Manama: A Kuwaiti lawmaker is calling for the implementation of an anti-terror law that imposes prison terms of up to 20 years and fines of up to KD20,000 (Dh259,569).
Under the proposed law, all those who take part in armed hostilities outside Kuwait or encourage and incite participation in them will be either jailed or fined or both, MP Nabeel Fadhl said.
The law includes joining the extremist religious and intellectual groups and movements that are classified terrorists locally or regionally, or supporting them or expressing sympathy with them by any means, including providing moral or material support or promoting them or advocating them through writing or otherwise, Kuwaiti daily Al Watan reported on Sunday.
The jail terms and the fines will be increased to 30 years and KD30,000 if the offender is a member of the armed forces or the police, the lawmaker proposed.
A joint committee made up of delegates from the interior and foreign affairs ministries should be set up to draw up a list of people, movements and groups that support direct or indirect involvement in hostilities. The lists should be presented to the cabinet and all the names should be published in at least four local newspapers, he said.
“We have lapsed into an embarrassing silence for a long time as our sons are being incited to join combat zones abroad, only for us to receive news of their death,” the lawmaker said.
“Saudi Arabia has initiated a revolution against this deviant thinking while we in Kuwait suffer from it. At the same time, people are encouraged to raise funds, but only 10 per cent of the donation ever reaches those who need the money. I wonder where the other 90 per cent goes,” he said.
Last week, Saudi King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz issued a royal decree that punishes Saudi citizens with three to 20 years in prison for fighting abroad. Those who belong to or sympathise with radical religious and political movements will also be punished.
“We need to emulate the Saudi example and stand firmly against those who issue pamphlets or embellish opinions to encourage people to donate funds to buy weapons or send people to kill other people and cut off their heads. What is happening is utter nonsense and it has to be stopped,” Al Fadhl said.
The lawmaker said that those who are brainwashing young minds and encouraging young people to go and fight abroad do not do the same with their own sons.
“I challenge them to go themselves or to send their sons to the fights they say they are fully supporting,” he said. All Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries — Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — should enact laws that ban getting involved in conflicts abroad, he said.
“I am working with fellow lawmakers to have this law enacted as soon as possible and we are looking forward to the support of the government in order to protect young Kuwaitis from a horrible brainwashing process and from getting involved in conflicts in which they have absolutely no stakes,” he said.
