[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.
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