Claims that Shia activists who took part in a controversial rally in February are seeking to topple the regime “amount to a sectarian campaign by the security agencies … against prominent figures of the Shia community,” a group of leading Shia preachers said in a statement.
“If you’re a Shia in Kuwait, you have to swear five times a day after each prayer that you hate Iran and love Israel” in order to prove loyalty to the majority Sunni Muslim country, Shia writer Abdulhameed Dashti lamented in the newspaper An-Nahar.
Some commentators have blamed the regional standoff between the United States and Iran for the crisis which began after a rally by Shia activists to mourn Hizbollah commander Imad Mughnieh, who was killed in a Damascus car bombing last month, triggered the arrest of eight prominent activists.
They included two former MPs, a preacher and senior members of the National Islamic Alliance (NIA), a Shia political grouping which holds two seats in parliament.
Mughnieh is accused in Kuwait of hijacking a passenger plane in 1988 that led to the killing of two Kuwaiti civilians. Instead of being questioned about the rally, the activists were accused of being members of Hezbollah Kuwait, a previously unknown group, and of working to overthrow the regime, their lawyer said. The men were also accused of spreading false news about Kuwait to undermine its position abroad, Abdulkarim bin Haider said.
