A friend of mine started a blog and wasn’t convinced the posts are “blog material” because of the length and so on…

Please check out the blog - An Exercise in Procrastination

This post has to be one of the most well written and well thought out posts Ive seen in a long time, I took permission before reposting it here -

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Why the Constitution is losing the battle against Islamization.

This post is really long, please feel free to only read the bolded section - the gist of the argument. The rest is simply evidence and background information which is central in backing my argument.
There is a wide discrepancy between what is obligatorily taught as Islamic legal theory and the reality of Kuwait’s legal system and it’s constitution. I will analyze the divergence between the theoretical ideal proposed by the education system and the political reality and the implications that this discrepancy has on our society. Specifically, I will address the Hudood laws.

The official relationship between the Islamic Shariah and Kuwaiti politics is defined in the constitution of Kuwait: “The religion of the State is Islam, and the Islamic Shariah shall be a main source of legislation” (Part 1, Article 2). The use of “a main source of legislation” as opposed to the main source of legislation is a formulation that merely indicates a vague ‘mission statement’ but lacks precise political direction;

Furthermore, despite establishing the Shariah early on as a “factor in legislation”, it is not mentioned ever again in the Constitution. This is most obvious in the articles that refer to the judiciary and the legislation which are never explicitly related to the Shariah. Article 79, which outlines the legislative, states that “no law may be promulgated unless it has been passed by the National Assembly and sanctioned by the Amir”. It does not mention the relevance of the Shariah and whether and to what extent it should be taken to account. The same issue arises in the judiciary branch which according to Article 53, “[judicial power] shall be vested in the Courts, which shall exercise it in the name of the Amir within the limits of the Constitution” – and not within the limits of the Shariah. This, along with the vagueness of the phrase “shall be a main source” further reinforces the idea that the second article is more of a mission statement and is not meant to have direct political influence.

(Remember the Constitution of Kuwait has 183 articles! The Sharia is mentioned only that one time. Islam is mentioned another time in article 18: “The State safeguards the heritage of Islam and of the Arabs and contributes to the furtherance of human civilization.” Again, both articles are obviously in a ‘mission statement’ sense. )

While the Shariah’s role is vague in the constitution, the Kuwaiti Islamic Studies high school curriculum is much more elaborate and specific when it comes to it’s role. These educational materials are authored and published by government institutions and are mandatory for every Muslim high school student. I am using Islamic studies books that I had when I went to high school - first half of the 2000’s (see works cited).

According to the chapter “The Responsibilities of the Muslim Ruler”, “the implementation of the Islamic Shariah is one of the most important goals of a Muslim leader” (Al-Jamal, 227). But, the Shariah, other than being the path of God, is not explicitly defined in the curriculum; however, the basis of the Shariah is defined:

“The Halal and the Haram are the central basis of Islam, on which the Faith and the Shariah are built. For on its principles [the Faith and the Shariah], life flourishes, the legislation is set and the Hudood of God are applied.” (Al-Kandary, 67)

Here, the textbook explicitly attributes the Hudood to the Shariah.

A Had is defined as “a fair punishment that is mandatory, being the right of God” (Al-Jamal, 173). There are six Hudood laws and they apply to six different violations or Islamic sins namely, apostasy, adultery, drinking alcohol, theft, highway robbery and false accusation of adultery (Al-Jamal, 173). The Hudood for each violations differ, they include death (Al-Jamal, 182), stoning (Al-Jamal, 214), whipping (Al-Jamal, 211), amputation (Al-Jamal, 190) and the freeing of slaves (Al-Jamal, 188). Even though some of these Hudood and violations are archaic and cannot be strictly defined today, such as the freeing of slaves and highway robbery, they are still listed along with the others in the textbook and thus given equal importance. The Hudood can neither be pardoned nor appealed after being sentenced since they are God’s own right (Al-Jamal, 175).

Thus, according to this curriculum, the ruler, being obliged to apply the Sharia, must enforce the Hudood. Since, theoretically according to the textbooks, the main responsibility of a ruler is to apply the Sharia, this duty would include the implementation of the Hudood as well. But what is the legal reality of the Hudood in Kuwait?

Kuwait does not apply the Hudood, on constitutional grounds. On March 1996, then Hussein Qambar Ali, a Kuwaiti , formally announced to the world that he had converted to Christianity. Following this announcement, a lawsuit was launched in an Islamic court by independent Islamist lawyers to denounce him as an apostate and strip him of his civil rights. The Had for apostasy is death (Al-Jamal. 182), and yet these lawyers did not request such a punishment. The Islamic court declared him an apostate and he lost the case. When the residing judge was asked about the possibility of the death penalty, he noted that even though that is possible under the Shariah, it would be unconstitutional and in violation of Kuwaiti criminal law. In fact Ali appealed by claiming that the Islamic court had no jurisdiction over him using the 35th article of the constitution,

“Freedom of belief is absolute. The State projects the freedom of practicing religion in accordance with established customs, provided that it does not conflict with public policy or morals.”

