Kuwaitis were divided between supporters and opponents over an official invitation that Tunisian Parliament Speaker Rashid Ghannouchi received from Kuwaiti National Assembly Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanim to visit the country.
The invitation came as part of a written message delivered by the Kuwaiti Ambassador to Tunisia, Ali Al-Dhafiri of Ghannouchi, that included an affirmation of "strengthening the bonds of parliamentary friendship and exchanging views on a number of issues of common concern."
The division over the upcoming visit echoed on the social networking site Twitter, where supporters and opponents of it expressed their position under contradictory labels, most notably the tag of "Hello" in Al-Ghannushi and the tag of "Al-Ghannushi_ non-Welcome_" in Kuwait.
Pro-Da’wa supporters built their position that Ghannouchi won the presidency of the Tunisian parliament in a democratic way, and he is considered the second highest official in his country after President Qais Saeed. This authorizes him to represent Tunisia after receiving an invitation from his Kuwaiti counterpart, regardless of the party to which he belongs, in reference to a movement Led by the Renaissance.
As for the opponents, they still remember Ghannouchi his position rejecting the participation of foreign forces in liberating Kuwait from the Iraqi invasion in 1990, considering this as support for the occupation, while others founded their refusal to call for the fact that Ghannouchi was the leader of a movement linked to the Muslim Brotherhood.
This debate did not remain pure Kuwaiti, as Saudi and Emirati singers quickly entered the line, criticizing the upcoming visit. Rather, the matter reached some to the point of accusing Kuwait of tweeting outside what they described as the "Gulf Squadron".
Natural quarrels
The Kuwaiti writer and researcher Mubarak Al-Jerry described the Kuwaiti debate about the Ghannouchi invitation as a natural matter, placing it within the difference in views loaded with historical dimensions extending to 30 years ago.
The run, which was taken from the "intellectual and political transformations of the Renaissance movement" as the focus of the master's thesis that he obtained from Kuwait University and met during its preparation in Ghannouchi, sees that the political field has nothing fixed but is constantly changing, and cites an example of the support enjoyed by the Islamic revolution in Iran from most Islamic movements in the world, but this support later turned into rejection and criticism when it became clear that the revolution was an ideological core.
He added, "The same thing happened with the leader of the Al-Nahda movement. His famous speech in Sudan against foreign intervention to liberate Kuwait occurred in a clear change in the dialogues conducted by Tunisian journalist Qusay Al-Darwish with Ghannouchi while he was in London and later collected in a book, in which he says that the movement did not He accepted the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait from its early days, as evidenced by his having during a personal meeting with the then Iraqi President Saddam Hussein by submitting a statement calling for him to withdraw the Iraqi forces, but Ghannouchi remained steadfast on his position rejecting the intervention of foreign forces.
Front of rejection
On the other hand, the writer and political analyst Hussein Jamal refuses to visit Ghannouchi, considering that the Kuwaitis do not disagree - whatever their political orientations and orientations - on refusing to visit anyone who supported Saddam Hussein's invasion of their country.
However, Jamal sees at the same time that Al-Ghannouchi represents a certain current, considering that only this supporters of the current are welcoming its presence in Kuwait, and by extension, those who violate this current will refuse to visit it.
Jamal indicated that there is no doubt that the refusal of a segment of Kuwaitis to visit Ghannouchi is based on his personal, rather than official character, as the head of the Tunisian parliament representing the voices of citizens in his country.
He criticized the intervention of Gulf Gulf singers in an internal Kuwaiti matter, adding, "Kuwaitis cannot accept what he described as some attempts to fish in troubled waters and throw the name of Kuwait in their battles and ideas, and we refuse to turn the Kuwaiti issue into a regional or international service for the interests of different parties."
Surgeon Invasion
Academic and researcher on Gulf affairs, Ali Al-Kandari, went on to say that Kuwait was poisoned by many of the wounds of the Iraqi invasion, and the official steps were faster in rapprochement with what is known as antibody countries than its popular counterpart, which has long recorded its opposition to this convergence.
Al-Kandari also affirmed that Kuwait has always been a mediator to spread peace and dissolve differences between countries, and its official and popular speech has always been in this direction.
Al-Kandari criticized targeting a specific person and using a previous dispute to stoke a current conflict, saying that Ghannouchi's invitation was a positive gesture as president of his country's parliament, especially as Kuwait has significant investments in a number of sectors in Tunisia.
He deplored the voices criticizing Ghannouchi’s visit to his person, pointing out that many Arab nationalists and even Islamists who had positions closer to the previous Iraqi regime were hosted in Kuwait repeatedly, and their visits passed without objection.
Ghannouchi is a symbol of the Arab struggle and a symbol of the spring that started in Tunisia and succeeded in it. Receiving parliaments from Arab despotic and sometimes sectarian states and not receiving Ghannouchi is a betrayal of the Arab conscience and democracy in the Arab world.
# Hello_Ghannouchi
- Omar Al Abdali (@Omar__mm) June 16, 2020
I think Kuwait turned the page on the Iraqi invasion, and forgave the invaders themselves, as well as those who supported them, and I apologize after that.
The Tunisian Parliament Speaker received an honorable and required stance to support the wounded democratization in our Arab world. # Welcome.
- Fahd Bin Taneef Al-Osaimi (@Falossimi) June 19, 2020
# Hi_ Al-
Ghannouchi Ghannouchi is his life for freedom, and his systems are not dictatorship, we welcome him a welcome befitting an Arab man
- Abu Nayef (@bonaif__) June 17, 2020
# Ghannouchi_Unwished_Kuwait # National Assembly respected the people of Kuwait and the families of the martyrs and prisoners until now We have not found the remains of our martyrs in Iraq and we will not forget the tears of the mothers of the martyrs and their wives and their children This man is rejected by the sons of his country and demanding his departure and we receive him with hugs # Al-Ghanushi
Latifa Al-Rzaihan (@latifaalruzehan) June 17, 2020
# Ghannouchi participated in the pain of the families of all these martyrs and danced for their wounds, and he was flying with joy and our people in Kuwait are suffering from the occupation, but he has tightened his journey in support of Saddam, then he comes and today, to enter the entry of the conquerors to # Kuwait !!
The shock of Ghannouchi's invitation # Tunisia is great !!! # Ghannouchi_Ha_Alla_Hahaba # Ghannouchi_Un_Welcome_Kuwait pic.twitter.com/8HMeGG5XnP
Munther Al-Sheikh Mubarak (@ monther72) June 17, 2020
It is strange
that his invitation was an official invitation to those who visited Saddam immediately after the invasion of Kuwait, to offer him congratulations and blessings and announce his party's support for this invasion !! #
# Ghannoha_la_hla_ola_mreha Ghannoha_gar_mreh_balkwyt
Badr Nasser Al-Saeedi (@Badr_Alluhais) June 18, 2020