Kuwaiti mobile operator's advert criticised and praised

BBC News, Kuwaiti mobile operator's advert criticised and praised "Kuwait-based Zain released the advert entitled "We Will Sing With Love" to mark the start of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. It shows a man wearing an explosive belt walking through staged scenes reminiscent to bombings that took place in several countries and has been viewed more than three million times."

Kuwait royal jailed for three years for 'insulting' ruler

Middle East Eye, Kuwait royal jailed for three years for 'insulting' ruler "A Kuwaiti royal was ordered to pay $16,500 in compensation after being convicted of insulting the emir and several other royal family members."

Round-up: Attacks in France, Kuwait and Tunisia

National, 25 killed in ISIL-claimed mosque bombing in Kuwait

Guardian, Terrorist attacks in Tunisia, Kuwait and France stun three continents 

Independent, Kuwait mosque explosion: 'Isis' bombs Shia Muslims during Ramadan Friday prayers

Daily Mail, Pictured: The man ISIS claim slaughtered tourist on Tunisian beach

Telegraph, Were Tunisia, France, Kuwait attacks co-ordinated by Islamic State for Ramadan? 

Muslims formed 'human shield' to stop gun maniac shooting more dead

Daily Mail  'An attack upon the nests of fornication, vice and disbelief in God': ISIS's chilling words after Tunisian massacre which killed 38 as they warn 'worse is to follow'

NY Daily News, France terror suspect sent selfie with severed head: officials

IBTimes, ISIS Releases Audio Clip Purporting To Be Of Kuwait Shiite Mosque Bomber "The posthumous statement reportedly consisted mostly of Koranic verses and was posted on social media channels used by ISIS. In the clip, the speaker slammed Shiite Muslims and threatened revenge for insulting Islam, Reuters reported. However, the authenticity of the statement could not immediately be verified, the report added."

Kuwait tweeter gets 5 year prison sentence for 'insulting Prophet'

Kuwait tweeter gets 5 year prison sentence for 'insulting Prophet' — RT News "A Kuwaiti activist has been sentenced to five years in prison after being convicted of insulting the Prophet Mohammed. Musaab Shamsah was charged after posting a message on Twitter deemed offensive to relatives of the Prophet."

Kuwait: Three Netizens Sentenced to Prison

globalvoicesonline.org, Kuwait: Three Netizens Sentenced to Prison, 9 Jun 2012 "Since the Arab Spring first sparked, Kuwaiti authorities have been following internet users closely and summoning them to interrogation and then sending them to courts for prosecution over different cases that are mostly sectarian or political."

Kuwaiti tweeter jailed 6 months for insulting Shias

AFP/Tribune, Kuwaiti tweeter jailed 6 months for insulting Shias, 31 May 2012 "Kuwait’s court of appeals Thursday reduced a seven-year jail term of a Sunni tweeter to a six-month imprisonment for allegedly insulting the faith of the Shia minority, his lawyer said."

Kuwait 'blasphemy' case

10-year prison term for tweeter upheld - Blaspheming tweeter to stand trial

news.kuwaittimes.net

"The appeals court yesterday upheld a 10-year jail term for a tweeter found guilty of insulting HH the Amir and calling for the overthrow of the regime"

Kuwait: bloggersgathering.com

Arab Times, Efforts made to give bloggers ‘sense of order’, 22 Aug 2011, "To support bloggers and make blogging a more healthy and meaningful exercise in Kuwait, Khalil Al-Hamar, Founder and CEO of Edges, has undertaken a new initiative to form a sort of union of bloggers."

See bloggersgathering.com for more information

globalarabnetwork.com, Kuwait to create a communication and internet authority, 20 Jul 2011

Twitter arrests

Arab Times, Bahrain royal sues a Kuwaiti man for twitter comments, 12 Jun 2011 "A member of the Bahraini ruling family Sheikh Abdullah Mohammad bin Ahmad Al-Fatih Al-Khalifa has announced that he is suing a Kuwaiti man, Nasser Abul, for slandering and defaming his family. Abul allegedly posted unflattering remarks about the Bahraini ruling family on his Twitter homepage."

TG Daily, Kuwaiti man arrested for anti-Saudi tweets

Kuwait and Twitter

alWatanDaily, Sheikh Khaled denies monitoring Twitter users, 9 May 2011 "The Head of Protocol of the Amiri Diwan Sheikh Khaled Al-Abduallah Al-Sabah denied on Sunday what some twitter posts has been saying, as to monitoring the users and referring them to prosecution."

Tip: Shuji Hosaka

MEI Bulletin - review of iMuslims

The MEI Bulletin this month focuses on media in the Middle East.

It contains a piece by Bruce Etling and John Palfrey on their work Mapping the Arabic Blogosphere (recommended).

There is a review of Deborah L. Wheeler's 2006 book 'The Internet in the Middle East: Global Expectations and Local Imaginations in Kuwait' (also recommended).

There's also a review by Clifton Martin of my own book iMuslims.

You'll find it all here:

MEI Bulletin Vol. 60 Issue 3, Sept 2009 [pdf]

Kuwait censorship

AFP, Kuwait censors 'terror' blogs, 26 Sep 09 "Kuwait has blocked a number of Internet blogs and websites with links to "terror" cells and groups, a top official said in comments published on Friday.

