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 [1]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 [2], 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 [3]] to indicate that Shia are only loyal to Iran religiously and politically.
Kuwait's interior ministry said [4]those who burned the flag will be questioned as the country cares for its relationship with the Iranian Islamic Republic. The tweets were deleted from Al-Naqi's timeline but this is a screenshot of the major controversial tweet circulating on Twitter and other websites. It reads:
Never seen a prophet who doesn't feel ashamed of God but of the stinky Othman [companion of the Prophet] and doing porn movies with Ayesha.
[5]Posted by @sharekdossary
Thousands of tweets from all over the Gulf countries cursed, insulted, and asked for the death of Al-Naqi. Many of those offenders did not care about the tweet made by a hacker through Al-Naqi's account that says: “Thanks to Allah we have controlled this account and this will be the beginning of the end for Shia.. your brother: the defeater of Shia @Al5aTab”:
[6]Tweeted by Kuwaiti blogger @freejsaud
The following tweet was one of the most retweeted. Until the time of writing this post, it was retweeted more than 800 times:
However, the whole story does not make sense. When following news and tweets, some claim that another account was made with the same bio and picture to tweet the insults and others say it was hacked. When looking at his account, both the insults and the hacker's message do not exist. Al-Naqi tweeted two days ago:
In this video (uploaded by zoominalwatan [9]), Kuwaiti protesters scream “we want no law, we want him killed”:
So far, many members of parliament made statements against Al-Naqi and asked for a ‘heavy punishment’ for anyone offending God and the Prophet. More than 30 (out of the sum of 50) MPs spoke against Al-Naqi, and in this video, Islamist MP and former professor of Kuwait University Dr Faisal Al-Musalam announces in a Press conference that a law will be proposed in Kuwait to punish anyone insulting the Prophet with a death sentence or life imprisonment: