NYT: How Much Kuwaitis Love US

Michael Pollak mpollak at panix.com
Sat Oct 12 17:50:00 PDT 2002


[And these are the middle class government bureaucrats of the state that loves us best]

New York Times October 12, 2002

Saved by U.S., Kuwait Now Shows Mixed Feelings

By CRAIG S. SMITH

K UWAIT, 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.

Copyright The New York Times Company | Permissions | Privacy Policy



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list