""The ministry has blocked blogs ... used by some to communicate with terror cells and extremist groups," communications ministry undersecretary Abdulmohsen al-Mazeedi told Kuwait's An-Nahar newspaper."

Kuwait elections and the net

Commentary:

Mohammed Adel Fakhro, Gulf Daily News, Rise of liberal phoenix... , 26 May 09

"The election of four women to Kuwait's parliament represents the most significant tidal shift towards liberalism since the rise of Islamic extremism began to take hold in the late 1970s and early 1980s in the Middle East. It represents the rise of the Internet as a means within the region to inspire the youth of a country to go out and vote. It also proves the interest of the youth to see change in the region."

kuWeet

startuparabia.com, KuWeet, Your Window To Kuwaiti Tweets, 3 May 09 "The way it was built is really simple: an account @kuweet was created for twitter users in Kuwait to follow, and then what happens is that all followers of this account are collected and placed in a list. All tweets originating from people on this list are then aggregated into a a public timeline of Twitter users from and about Kuwait."

YouTube Block

tgdaily.com, YouTube banned in Kuwait, 22 Sep 08 "Kuwait's Ministry of Communication has banned YouTube for hosting content that is offensive to Muslims. The ministry has sent a memo to all the country's Internet service providers asking them to take YouTube off-line. As of today, YouTube is still available because technical issues relating to the blockage are still being worked out."

Also see:

alarabiya.net, Kuwait to block YouTube over Islamic content, 22 Sep 08

"Since the website displays the Koran in the form of songs sung with the oud (stringed instrument) ... and publishes offensive pictures of the Prophet Mohammad ... please proceed with immediate effect in blocking the website www.youtube.com," read a copy of a memo from the Ministry of Communications published on websites and blogs Monday.

"The Ministry of Communications was not immediately available for a comment. The website could still be accessed in Kuwait on Monday. A search for the keyword “Kuwait” returned about 59,000 videos of all different kinds."

blogallalong.com, Further to the YouTube Blocking Story, 23 Sep 08 "The blocking was freezed yesterday for further discussions, which while good, pretty much surprises me even more. First of all, you don’t fire up an official letter to the ISPs and then reconsider. Secondly, if the letter was not signed by the minister, this letter has zero legal value, and belongs to the trash. The person who is on purpose, and still defending his ground, by passing all legal procedures, to block the third largest popular site in Kuwait, from an individual thinking (if that’s what you wanna call it), considering him self probably so smart with this crap, should be punished and blocked from his position, stripped out of all responsibilities, after showing such immature level in his management."

Kuwait

Press Association, Kuwait gets tough on web offenders, 28 Jul 08, "Hamed al-Othman says in an interview with Al-Qabas daily published on Sunday he has prepared a Bill that criminalises promoting vice, incitement against the country's leadership, divulging state secrets, or insulting Islam on the web."

Kuwait

arabtimesonline.com, MP holds Al-Ghunaim liable for unethical activities on Net, 14 Jul 08 , "MP Mohammed Hayef Al-Mutairi has held Communications Minister Abdulrahman Al-Ghunaim responsible for the unethical activities on the Internet as well as the publication of abusive messages, reports Alam Al-Yawm. Asserting such activities are against the Islamic Sharia, Al-Mutairi called on the telecommunications companies to screen the messages and asked Al-Ghunaim to hold the companies liable for the transit of offensive messages. He also stressed the need to curb such immoral activities, which shouldn’t be neglected in favor of revenues earned at the expense of the Islamic Sharia and Kuwaiti customs."

Hussein al-Ahmad


AKI, Terrorism: Ex pop star to feature in new al-Qaeda video, 2 Apr 08, "A new al-Qaeda video will be released in three months featuring Hussein al-Ahmad, the former Kuwaiti pop singer who left for Afghanistan a few weeks ago in order to join al-Qaeda fighters in the country.

"Al-Ahmad's friend, Miftaf Lughzi confirmed this in an interview with the Arabic satellite television channel Al Jazeera."

Downtime Conspiracy Theories

Somewhat inevitably, there are numerous theories around the cable cuts (although some people may not be able to effectively post their theories at present):

wsj.com, Conspiracy Theories Behind Those Cut Undersea Cables, 6 Feb 08 "Reports that a fifth undersea communications cable in the Middle East has been damaged in less than a week — further compromising Internet access in countries there, and knocking Iran off the grid entirely – are triggering wild conspiracy theories about who’s at fault, from Islamic extremists to the CIA. But BizTech readers can proceed with global business as planned: the reports aren’t true."

And of course, people have got withdrawal symptoms (and are now wondering what to do with all this free time):

Shamael Al-Sharikh, Kuwait Times, I gots the internet blues, 7 Feb 08 "Now, it has become hard to check some news sites, read email letters from readers, download large attachments, etc. It has also become quite obvious how addicted we are to the internet. It is the major means of communication now, equal to phone lines. I would not be surprised if some sicko in the future figures out a way to permanently destroy internet access as part of a terrorist attack, God forbid."