SUBSCRIPTION SUNDAY, JUNE 11, 2017 RAMADAN 16, 1438 AH www.kuwaittimes.net Researcher Al-Jazeera a Nobody’s perfect; talks about target in Gulf Cavaliers thump arms trade confrontation Warriors to in Kuwait with Qatar avoid sweep Imsak Fajr Shorook Duhr Asr Maghrib Isha 3 8 16 03:03 03:13 04:48 11:47 15:22 18:47 20:19 Trump berates Qatar as Min 32º Max 49º Gulf stand-off escalates High Tide 01:52 &12:08 Low Tide Saudi Arabia and allies hail Trump warning to Qatar 06:50 & 19:55 40 PAGES NO: 17253 150 FILS WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump has accused Qatar’s leadership of bankrolling extremists and demanded a halt to that funding, drawing praise yester- day from Saudi Arabia and its allies. Their approval came as Washington joined intensifying international efforts to heal the rift between the key Western Gulf allies, which has escalated into the region’s worst diplo- matic crisis in years. Russia yesterday urged dialogue between the par- Islam in nutshell ties, as Qatar’s foreign minister arrived in Moscow seek- ing support from abroad in the dispute. Trump’s warn- By Teresa Lesher ing overshadowed an earlier declaration from US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson-who encouraged Saudi he essence of Islam can be found in a single Arabia and its allies to ease their land and sea “block- statement, the “kalimah,” which embodies both ade” of Qatar. its doctrine and practice. We hear this state- Tillerson said the blockade was hindering the US-led T campaign against the Islamic State group and having ment five times a day from the minarets: “There is no god except Allah and Muhammad is His messenger.” humanitarian consequences for ordinary people. But Any true religion should offer sound doctrine and US officials insisted both men were sending the same clear practice, and this simple statement sums it up. message that the countries of the region should not The doctrine is that our Creator - the Lord of the uni- allow their differences to hinder the fight against verse - is the only one deserving of our worship; all extremism. Qatar is home to the largest US airbase in matters of faith revolve around that. the Middle East, making it a key ally in the US-led coali- To understand the significance of this statement, tion against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria. consider Islamic art- the geometric, symmetric, and But it has fallen out with its Arab neighbors, who possibly infinite continuation of lines, curves and accuse it of sponsoring extremist groups, some of them patterns - which always begins with a single point on allegedly linked to arch Saudi foe Iran, fomenting trou- a page or canvas. It is from this point that a line or cir- ble across the region. The neighbors also resent Qatar’s cle is first drawn, and from which a beautiful work of ties to the Muslim Brotherhood movement and its art takes shape. Without that point of reference, sponsorship of the pan-Arab satellite television network without the consideration that each line and curve Al-Jazeera, which has given opposition figures a plat- originated from that point, and without respect for form. Qatar has denounced the allegations of terror the relation that every intersecting point has with funding as baseless and has received the support of its the original one, the whole pattern will be imperfect, close ally Turkey, which has approved the deployment unbalanced and eventually unrecognizable. DOHA: A man sings with children on the stage at a Garangao event, a traditional Gulf-region children’s party of troops to defend the emirate. Islam, as the inspiration for this beautiful art form, celebrated after breaking fast in Qatar’s capital of Doha. — AFP Continued on Page 13 is identical in that it, too, has as its epicenter a single point from which every thought, intention, action and hope begins. That point of reference is God. When someone makes God the single reference MoH to raise expats’ point in his life, from which all expression originates, his life can be one of both precision and beauty, of health insurance fees discipline and creativity. In Islamic art, the original point is simply a dot on a page. KUWAIT: Health Minister Dr Jamal Al- was scheduled to take effect last In Islam, a single, unique God is the focal point, Harabi said yesterday that he will meet February as MoH undersecretaries around which all of life revolves. The second part of with Ministry of Health (MoH) undersec- Council had approved the recommen- the statement instructs us of the practice of Islam: retaries after Eid holidays to discuss the dations. The study recommends that that Muhammad (PBUH) is God’s messenger, a man increase in health insurance fees for the new prices would be 20 percent less whose role was to convey the message and imple- expatriates. Al-Harbi