Kuwait: Call to Kill the “Infidel” Twitter User

It seems like Twitter really decides a lot for Kuwaitis; one case after another goes to court because of certain tweets. Months ago, a columnist was jailed for his anti-Shia tweets and last year there were two similar cases for Shiite Nasser Abul and Sunni Mubarak Al-Bathali, who each spent months in prison for tweets they published.

This week, after interrogating a Twitter user for a hashtag, Twitter was stormed by the tweets of Hamad Al-Naqi, a young Shiite Kuwaiti man who is known for his support to the Bahraini revolution. Al-Naqi was accused of insulting Prophet Mohammed and one of his wives, Ayesha.

He denied the accusations but was arrested and an investigation is being conducted as he serves a pre-trial detention, a law that has been under criticism as it allows the public prosecution to keep one in detention for weeks without access to trial. He said that his account has been hacked and that he is a religious person who would never insult the Prophet.

Although the tweet can be seen as an attack on Islam, the Sunnis dealt with it as a Shia attack on Sunni Islam. On Wednesday, Kuwaitis protested in Erada Square by the parliament against Al-Naqi and called for his death while burning the Iranian flag [video] to indicate that Shia are only loyal to Iran religiously and politically.

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