Liberalism: The L Word

Kuwait prides itself to be a conservative country. Kuwait also prides itself to be an Islamic country, and that's fine. But is everyone happy? Kuwait is home to a multitude of nationalities, cultures and religions. Not everyone is Muslim. Not everyone is conservative. Not everyone is Kuwaiti. It's great if you are though, because you get benefits galore. If you're not, however, what is it like?

At the hands of men with authority, while hiding behind the mask of religion, schools became segregated, censorship flourished, male MPs tried to enforce Hijab on their female counterparts, and religious minorities were denied their need to build a place of worship. Some would call it progress. Well, the way I see it, unless they somehow found a way to progress backwards, this is not progress.

This is where Liberalism should step in. Unfortunately, liberalism, along with the dreaded S word (Secularism), aren't words -let alone ideas- that the average citizen would want anything to do with. There is this uniformity in thinking that the belief in liberalism will lead to the loss of morals and values when in actual fact, the whole foundation of liberalism is based on protecting the morals and values of all individuals no matter what they may be. So why the stigma? To attempt to answer this, lets turn to the definition of liberalism. Liberalism comes from the Latin liberalis meaning "of freedom", and basically it is the belief in personal freedom, freedom of speech and freedom of expression being two examples. The dictionary defines it as:

"A political or social philosophy advocating the freedom of the individual, parliamentary systems of government, nonviolent modification of political, social, or economic institutions to assure unrestricted development in all spheres of human endeavor, and governmental guarantees of individual rights and civil liberties." 

It seems simple enough. A government that respects and protects the freedom of the governed. It almost sounds ideal. The absence of the word religion, however, has proven to be problematic. This is not, in the least, to say that liberalism does not protect religious rights because it certainly does. All religions, all faiths, all beliefs. This is also problematic. The Kuwaiti people are used to Islam being the main source of ... just about everything. So when an idea comes across that would advocate and protect the rights of other religious views, they won't know what to make of it, until they hear claims by a sea of overzealous religious clerics comparing liberalism and secularism to heresy. Once something is said in the name of religion, people tend not to argue.

So what has to be done? We need to wake up, educate ourselves, and speak up. There is increasing tension in this country, and personal freedom is worth fighting for. It is a fight for a country that supports the ideologies that religion  is supposed to stand for: justice, liberty and equality, for everyone. Now THAT, would be progress.