VZCZCXRO5412
PP RUEHBC RUEHDBU RUEHDE RUEHKUK RUEHLH RUEHPW RUEHROV
DE RUEHKU #0875/01 1560821
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 050821Z JUN 07
FM AMEMBASSY KUWAIT
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 9292
INFO RUCNISL/ISLAMIC COLLECTIVE PRIORITY

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 KUWAIT 000875 
 
SIPDIS 
 
NOFORN 
SIPDIS 
 
FOR NEA/ARP 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/05/2027 
TAGS: PGOV PTER KISL EG MR SU KU ISLAMISTS
SUBJECT: KUWAIT'S ISLAMIC MODERATION INITIATIVE UNDER THE 
MICROSCOPE 
 
REF: A. 06 KUWAIT 4610 
     ¶B. 06 KUWAIT 4416 
     ¶C. 06 KUWAIT 4178 
     ¶D. 06 KUWAIT 1741 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Richard LeBaron for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). 
 
¶1.  (C)  Summary and Comment:  Kuwait recently launched a 
public relations campaign to further its "moderation" 
initiative, which seeks to foster tolerance and moderation 
among Muslims and to convey a moderate image of Islam to 
non-Muslims.  The materials used in the campaign are of high 
quality and contain a positive message.  The effort to get 
the message to the Kuwaiti public has been ineffective, 
however, though not for lack of financial resources. 
Kuwaitis from a broad spectrum of political persuasions have 
recently weighed in on the moderation initiative.  Kuwaiti 
liberals criticize the moderation project as dominated by 
extremists while Shi'as see it as biased toward Sunnism. 
Sunni Islamist MPs have sharply rebuked the Awqaf and Islamic 
Affairs Minister over the project, citing administrative 
irregularities and a lack of clarity in the project's goals. 
In general, however, Islamists have not publicly objected to 
the project itself, preferring instead to brand their own 
practices as the embodiment of Islamic moderation.  While 
Kuwaitis express serious criticisms of the project's 
implementation, they broadly agree that it is a good idea and 
there has been little criticism of the content thus far.  The 
travails of the "moderation" initiative are mirrored in 
similar outreach efforts around the world, and point to the 
need for caution in attempting to define and promote 
"moderate Islam" or "moderate Muslims."  End Summary and 
Comment. 
 
Moderation Campaign: Solid Message, Weak Implementation 
--------------------------------------------- ---------- 
 
¶2.   (U)  Kuwait's Higher Committee for Moderation recently 
launched a public relations campaign to promote Islamic 
moderation in Kuwait.  The Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic 
Affairs formed the Higher Committee in 2005 at the behest of 
the Amir and charged it with leading its "moderation" 
initiative, whose goals are to encourage moderation and 
tolerance among Muslims and to show the moderate, tolerant 
nature of Islam to non-Muslims.  In the fall of 2006, it 
launched the World Moderation Center to take over the work of 
implementing the moderation initiative's goals (ref C).  The 
current campaign, nicknamed "Aman" (Arabic for security, 
safety, or peace) -- consists of a series of public town hall 
meetings where the moderation leaders present the moderation 
initiative to members of the public through speeches, videos, 
and written materials. 
 
¶3.  (SBU)  The moderation materials used in the Aman campaign 
have been of high quality.  For instance, the World 
Moderation Center commissioned a series of nine monographs by 
prominent Islamic clerics (such as Abdullah Bin Bayyah of 
Mauritania) and writers (such as Fahmi Huwaidi of Egypt). 
The monographs attempt to show Muslims that Islam encourages 
moderation, tolerance, and non-violence.  The Aman campaign 
also includes a well-produced video on the danger to Kuwaiti 
society of youth being seduced into extremism and the 
importance of respecting differences of opinion and turning 
conflict into dialogue. 
 
¶4.  (C)  The attempts to get the message out through the Aman 
campaign's townhall events have been clumsy, however. 
PolOffs attended an Aman town hall event recently at an 
ornate reception hall in downtown Kuwait City.  A smattering 
of imams dotted the nearly empty hall.  The imams watched the 
moderation video and listened stoically to speeches by Awqaf 
Undersecretary Dr. Adel Al-Falah and MP Marzouq Al-Ghanim. 
The event ended without any interaction with the audience, 
which quickly dispersed and headed for the generous buffet 
dinner provided by the Awqaf Ministry.  Shi'a MP Hassan 
Jowhar told PolOff that he had received a last-minute 
invitation to speak at a similar townhall event in his 
district.  He said the event had an embarrassingly low 
turnout, which was indicative of the project administrators' 
lack of commitment and/or competence. 
 
¶5.  (C)  Whether the intended message is getting through to 
its audience is also questionable.  PolOffs spoke with one of 
the imams at the Aman townhall meeting, an Egyptian recently 
arrived in Kuwait to work in a downtown mosque.  He said that 
he had not been particularly interested in the meeting but 
had understood from the ministry that he should attend.  When 
asked about the moderation project in general, he noted he 
had attended the mandatory Sunni imam moderation training 
 
KUWAIT 00000875  002 OF 003 
 
 
(ref B).  He commented that some imams were receptive to the 
ideas but that many others assumed the moderation project was 
American propaganda. 
 
