Kuwait Times

Published Date: December 24, 2009
By Hussain Al-Qatari, Staff Writer

KUWAIT: About a hundred students gathered at Kuwait University's College of Arts campus in Keifan yesterday. They held a demonstration for peace and solidarity in Kuwait. The event which began at 12:30 in the afternoon, with students carrying the Kuwaiti flag and chanting patriotic slogans. The Kuwait Times spoke to some of the participants, who expressed their wholehearted concern with regard to what has been happening in Kuwait. Fawaz Al-Kanderi, 20, said "This is strange in our society; the fact that a
TV station bluntly and shamelessly attacked tribes and accused them of being unlawful in Kuwait is a real shock. We have always been one multi-cultural society with tribals, hadar, Sunnis and Shiites. What's even more distressing is the fact that there are people posting things on the Internet in support of Juwaihel and his bizarre ideas!

Abdulrazzaq Al-Hajeri, a 22-year old, said that the situation would truly go out of hand if people in Kuwait do not begin to accept their differences. "Our demonstration today is to encourage people to believe in unity. In recent years, we have had demonstrations for liberals, Islamists, Tribals, Shiites, but never something that celebrates Kuwait as a country. This is something that we need in our country urgently!" he said.

Members of the female crowd who only participated by wearing badges. 20-year old Layal said that more should be done regarding this subject. "With the launch of more TV stations and newspapers, we thought that we would begin celebrating our differences. Instead, we ended up attacking the differences of others. We ended up 'othering' people who are initially our countrymen; they are Kuwaiti just like us.

This makes me seriously question whether we are ready for true democracy or not," she said. Elaborating on her point, the political science student said, "We don't see newspaper headlines that celebrate Kuwait. We don't see TV programs that host people belonging to different groups and political parties. When a TV station broadcasts a Shiite and a Sunni MP, it is always just a wrestling match, a space for them to argue. We don't see liberals and Islamists agreeing on anything. Anything at all, for example,
she said. Pointing the finger at the media, Layal's friend Ghadeer said that most newspapers headlines tend to exaggerate issues and use words that make the readers feel like there is a crisis in the country.

We label people excessively; we call them 'liberals' or 'conservatives' or 'extremists.' It creates a certain image in the head of the reader. it just causes distress and is really not good for the image of our country," she said.
The demonstrators chanted for unity and condemned the statements of controversial former candidate Mohammad Al-Juwaihel. They chanted, "No Sunni no Shiite we want national unity." They wore badges that read "I am not a Sunni nor a Shiite, I am a Kuwaiti." The protestors began the demonstration inside the KU Keifan campus and marched outside to the main street.