Manama: A Kuwaiti lawmaker has rejected claims that he had called for banning a prominent poet and Sufi mystic who died 740 years ago from entering the country.
“I had requested the interior minister Shaikh Mohammad Khalid to ban an event that aimed to teach dance and music,” MP Mohammad Al Jabri said. “The evening event should be cancelled even if its organisers said that it was for women only. When I referred to Jamal Al Deen Al Roumi, I was talking about the organisers, and not about the famous figure,” he said in remarks carried by local daily Al Rai on Friday.
He added that some people distorted his words and gave them a different significance.
“I did mention the name, but I was talking about the event, not the man. I never called for a ban on him.”
The lawmaker made his request for the ban on the event at the parliament during the weekly debates.
He said that he had called on the information minister to ban the event planned for January 26 “because it teaches dances and other negative things.”
“I also informed the endowments minister and asked the interior minister not to allow those in charge of the event from entering the country,” he told his fellow lawmakers. “I strongly objected to the use of Mawlana in the brochure promoting the event when referring to Jamal Al Deen because only God is our Mawlana,” he said.
Mawlana, “Our Lord” or “Our Master” in Arabic, is a title preceding the name of respected Muslim religious figures that is widely used in Asian countries.
The lawmaker’s remarks drew several negative remarks on social networks where he was accused of ignorance about prominent figures who had a strong impact on the history of the Islamic nation.