¶6.  (SBU)  The international moderation conferences organized 
by the Awqaf ministry provide another example of how a 
potentially beneficial message has been lost due to poor 
public relations.  The ministry held conferences in London 
and Washington in 2006 to communicate with non-Middle Eastern 
Muslims.  Awqaf contacts report that the London conference 
revealed a great deal of extremism among European Muslims and 
prompted the Kuwaiti government to set up a center for 
combating extremism in Manchester.  The Washington conference 
(ref A) intended to allow American Muslims to voice their 
concerns in order to prepare for a subsequent conference that 
would try to correct what they see as the inaccurate 
portrayal of Muslims in the U.S. and the West.  Many Kuwaitis 
are very concerned about the image of Muslims in the West as 
violent extremists.  However, the government has been 
unsuccessful in conveying the purpose of these conferences to 
the Kuwaiti media and public, which routinely criticize the 
conferences as wasteful boondoggles. 
 
Criticisms of Moderation: Hiring and Spending 
--------------------------------------------- 
 
¶7.  (C)  Liberals, Shi'as, and Salafis all complain that the 
leaders of the moderation campaign have Muslim 
Brotherhood-leaning backgrounds, though for the liberals and 
Shi'as this means the project is too conservative and Sunni 
while for the Salafis it means the project is not Sunni and 
conservative enough.  Liberals and Shi'as object to figures 
such as the World Moderation Center's leader, Dr. Esam 
Al-Bashir, a Sudanese ex-Muslim Brotherhood member who served 
as Awqaf Minister under Hassan Al-Turabi.  A liberal 
newspaper columnist told PolOff that even if Dr. Al-Bashir 
has moderated his views, the choice of someone with such a 
past is a signal that the project will not stray too far from 
conservative Islamist positions.  Shaykh Ahmad Hussein, one 
of the few Shi'a clerics included in the moderation 
initiative's official activities, echoed the liberals' 
criticisms of the moderation committee's makeup as too Sunni 
and too extremist.  He noted a television program in which 
Al-Bashir presented all the expected moderation sound bites, 
but then responded to a question about Shi'a practices by 
saying that they were dangerous and it was important to 
prevent Shi'a from spreading their ways.  From the other 
side, an Islamist contact told PolOff that the Salafis see 
the Awqaf Minister as hostile to them.  They think he is 
trying to keep Salafis out of the moderation initiative and 
the ministry in general, and have been vehement in their 
public criticisms of the ministry's hiring procedures. 
 
¶8.  (SBU)  The critics of the moderation initiative have also 
lambasted the Awqaf Ministry for its extravagant spending and 
its 50 million-Dinar (USD 173 million) budget.  In meetings, 
parliamentary questions to the Awqaf Minister and newspaper 
articles, Kuwaitis repeatedly criticize the remuneration 
package and frequent travel of World Moderation Center 
Director Al-Bashir.  The Salafis, in a recent attempt to oust 
the Awqaf Minister, accused the minister of corruption, and 
demanded to see evidence that the contracts for the 
moderation conferences held over the past several years were 
tendered in a fair, transparent manner.  While the Salafis 
relented in their quest to grill the minister immediately, as 
recently as June 4 several Salafi MPs met with the finance 
committee to pursue these allegations of financial wrongdoing. 
 
Criticisms of Moderation: Too Little Focus on Kuwait 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
 
¶9.  (SBU)  Kuwaitis from across the political spectrum have 
loudly complained about the government's renting out hundreds 
of rooms in five-star hotels in Washington and London rather 
than focusing on issues closer to home.  While expensive 
international conferences move forward with ample budget and 
resources, an important study on how young people are 
attracted to extremism, which was scheduled for release in 
May 2006 (ref D), still has not been released.  One liberal 
complained to PolOff that the World Moderation Center never 
responds to the frequent immoderate rants in the Kuwaiti 
papers. 
 
Despite It All, Moderation Project Still Welcomed 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
¶10.  (C)  Despite the criticisms coming from across the 
political spectrum (with the notable exception of the Muslim 
Brotherhood), Kuwaitis of all stripes universally agree that 
 
KUWAIT 00000875  003 OF 003 
 
 
they like the basic idea behind the moderation project.  For 
instance, the Revival of Islamic Heritage Society (RIHS) -- a 
Salafi charity based in Kuwait but whose branches in Pakistan 
and Afghanistan are listed as terrorist financiers by the 
U.S. and the UN -- recently met with the Amir and described 
part of its goal as spreading moderation.  Liberals like the 
idea of attacking extremism at its roots.  Shi'as welcome the 
message of tolerance for minorities.  Furthermore, for all 
the criticisms of the staffing and administrative practices 
of the project, there have been few if any substantive 
criticisms of the content of the moderation initiative's 
materials or programs.  The initiative represents an 
important effort to fight extremism and its message will 
likely be welcomed in Kuwait, but the government still has 
not found a way to successfully convey its message. 
 
********************************************* * 
For more reporting from Embassy Kuwait, visit: 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/kuwait/?cable s 
 
Visit Kuwait's Classified Website: 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/kuwait/ 
********************************************* * 
 
LeBaron