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After "Al-Arabiya" Presenter's Insult, Deputy Bahrain Shura Council Speaker Incites against "Kuwaiti Muslim Brotherhood"

2019-07-24 - 3:45 p

Bahrain Mirror (Exclusive): Not long after the insult of the Saudi "Al-Arabiya" Channel, Sara Dandrawi, to Kuwait, deputy speaker of the Bahraini Shura council Jamal Fakhro followed suit, once again inserting Kuwait's name in the gulf media campaigns. On his personal Twitter account, he said that "the role of the Muslim brotherhood in Kuwait is supporting the brotherhood in the Arab Gulf states. A witness from their own folk testified." He attached his comment with a video of Egyptian lawyer Tharwat Al-Kharbawi in which he spoke about what he called "the danger of the Kuwaiti Brotherhood organization".

Although one of the Kuwaiti commentators warned him that his words represented an interference in Kuwait's internal affairs, Fakhro insisted that all he did was "share the opinion of a Brotherhood defector who said that the Kuwaiti brotherhood was organized by the Gulf brotherhood and this is historically known. I don't think this is an interference in Kuwait's domestic affairs."

This comes shortly after "Al-Arabiya" channel presenter Sara Dandrawi sarcastically inserted Kuwait's name at the end of a report of hers on "Qatar's decision to lower the price of alcohol". "We are waiting for the comments of their friends in Kuwait on the Qatari generosity," the presenter said at the end of the report, referring to the Muslim brotherhood of Kuwait. This prompted the intervention of the Kuwaiti Ministry of Information, which denounced "the involvement of Kuwait in cases that have nothing to do with it," considering it "a gross and unacceptable insult towards Kuwait and its people."

A Kuwaiti commenter responded to Fakhro, saying, "the demonization of the Brotherhood in neighboring countries does not mean that you insult Muslim Brotherhood of Kuwait. They are patriots working for the good of Kuwait and no one will be able to oblige Kuwait to punish them (because there is a demon who wants so). Kuwait and its people are free. It does not receive orders from anyone unless we find that we were (penetrated) like others."

She went on to say that "seeking to demonize them (the Brotherhood) and pressure Kuwait to punish them even though they are very patriotic and their actions are remarkable, and their affiliation with the brotherhood does not mean they are bad. Every movement acts according to the situation of the country it lives in."

Until the time before the Gulf crisis, the Bahraini Muslim Brotherhood held two ministerial portfolios in the Bahraini government: former Minister of Human Rights Dr. Salah Ali (former president of the Islamic Menbar society, the arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in Bahrain) and Development Minister Fatima Al-Balushi (a member of the same association). However, Bahrain's Shura Council Deputy Speaker Jamal Fakhro seems that he has forgotten this and prefers to defame channel of Kuwait state within relentless effort to involve it in the Gulf crisis, in which it [Kuwait] prefers to take the role of a mediator.

Private correspondence between Bahrain's Foreign Minister Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa and former editor-in-chief of Saudi Arabia's Al-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper Salman Al-Dosari has already revealed Bahrain's lack of neutrality in the Gulf crisis. In a private letter to Al-Dosari, which was revealed with dozens of other correspondences after the minister's Twitter account was hacked, the minister wrote, "Oman's position is understandable, this is their line, but Qatar is carrying out Western orders... Kuwait is the country that is most required to stand clear now. Pressure it now and don't worry."

Al-Dosari responded to this when the Al-Sharq Al-Awsar published a headline on its front page, a few days following this private letter, entitled "Gulf-Iranian Dialogue: A Qatari idea, Kuwaiti silence and a Saudi-Emirati and Bahraini reservation". Al-Dosari focused on Kuwait's position, which is different from that of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Oman, quoting an unnamed "senior Gulf official" as saying that the position of the three countries "weakens the firm position taken by the Gulf States".

Arabic Version