Speculation over future of Brotherhood in Kuwait

Debates about the future of the branch of the Muslim Brotherhood in Kuwait are renewing after the death of the Gulf emirate's emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah.

The Brotherhood is represented in Kuwait by the Social Reform Society and the Islamic Constitutional Movement which functions as the political arm of the group.

The debates about the future of the Brotherhood in Kuwait come in the light of the ambitions of the Islamist movement in this Gulf state as well as its complex relations with other branches of the International Organization of the Muslim Brotherhood in the region.

The Social Reform Society is tantamount to a bank for the group. It uses its network of relations in Kuwait in raising funds for the Muslim Brotherhood. These funds go to the International Organization of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Social services became a basic component of the activities of the Muslim Brotherhood in Kuwait. This helped the group deflect attention from its real practices. This served the interests of the group, especially after it came under the microscope in a number of other regional states because of its involvement in terrorist activities.

Some specialists believe that the Brotherhood is in for a tough time after the death of emir Sabah.

"Their situation has become very complicated in fact," Hesham al-Najjar, a leading Islamist affairs specialist, told The Reference.

He said Kuwaiti authorities have to take strong action in the coming period in order to sabotage Muslim Brotherhood attempts to control state institutions.

However, al-Najjar did not expect the new emir of Kuwait to take radical action against the Muslim Brotherhood.

"This is especially true with the Muslim Brotherhood being viewed as an essential component of the political fabric in Kuwait," Najjar said.