To further demonstrate this point, there has never been an incident of neither stoning nor amputation in Kuwait’s legal history. The constitution was put above the Islamic Shariah in this case and in all others - when it comes to the Hudood as explained by the education system.

The fact that the notion of applying the Had of apostasy was disregarded by an Islamic judge as unconstitutional and that it was not even mentioned by the Islamist lawyers as a viable retribution in this case, illustrates the discrepancy between the political reality and the theoretical ideal relationship between the state and the Hudood Laws as defined by the Islamic studies government curriculum.

The government publishes mandatory books that demand a ruler that governs under the Shariah and thus must enforce the Hudood. In reality, however, they are not implemented on constitutional grounds. There is an obvious contradiction here: either the law and the constitution is to change or the education system. This contradiction (one of many between the Islamic studies curriculum and the constitution), I believe, is one of the main reasons for the success of Islamist politics in Kuwait, an issue that many fail to see the significance of.

In 1992 after the liberation of Kuwait and the return of parliamentary elections, the Islamic Salafist group in Kuwait convened in a conference named the “Popular Islamic Conference” to set an agenda; they were about to officially announce their political platform for the first time. The first two goals included in the conference’s final report were:

“1. Changing the second article of the constitution making the Shariah the main source of legislation.” (Report of Popular Islamic Conference)
“2. Changing all current legislation that violates the Islamic Shariah.” (Report of Popular Islamic Conference)

These goals have yet to be achieved, but an enforced education system that challenges the constitution’s legitimacy only augments the possibility of achieving these goals; it leaves us Kuwaitis with the choice between our constitution and our religion, as we are made to understand it through this curriculum! This education system places us all in an interesting position: Are we to apply the Hudood, or stick to the constitution and infringe on God’s rights (as we have been made to understand them) ?

This is exactly what is paving the way for the Islamist agenda above.

Works Cited:

The Constitution of the State of Kuwait.
Al-Jamal, Ahmed A. Islamic Studies for the Tenth Grade. 1st ed. Kuwait City: Kuwait Ministry of Education, 2004.
Al-Kandry, Fahed A. Islamic Studies for the Ninth Grade. 1st ed. Kuwait City: Kuwait Ministry of Education, 2006.
Hussein Qambar ‘Ali: Death Threats. Amnesty International. 1996. 14 Dec. 2006
The Report of the Popular Islamic Conference on the Implementation of the Sharia. Popular Islamic Movement ( Al-Tajamu’ Al-Islami Al-Sha’Bi). Kuwait, 1992. Secondary Source: http://www.alqabas.com.kw/Final/NewspaperWebsite/NewspaperPublic/ArticlePage.aspx?ArticleID=222934

*Also, note that in the past few year there have been additions to the mandatory requirements. Now, I believe, one has to take both Islamic Studies and Quran - two separate subjects. At least that is the case in my high school.
*It would be interesting to look at Islamic Studies books of the 1960’s and 70’s. Anyone have any idea?

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Please post your comments at the original page - http://exerciseinprocrastination.blogspot.com/2007/11/why-consitition-is-loosing-battle.html

The latest example of why us Arabs and Muslims will always remain in the dark ages -

UK teacher goes to court in Sudan

A student in her class called Mohammed names a teddy bear after himself …. and now they want to give her 40 lashes and a jail sentence for blasphemy and insulting Islam!!

As usual, I expect riots and flag burning, since thats the limit of our communication methods with the world these days …

P.S. - Fact - The most common name in the world is ……………………….. Mohammad!

تحيا الأمة العربية

This is a picture from inside the hospital -

(click for better view)

They had 4 of these posters in one hallway.

I have three comments -

1. What if the patient was Buddhist or whatever?? Apparently there is no hope for him since the doctor can’t do anything!
2. جمعية إعانة المرضى is spending its money on this instead of helping the patients????
3. There is not ONE useful medical point in this poster which can benefit the patients.

Reminds me of this picture from the same organization 3 years ago in one of the hospitals that I posted before -

(click for better view)

Picture from a hospital’s entrance -

Who cares about other people’s lives when it means that I can walk 30 seconds less to and from my car!?

Typical.

There have been several new newspapers in the market. A friend was commenting a couple of days ago about the lack of creativity in their production, basically they all followed each other, take a look -

Notice the smiliraties? The main thing I would guess is trying to go away from the old newspaper styles, and using color for their branding. The fonts are also very different to what was previously used, although a few newspapers have already changed their font, AlSeyassah and AlRai come to mind, and I think AlAnba also did.

A quick look at international newspapers, you will notice that the logos above are similar to newer newspapers and closer to tabloid newspaper logos. You have all these newspapers which are older than 100 years old -

And then you have the newer ones and the tabloids -

Notice the similarities?

In line with the environment issue in the past post, I want to discuss corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Kuwait.

One definition for CSR is -

concept whereby organizations consider the interests of society by taking responsibility for the impact of their activities on customers, employees, shareholders, communities and the environment in all aspects of their operations.

The field is relatively new, and has been gaining attention slowly but surely in the region. Apparently there is an annual Corporate Social Responsibility conference held in Kuwait as well as a few in the region ( 1 , 2 ).

