Liberals blast calls to ban Xmas celebrations
KUWAIT: Several Kuwaiti liberal civil societies have condemned calls from some organisations and individuals forbidding the celebration of Christmas in the state, a report said yesterday. The civil societies said in a statement published by Al-Jarida newspaper that every year at this time certain groups declare celebrating Christmas and New Year as forbidden from an Islamic point of view. "Because such actions represent an insult to Christianity and Christians … we strongly reject the publication of such calls," a statement signed by nine liberal groups said, adding that such calls were an act of hatred criminalised under the international law.
The statement did not say who issued the calls, but usually some radical religious individuals and small groups issue fatwas (religious edict) forbidding Christmas celebrations. However, the mainstream Islamic organisations do not issue such calls. There are no government restrictions on religious or social celebrations of Christmas or New Year in the conservative emirate, but social parties on any occasion must abide by strict regulations.
Kuwait has about a dozen churches which all freely mark Christmas especially in the main church complex in the heart of the capital Kuwait City. There are some 200 Christians – mainly of Iraqi or Palestinian origin – among the 1.2 million native population of Kuwait. But the state is home to 642,000 foreign Christians, or 17 percent of Kuwait's population of 3.8 million, mostly from India, the Philippines, Egypt, Lebanon and the West.
Meanwhile, local private Al-Youm satellite channel yesterday filed a lawsuit against a government decision to withdraw the license of the channel two days ago citing administrative irregularities. The channel's lawyers demanded reversing the ministry decision because it was not in line with the press and publications and the audio-visual laws. The administrative court set Wednesday for the next hearing on the issue. The ministry on Thursday informed the opposition-linked station it had decided to withdraw its license with immediate effect over administrative violations and the channel went off the air immediately.
The channel later said the ministry made the move allegedly because the channel failed to appoint a full-time Kuwaiti general manager as required under the law. The channel explained that it had submitted documents of the general manager to the ministry which demanded that a fresh copy of the university degree, obtained in late 1980s, must be submitted. The process took longer than the two-month deadline given by the ministry, which was informed of the delay and agreed to wait until it made the surprising decision.
Defense lawyers are demanding that the court orders the ministry to allow the station to resume broadcasting immediately until it has looked into the case which may take several weeks. Al-Youm has been seen as sympathetic to the opposition, carrying interviews with leading opposition figures and widely covering opposition protests.
In another business, newly-elected MPs took up the issue of bedoons, or stateless Arabs, yesterday as a bedoon man was stranded on the border between Kuwait and Saudi Arabia for several days because his passport had expired. MP Khaled Al-Shulaimi said yesterday that the man Mishaal Ayesh was allowed to enter Kuwait and was immediately taken to the Criminal Investigation Department to investigate his case. Ayesh was given a one-time travel document to go to Saudi Arabia by land and returned four days ago but was stopped at Al-Salmi border point because the validity of the travel document had expired.
Shiite MP Hussein Al-Qallaf sent a question to Prime Minister HH Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah inquiring about the government's plan to resolve the issue of bedoons and the duration of the plan, and inquired why the problem of bedoons has become more complicated. The National Assembly's interior and defense committee said it will start discussing the problem of bedoons soon with concerned officials in a bid to reach a solution.
The committee will review proposals submitted by former and current MPs on the issue and has asked for latest government figures on bedoons before it embarks on a solution. The government had said that there are around 106,000 bedoons living in Kuwait, of whom only 34,000 qualify for consideration for Kuwaiti citizenship while the rest belong to other countries and has asked them to produce their original identity so to be given proper residence permits in Kuwait.
The foreign relations committee meanwhile began discussing a large number of treaties Kuwait signed with foreign countries, head of the committee MP Saleh Ashour said. He added that the committee has demanded that the Assembly hold a special session to discuss and ratify those treaties. Head of the Budgets Committee MP Adnan Abdulsamad said yesterday that the committee will reject the decree approving the state budget if it finds that certain financial items which had been rejected in the past were included in the budget.
The government had passed the budget in an Amiri decree soon after dissolving the Assembly in October. This decree must be approved by the Assembly to become a proper law. Abdulsamad also said that the budget includes certain violations that are worthy of becoming grillings for ministers. He did not elaborate.
By B Izzak, Staff Writer and Agencies
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