the kuwait liberal society is one of the most active associations despite its recent inception and modest resources. one of the achievements of this young association is its recent success in participating in the conference of the arab liberal federation (alf), held in the jordanian capital, amman, mid-last month, and its acceptance as a member of the federation as a public benefit intellectual nonp o l i t i c a l society.
t h e conference was held in cooperation with the free t h o u g h t f o r u m (ftf), the dutch people’s movement, the friedrich naumann foundation for freedom (fnf). taking part in the conference were 27 people from around the world.
the kuwaiti liberal society was represented by its chairperson iman gohar hayat, and ms hanan jawali, a member of the society. through their personal efforts, the society has been accepted as the first official gcc institution member in alf, at the level of the gulf states, which will open up a wide range of activities for them in various fields and forward a wide international level.
despite the importance of this achievement, which will inevitably reflect on the role and status of the society locally and regionally, the event has not received sufficient media coverage, perhaps because of the continuing hostility of the forces of backwardness not only to the activities of the society but also to its full existence.
on the other hand, and in another region, members of the parliamentary assembly of the union for the mediterranean (pa-ufm) unanimously agreed that the spread of poverty, ignorance and the absence of democracy in the middle east societies are the cause growing terrorism.
rights and freedoms in most of these countries are being violated where democracy is absent, thus they are unable to combat terrorism and extremism in an effective manner.
in this regard, david sassouli, president of the pa-ufm, which includes the european and arab parliamentarians, said the committees of the ufm will adopt an initiative to resolve the palestinian-israeli conflict and that the initiative has the support of mps of the member states.
sassouli expressed his desire for the european parliament to place the issue of ‘migration’ as a central issue, stressing the importance of restoring the parliamentary policy and political dialogue to their effective roles, while focusing on political and economic partnership and cooperation between the parliaments of the paufm to face the challenges experienced by the state members.
a member of the european parliament also announced the importance of activating measures to stop the financing of terrorism and the participation of the intelligence services in developing strategies to confront it, monitor the activities of money laundering and remittances.
he also called for maximizing the cultural role, and seeking the points of convergence in the mediterranean countries, and overcome the points of disagreement, especially since there are many historical points in common.
“terrorism is a thought and a work that hurt everyone, and whoever is not hurt today, will be hurt tomorrow,” said jordanian mp raed al-khaza’ama, accusing the member states of not playing a real role in fighting the extremist ideology, especially that injustice generates only terrorism and violence.
from all the above, we see the extent to which the world nations are concerned about the stability of the region and the need to assist it in its war against terrorism, but it is clear that the leaders of the majority of the countries in the region are not concerned with the problem or even taking it as an issue and therefore continue to resort to suppressive methods in their quest to eliminate terrorism, but tragedy and suffering continue.