Persian Gulf Arab states must tackle terrorism: Commentator

Press TV has conducted an interview with Saeed Shehabi, an activist and political commentator in London, about an ISIL bomb attack at Imam Sadiq Mosque in Kuwait City, which killed over two dozen people.

Following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: First of all what do you make of this attack that is happening on Shia mosque there in Kuwait?

Shehabi: It is a tragic event. It is a terrorist attack that has been condemned already by several people including Kuwaitis themselves. I understand that the emir of Kuwait himself has paid a visit to the mosque, that the Kuwaiti cabinet is going to meet later today to discuss the fallout of this attack on innocent people whose only crime was to go to mosque on a Friday to worship their God.

Now when you reach this stage of barbarity and violence whereby you target simply people because they are worshiping God on a Friday in the holy month of Ramadan, then that is something that has never been [presented] in our Islamic or human history. You should not - whether it is Muslims or non-Muslims - you must not target people in their places of worship.

So today’s aggression and attack and terrorist act is something similar to what happened in Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia in the past month when two mosques were targeted in two consecutive weeks. Again many people were killed in those mosques, and the situation is really frightening in that region because these ISIS people are targeting anyone who says there is no god but God and Muhammad is His messenger.

Press TV: As you have just also pointed out that over the past month we have also seen two attacks take place on Shia mosques in Saudi Arabia, now do you think when these attacks happen, the question needs to be asked about the role of these governments - be it in Saudi Arabia or in Kuwait - as far as fueling and funding this Takfiri ideology which makes people carry out such attacks?

Shehabi: Well there are several points to this question. First of all who is financing these groups? This is number one. And many people including … there is an American committee, the Congress Intelligence Committee recently accomplished a report on the relations, the links between Saudi Arabia and the 9/11 and established a direct link between the Saudi monarchy and that…

Now ISIS is well-known to be financed by some [Persian] Gulf states. This is significant because if you add to that the fact that the mosques are not really protected. There has not been real attempt by the governments of the [P]GCC to address the problem of terrorism and to provide enough protection to those who go to mosques, anywhere, whether it is Shia mosque or Sunni mosque they need to be protected. There must be also urgent meetings - if they are serious - to deal with these [groups] but none of this is happening which means there are a lot of question marks about the real role of at least some of the [P]GCC member countries.

AHK/MKA

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