Kuwaiti Liberal Scholar Anwar Al-Rashid: Militant Islamists Have Ruined The Region; Clerics Should Not Interfere In Politics And Talk About Jihad

In a heated TV debate, activist Anwar Al-Rashid, deputy head of the Kuwaiti Liberal Movement, said that the militant Islamist groups were destroying the region. In response, Scholar Ahmed Hssain said that the Islamists cleaned the region. Citing the recent Sinai mosque massacre, the millions killed in Syria, and the wars raging "from Morocco to Bahrain and from Kobani to Aden," Al-Rashid said that these were all the responsibility of the Islamists. "And you're telling me that they are not really Muslims?" he asked with incredulity. The debate aired on the Diwan Al-Mulla Internet TV on December 13.

Anwar Al-Rashid: "Al-Qaeda, ISIS, the Al-Nusra Front, Al-Takir Wal-Hijrah, Boko Haram, Ansar Al-Shari’a, the Muslim Brotherhood, Taliban, [Ansar] Beit Al-Maqdis, Ansar Al-Sunna, Al-Shabab in Somalia, the Algerian Islamic Salvation Front, Al-Tawhid Wal-Jihad..."

Moderator: "Okay, enough..."

Anwar Al-Rashid: "I have here 64 names of Islamist groups that are fighting. And you're telling me that they are not really Muslims?"

Ahmed Hssain: "Let them fight..."

Anwar Al-Rashid: "But they want to slaughter me!"

Ahmed Hssain: "No, they are fighting the Jews."

Anwar Al-Rashid: "No, they aren't! They haven't fired a single bullet at the Jews! What would you say about the Algerian Civil War, in which they slaughtered 100,000 people?"

Moderator: "In Sinai, the day before yesterday..."

Anwar Al-Rashid: "Right, in Sinai..."

Moderator: "There was a massacre inside a mosque, Abu Abdallah"

Anwar Al-Rashid: "What about the millions killed in Syria? Are they all non-Muslims?"

Ahmed Hssain:< "We need to fight in Syria and Bashar must be killed."

[...]

Anwar Al-Rashid: "I am not talking about Bashar, I don’t care about him. I am talking about all these [terrorist] groups. You say that they do not represent Islam and are not Muslims. How come? So who does represent Islam?

[...]

"Leave Islam to the mosques. We will go there to pray..."

Moderator: "This will never happen, Abu Khalid..."

Anwar Al-Rashid: "Do not interfere with politics and don't talk about Jihad and so on... Look what you have done to the world. You have ruined this region..."

Ahmed Hssain: "It is you who have ruined this region. We cleaned it!"

Anwar Al-Rashid: "We call for love and peaceful coexistence..."

Moderator: "And Islam does not call for love and peace?"

Anwar Al-Rashid: "The region in which we live today – from Morocco to Bahrain and from Kobani to Aden – isn't it filled with wars? Who is waging these wars? Isn't it the Islamist groups?"