalence is being fed by the growing fundamentalist movement, which
bridles at the American presence here, and by anger over the treatment of
Palestinians by Israel, which many Muslims consider an American puppet.

The combination of those forces is apparently what drove two young Kuwaiti
men to a suicidal attack this week that killed one American marine and
wounded another. Kuwaiti government officials say the assault was carried
out with the help of other militants who were also planning a larger attack.
Several of those people are now in custody; it is not yet clear whether they
have direct links to Al Qaeda, the terrorist network of Osama bin Laden.
Mr. Mulaifi and others here believe that the attacks will not stop with this
one.

Many Kuwaitis have hailed the two assailants as martyrs. According to
several who attended the men's funeral, the bodies were not washed before
burial - the custom in Islam when the dead are martyrs. Many mourners also
refused to offer prayers to the dead men, because prayers are not said for
martyrs.

Jaber al-Jalahma, a prominent fundamentalist cleric who spoke at the
funeral, told mourners that the attack "was a message to all of us."
"They were better than us," he said of the assailants, according to
witnesses, "because they stood up against infidels bent on usurping our
rights."
Reached by telephone, Mr. Jalahma refused to speak to a Western reporter,
saying Americans were "devils."

Despite lingering gratitude toward the United States for having driven Iraqi
troops from Kuwait, many Kuwaitis now want the American military to leave
the region. Some blame the United States for not having ousted Mr. Hussein
in 1991, arguing that he was left in power so Washington could strengthen
its military presence here. Few Kuwaitis support an American invasion now,
though the United States would most likely use Kuwait as a base during any
war.
"America kept playing this game, insisting that Saddam posed a great threat
to Kuwait to justify their long-term presence in the gulf," Nasser
al-Khonais, a 31-year-old librarian at Kuwait's Ministry of Education, said.

Toppling Mr. Hussein now, he said, is simply a cynical exercise to warn
other countries in the region that America can change any government when it
wants.
Passions would most likely be inflamed if the Bush administration acted on
its proposals to set up an occupation government in Iraq after ousting Mr.
Hussein. Such a move would confirm the theory that America's policy toward
Iraq has been an elaborate plot to dominate the region.

Many people here stress that views like this are held by only a small
minority of Kuwaitis. "You do here, as anywhere in the world, have some
Islamist elements who think bin Laden is great," a Western diplomat said.

But even among more moderate Muslims, there is a growing ambivalence toward
America. Islamist politicians have become a major political force in the
country since the end of the Persian Gulf war and now account for a third of
the Kuwaiti Parliament. The Muslim Brotherhood, which has spawned several
militant groups, and the Salafi movement, promoting Islamic fundamentalism,
are both active here.

The attack this week in a country that is often referred to as America's
staunchest ally in the Persian Gulf gives some measure of the depth and
breadth of the anti-American feeling growing among young Arabs across the
region.

"If pampered, wealthy Kuwaitis raised in pro-American afterglow of the gulf
war could do this, imagine what a poor Yemeni warrior will do," Mr. Mulaifi
said.

He himself is a study in the radical change in attitudes toward the United
States since the gulf war. After Mr. Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990, Mr.
Mulaifi spent three months in Iraqi prisons, accused of being a spy because
he was caught with a camera in his car. His family bought his release with
bribes to Iraqi judges, and he was back home by the time the war began.

Though he was 18 at the time, Mr. Mulaifi did not join in the fighting
against Iraq, because "it was not an Islamic war."

After the war, he said he felt "love for America." One reason he cited for
his change in attitude was America's support for Israel and that country's
control of Jerusalem, one of Islam's holiest cities. He also quoted
Muhammad's command to "drive the infidels from the Arabian peninsula."

At home this week, he stood leafing proudly through his private archives of
Qaeda material, housed in a small, locked room with an electric sliding
door. He pointed out Mr. bin Laden's signature on some documents. He showed
off photographs of Mr. bin Laden's spokesman, Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, visiting
his home.

Mr. Mulaifi says he is not a Qaeda member, but is "close to Al Qaeda
thought." He is cagey on whether he remains in contact with the group
("That's a C.I.A question," he said), but claims knowledge of its plans.

He said the network had postponed a major attack that would surpass Sept.
11, so that it would occur just after any American invasion of Iraq, when a
strike against the United States would win the most support in the Arab
world.

Mr. Mulaifi said he had been close to the two men who killed the marine this
week, though he disavowed any prior knowledge of their attack. He said they
had come to him for help early this year after being interrogated and
tortured by Kuwaiti security officers. They were first detained, he said,
upon their return from a failed attempt to reach Afghanistan, where they had
hoped to fight on behalf of the Taliban.

According to Mr. Mulaifi, the two had already fought in Chechnya and Bosnia
and had spent time in Afghanistan, but were stopped while crossing Iran on
their last trip and sent back to Kuwait.

He said he, too, considered the men martyrs. He read a passage of Koranic
commentary about the rewards martyrs will receive in the afterlife. "I want
to die a martyr, too," he said.





~~~~~~~
PLEASE clip all extraneous text before replying to a message.