Gulf begins to feel heat from its neighbours
WE LIVE NEXT TO SET OF ACTIVE VOLCANOES, POLITICAL SCIENTIST SAYS
Located near war zones and where hatred and grudges are at a boiling point, several Gulf states have started feeling the heat: attacks on Shiite mosques in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
Analysts say that the recent upswing of violence did not emerge in a vacuum and a set of regional factors is responsible.
“Gulf states are located in a very dangerous area. We live next to a set of active volcanoes both politically and militarily,” Emirati political scientist Abdul Khaleq Abdullah, told Gulf News.
The terrorist group Daesh has claimed a string of recent bombings in Saudi Arabia and most recently in Kuwait, targeting Shiite mosques. However, Daesh got its start in Iraq last year and quickly spread to Syria declaring a self-styled ‘Islamic’ state.
Daesh’s emergence in Iraq came at a time when former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki was accused of marginalising Sunnis in the country. Many analysts attribute the quick spread of Daesh to Sunni desperation with the sectarian policies of the Iraqi government as well as Syrian President Bashar Al Assad’s crackdown on a mainly Sunni rebellion just across the border.
The recent attacks in the Gulf come against this backdrop. Saudi Arabia is drawing up plans to install surveillance cameras in major mosques throughout the kingdom.
Cameras will be fixed within the mosques as well as outside to ensure that all angles are covered in a bid to boost security and ensure the safety of worshippers, particularly on Fridays, Saudi daily reported yesterday.
The Ministry of Islamic Affairs is now working on identifying the mosques where the surveillance cameras will be installed in the first phase of the massive project.
Major mosques in all provinces will be first on the list to be drawn up by the ministry.
The decision follows two deadly attacks on two consecutive Fridays in two mosques in the Eastern Province and an attack on a mosque in Kuwait on Friday.
The three attacks were carried out by suicide bombers who blew themselves up in their attempt to kill the highest number of worshippers. Two of the bombs were triggered inside mosques, while the third attack happened just outside a mosque after the bomber’s attempt to enter the prayer hall was foiled.
“They are a reflection of the sectarian dispute which is mushrooming in the Arab world, coupled with feelings of hatred, revenge and grudges,” said Mohammad Abu Rumman, an Amman-based researcher and expert on extremist groups.
Critical role
Abu Rumman added that religious leaders are playing a critical role in promoting the phenomenon.
“Daesh believes Shiites are infidels and their fighters are brainwashed to believe they will be closer to God if they kill Shiites,” he said.
On the other hand, analysts say, Sunnis are being also killed in mosques in Iraq after some Shiite religious leaders also claimed Sunnis were enemies.
“It is obvious that Daesh is seeking to fuel the Sunni-Shiite divide as well as Arab-Iranian tensions,” Abdul Aziz Saqr, chairman of the Saudi-based Gulf Research Centre, told Gulf News. The attack on a mosque in Kuwait on Friday aimed to exacerbate sectarian tension in the country, but according to Kuwaiti journalist Mona Fuzei, it had the opposite effect.
“Sunnis and Shiites united after the attack,” she said, pointing out they realised in the end they were all Kuwaiti citizens. “They fear the same source of danger.”
While some analysts believe closer security and intelligence cooperation is needed in the Gulf countries to face Daesh and other terrorist threats, other say a “package” of measures is equally needed.
Some of the measures are internal, including finding ways to deal with the ‘extremist’ religious speech, enlightening youths’ minds and tracing the supporters of terrorists group.
Others are related to regional developments, including ending the policy of exclusion in countries such as Iraq and introducing democratic measures in hot spots, including Syria, and ending Iranian interference in internal affairs in the Arab region. “The solution is not an easy or a simple one,” said Abu Rumman. “The security aspect is necessary and needed, but a security solution without a political one is like, I believe, somebody who wants to fly with one wing.”
The Saudi bomber had background suggesting no he planned to carry out a terrorist attack, according to Gulf officials.
The details released by Saudi and Bahraini authorities paint a fuller picture of the suicide bomber in Friday’s attack that killed 27 worshippers and wounded more than 200 in one of Kuwait City’s most promi-
They [the recent attacks] are a reflection of the sectarian dispute, which is mushrooming in the Arab world, coupled with feelings of hatred, revenge and grudges.”
Mohammad Abu Rumman
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Researcher