added that the than those provided by private hospi- ment it in all spheres of human conduct. Thus, he is a meeting will discuss gradual fee increas- tals. Health sources said that the med- role model for humankind. He is the teacher with es - starting with imposing health insur- ical services fees in Kuwait had textbook in hand, and his role was to apply the ance fees on visitors (those arriving on remained the same for too long while teachings of the Book, answering the questions of visit visas) - and then on expatriates. Al- the cost of medicine and equipments his students along the way. Harbi stressed that the raise is inevitable. have increased thus putting a huge bur- BANNU, Pakistan: Pakistani father Gulzar Khan (center) 57, who has 36 children Continued on Page 13 The health insurance fee increase den on the state’s budget from his three wives, walks with his children as they return home after school in the northwestern town of Bannu. — AFP Amnesty bemoans 3 men, 96 children cost of Gulf crisis Pakistan’s population booms LONDON: Amnesty International warned yesterday of the BANNU: Three men who have fathered the natural process of a baby’s birth?” asks “heartbreak and fear” being suffered by potentially thou- nearly 100 children among them are doing Gulzar Khan, a father of 36, citing one of sands of ordinary individuals because of the political dis- their bit for Pakistan’s skyrocketing popula- the strongest influences in the region: the pute in the Gulf that has isolated Qatar. “Saudi Arabia, tion, which is being counted for the first belief that Islam prevents family planning. Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates are toying with the time in 19 years. But in a country where Tribal enmity is another factor in the north- lives of thousands of Gulf residents as part of their dispute experts warn the surging populace is west, where the 57-year-old lives in the city with Qatar, splitting up families and destroying people’s gouging into hard-won economic gains of Bannu with his third wife, who is preg- livelihoods and education,” the London-based human and social services, the three patriarchs are nant. “We wanted to be stronger,” the 57- rights watchdog said. unconcerned. Allah, they say, will provide. year-old tells AFP, surrounded by 23 of his On Monday, the three countries, along with Egypt and Pakistan has the highest birth rate in South offspring-so many, he observes, they don’t other Arab allies, cut diplomatic and transport links with Asia at around three children per woman, need friends to play a full cricket match. Qatar over its alleged support for extremism, a charge according to the World Bank and govern- Polygamy is legal but rare in Pakistan, Doha denies. Qatar’s neighbors have also given its citizens ment figures, and the census is expected to and families like Khan’s are not the 14 days to leave and instructed their own nationals to show that growth remains high. norm, though the beliefs he holds are return. “For potentially thousands of people across the “God has created the entire universe widespread. Gulf, the effect of the steps imposed in the wake of this and all human beings, so why should I stop Continued on Page 13 political dispute is suffering, heartbreak and fear,” said James Lynch, deputy director of Amnesty’s Global Issues Program, who was in Doha last week. “These drastic measures are already having a brutal US leader punches back, effect, splitting children from parents and husbands from wives,” said Amnesty after its researchers inter- accuses Comey of lying viewed dozens of people affected by the crisis. “People from across the region... risk losing jobs and having their WASHINGTON: Punching back a day after obstruction,” Trump said. He further education disrupted.” Amnesty, quoting Qatar’s National his fired FBI director’s damaging testimo- denied ever asking Comey for his “loyalty,” Human Rights Committee, said more than 11,000 ny, President Donald Trump yesterday contradicting Comey’s detailed sworn tes- nationals of Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the UAE live in accused James Comey of lying to timony about a private dinner the two Qatar, while many Qataris are residents of the three oth- Congress and said he was “100 percent” men had in the White House. “No I didn’t er Gulf states. It gave the example of a Saudi man, a resi- willing to testify under oath about their say that,” Trump stated abruptly, taking dent of Doha with his Qatari wife and children, who had conversations. Trump cryptically refused questions at a joint press conference with been unable to visit his sick mother hospitalized in Saudi to say whether those private exchanges Romanian President Klaus Iohannis in the Arabia because he would be blocked from returning to were taped - a matter at the heart of the Rose Garden.