New Kuwaiti Justice Minister Has Deep Extremist Ties

A prominent Salafist with a history of sectarianism, anti-Semitism, and links to terror finance grabs a key cabinet role.

Which is where Kuwait’s new minister comes in. For one thing, he has propagated anti-Semitic hate speech on national television. In a sermon documented by the Middle East Media Research Institute, Al-Ajmi instructed his congregants that “our struggle with the Jews is one of faith, identity, and existence” since “the Jews of the past were evil, and the Jews of today are even worse. He proceeded to call the Jewish people “the scum of mankind... whom Allah transformed into pigs and apes”.

In addition, Al-Ajmi brings to his new offices a clear record of embracing jihadism in Syria. On Twitter, he has answered theological questions from the general public by ruling that “without a doubt” the struggle in Syria is “a legitimate jihad”.

Even since his political appointment, Al-Ajmi has remained listed as the official spokesperson for a Kuwaiti preachers’ organization, for whom he has apparently helped raise Syria funds. When several of the most extreme battalions in Syria united during November to form an Islamic Front that rejects human legislation in favor of divine law and advocates ethnic cleansing, this association announced its “complete support for this blessed union for the mujahid factions”.

Nayef al-Ajmi also seems to have been associated with a more virulent fundraising network operated by a fellow member of his clan, Shafi al-Ajmi. The latter al-Ajmi has implied that he supports slaughtering captured Shi’ite fighters, women, and children in Syria and had his preacher’s license suspended in August for radical invective on Syria and Egypt.

Human Rights Watch cited reports that Shafi al-Ajmi was a key donor to an operation on Syria’s western coast by Islamist members of the opposition (including Al Qaeda) that led to the mass execution of Alawite villagers, a probable war crime. Fliers for this fundraising effort featured Nayef al-Ajmi’s image as a prominent backer.

After Human Rights Watch’s report stirred up an international controversy, Nayef said he dissociated himself from the donor network, but Shafi has since continued to promote fundraising material featuring Nayef’s image without obvious consequences. Journalist Elizabeth Dickinson has written that Nayef himself made comments at the time suggesting he embraced the sectarian nature and aims of the coastal operation.

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