In Kuwait, as far as I can recall, the two companies that are the most active are NBK and Zain. The best example of their efforts is the NBK pediatric hospital and the Zain Hospital (previously MTC) for Ear-Nose-Throat. I can’t really recall any other company really contributing to that extent in that field. I am sure there are other examples but nothing comes to mind right now.

I was looking through several websites of Kuwaiti companies seeing which of them have a section for CSR, and to my surprise, there were more than I expected -

NBK
Zain
Gulf Bank
Agility
Commercial Bank
KIPCO
Equate
Sultan Center
KNPC (pdf)
KPC
Dar Investment

(if you know any more, please tell me so I can update the list)

I was surprised that companies like Wataniya Telecom or KFH didn’t have a section on their website. This doesn’t mean that they don’t contribute to the society as much as others, it just isn’t reflected as an important issue on their website. Some of the links above are very impressive, especially the NBK website dedicated for the CSR.

While looking for some information, I stumbled onto a couple of interesting links.

First, there is the CSR Middle East organization, which is the Middle East’s First Online Corporate Social Responsibility Platform. I like the concept behind it, which at least puts the spotlight on such an important issue.

Another interesting website was the CSR Awards website, which is basically a competition in Kuwait for Kuwaiti companies to award the best of them and give them the recognition they deserve. (Looking through the website, the deadline for submitting a company is in 4 days!)

Its great to see such initiatives from the companies and different organizations on CSR, and glad to see that it is gaining importance. I just hope to see more environemntal issues tackled in these efforts, like the one on the streets from about 3 weeks ago -

This was done by “Challenge the Era Company” (which is sadly a very poor translation of the Arabic name تحدي العصر), which also are related to Environment Friends Campaign (EFC) . Many companies mentioned above and others are involved in sponsoring this campaign.

We need more of that. The main problem we have right now in Kuwait is awareness. Many people are not aware about the environmental issues and their impact. Hopefully the companies with the CSR departments will start looking at this aspect to work on.

موضوع البيئة حاليا هو الموضوع الأهم دوليا و متوقع أن يمثل دور كبير في انتخابات أمريكا السنة القادمة 

زيارة رئيسة الوزراء الألمانية ميركل لجورج بوش في مزرعته الأسبوع الماضي كان  من أهم أهدافها الاتفاق على ضوابط بيئية

الرئيس الفرنسي ساركوزي أعلن قبل أكثر من شهر عن بداية الثورة الخضراء لفرنسا 

رئيس الوزراء البريطاني يضع البيئة في مقدمة المواضيع المهمة لحكومته

جائزة نوبل للسلام تذهب لآل غور و منظمة بيئية

  أكبر تجمع دولي بيئي يقام في اندونيسيا الشهر القادم بحضور 180 دولة 

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سؤال بسيط … 

هل تتوقعون راح يكون للبيئة أي أهمية بانتخابات المجلس القادمة؟

ممكن أي مرشح يتطرق للموضوع في البرنامج الانتخابي؟ 

For some reason, many people voted for in the Zain logo and not the Wataniya one! Anyway, the scores are as follows -

   1.8 / 10

5.6 / 10

I can’t say I’m surprised that Zain got a low score, but I realllyy didnt expect it to be that low!!

Rate Zain’s logo Selection Votes 0 18% 12 1 13% 9 2 16% 11 3 12% 8 4 3% 2 5 9% 6 6 7% 5 7 6% 4 8 7% 5 9 0% 0 10 9% 6 68 votes total

… and Wataniya’s

Rate Wataniya’s logo Selection Votes 0 13% 6 1 9% 4 2 4% 2 3 7% 3 4 2% 1 5 7% 3 6 7% 3 7 18% 8 8 4% 2 9 9% 4 10 20% 9 45 votes total

The other day I had a discussion with a friend following the Logo R.I.P post on logos in Kuwait in general. We were discussing which logos we liked and which we didn’t like. We agreed on most but had some disagreements on a few. So I decided to have a Rate the Logo post, where I post the logo and the readers give it a rating from 0-10, in a couple of months we will have some idea as to which logos are most hated and loved!

There is no criterea, it is just a matter of taste, whether you like it or not.

I’ll start today with the telecoms, Zain and Wataniya logos -

I hope this leads to some interesting discussions! I would appreciate if you would say why you voted to what.

Let the voting begin!

Whoever did this card must have been drunk!

First of all, the name of the organization is wrong! I hope its just this card but I know I’m being overly optimistic on that.

The name of the organization is “Public Authority for Minors Affairs” according to the directory of the main e-government website (which is way better than any of the ministries). They messed up with the of/for and affair/affairs. So thats TWO mistakes in the name of the organization printed on their own business cards.

To make things worse, the guy’s title is Direczor! How?! The T isn’t even close to the Z to be a typo!

Of course, their Web.www.pama.gov.kw is also messed up.
But to be fair, this is a perfect reflection of the place and most governmental institutions in Kuwait. I have to admit its still better than the Pubic Authority of Agriculture, which was thankfully changed very soon afterwards.