Kuwait Women Urge Unity Against Sectarianism
Agence France-Presse - 22 January, 2007
Kuwaiti women activists called yesterday for
unity to avert a sectarian rift between Islam’s two main sects amid
concern in the Gulf state about the fallout of sectarian violence in
neighbouring Iraq.
“Today, Kuwait’s national unity and
social fabric are being targeted as signs of abhorrent sectarian
rifts surface,” they said in a statement.
Signed by 23
prominent women activists, the statement urged the government to
stamp out any sectarian discord and called on MPs to dissociate
themselves from sectarian affiliations and work to preserve peaceful
coexistence. They also urged Kuwaitis to be vigilant and resist any
attempt to drag them into a sectarian conflict that would threaten
everyone.
With sectarian violence raging in Iraq, Kuwait has
at times experienced tensions between hardliners in the majority
Sunni population and the Shii’tes.
Last week the government
prevented a public rally called by radical Sunni activists to
highlight what they called the “plight of Sunnis in Iraq.”
Shiites, who comprise about a third of Kuwait’s native
population of one million, have been emboldened by events in Iraq
where their counterparts head the government after decades of Sunni
rule ended with the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.
There are
currently two Shi’ites in the 16-member Kuwaiti cabinet and only
four in the 50-member parliament. In 2005, Kuwaiti leaders appealed
for calm after tension rose between the two communities in the
emirate. |