Amending article 79 and the civil state
According to its constitution, namely article 6, Kuwait is a democratic civil state and any proposal to amend constitutional articles should be done for the sake of achieving more liberties, equality and establishing the foundations of a civil democratic state that has room for everyone. Nevertheless, political Islam blocs do not recognize democratic regimes and values such as freedom, devolution of power, pluralism and separation between powers.
The ultimate goal of political Islam blocs is to build a religious state that is no different from the Islamic State (IS) group except for some slight differences in grades. Political Islam blocs (the Muslim Brotherhood and its subdivisions) work according to gradual phases, during which they utilize liberties and democratic tools, such as elections and ballots, only to get to power and then monopolize it forever, while IS follows a policy of burning everything.
Therefore, it is no wonder that once in power, their first priority is to try to indirectly cancel the constitution and push towards establishing a religious state. This is why they recently asked to amend article 79 of the Kuwaiti constitution after they failed several times (nine to be precise) in amending article 2. If they manage to achieve this, the other articles of the constitution will be worthless. Notably, this is their second attempt to amend article 79 after His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Sabah had previously rejected the first attempt in accordance with article 66 of the constitution.
In case article 79 gets amended as proposed by Kuwait’s branch of the Muslim Brotherhood - the Islamic Constitutional Movement (ICM) and its allies in other Sunni blocs - this would signal a shift from a civil state into a religious one similar to IS, and we would then have a religious power superior to the legislative power, which is according to article 51 of the constitution, headed by His Highness the Amir and the National Assembly. This new power will decide on violations of Islamic sharia laws.
I wonder who will be its members. Which of the so many sharia interpretations will they adopt, especially when each of them claims to know the whole truth? The Muslim Brotherhood’s interpretation of some issues is different from those of Salafists. In addition, we have differences between Sunnis and Shiites. We still remember the disagreement between the Brotherhood and the Salafist Ummah Principles Party when the Youth Rising Forum was held in Kuwait several years ago, and MP Jamaan Al-Harbash tweeted addressing his fellow MP, urging him‘not to encapsulate sharia in his own interpretations of it.’This confirms the existence of more than an interpretation of sharia. So, which one will the proposed religious power follow after amending article 79?!
The slogan of applying Islamic sharia used by political Islam blocs to justify turning against the constitution is nothing more than an evasive emotional political tactic used to manipulate simple people and win their support. According to our constitution, sharia is‘the basic source of legislation.’These blocs are not even settled on the religious state they intend to establish, and the best example of this are the bloody conflicts among them in Syria.
Last but not least, political Islam blocs that are hindering the development of the democratic civil regime and look forward to establishing a religious state get their might and strength from allying with the political regime since the 1970s, as the latter has been facilitating their access to power and allowing them to publicly expand, although they have been frankly announcing rejection of liberties and the values of a democratic civil regime. For them, democracy is nothing more than a tool they use to come to power, then start changing the rules and monopolize it forever! —Translated by Kuwait Times