[1] Habib Toumi, ‘Kuwait opposition leader jailed for 5 years for insulting Emir’, Gulf News, 15 April 2013. Available at <http://gulfnews.com/news/gul f/kuwait/kuwait-opposition-leader-jailed-for-5-years-for-insulting-emir-1.1170537> (last accessed 1 December 2016).
2 Article 51 of the constitution states that “legislative power shall be vested in the Amir and the National Assembly,” meaning they should approve the legislation proposed by the government and shall also propose laws. The National Assembly also has the right to question ministers and Prime Ministers (Articles 99 and 100), granting it the most vast-ranging legislative powers among the Arab countries and a relatively extensive level of control over the executive.
3 The right to vote to women was granted by the law, Law No. 17/2005.
4 The association right is recognized in Article 43 of the constitution, which states that “freedom to form associations and unions on a national basis and by peaceful means shall be guaranteed in accordance with the conditions and manner specified by law. No one may be compelled to join any association or union”. Law No. 24 of 1962 established the first legal text dedicated to associations, which was then modified on several occasions (Law 28 1965; law 75 of 1988; law 12 of 1993 and law 14 of 1994).
5 FIDH, ‘Freedom of Association in the Arabian Gulf: The case of Bahrain, Kuwait and Yemen’. Available at: < https://www.fidh.org/IMG/pdf/etude.pdf> (last accessed 1 December 2016).
6 Falah Abdullah al-Mdaires, Islamic Extremism in Kuwait (London and New York: Routledge, 2010), 10.
7 Zoltan Pall, ‘Kuwaiti Salafism and its growing influence in the levant’, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, (2014). Available at: <http://carnegieendowment.org/2014/05/07/kuwaiti-salafism-and-its-growing-influence-in-levant-pub-55514> (last accessed 1 December 2016).
8 Falah Abdullah al-Mdaires, Op.Cit. 11.
9 Nathan Brown, ‘Pushing Towards Party Politics? Kuwait’s Islamic Constitutional Movement’,
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, (2007). Available at: <
http://carnegieendowment.org/files/cp79_brown_ kuwait_final.pdf > (last accessed 1 December 2016).
10 According to the ICM Political Relations Director Mohammed Al-Dallal, “the ICM and the KMB are "the same thing: ICM members are all Muslim Brothers, but not necessarily vice-versa”. Cited in a Wikileaks cable, American Embassy in Kuwait, 06KUWAIT1637, May 2006. Available at: <https://archive.org/stream/06KUWAIT1637/06KUWAIT1637_djvu.txt> (last accessed 15 February 2017).
11 The Article 79 [Exclusive Legislation] states: ‘No law may be promulgated unless it has been passed by the National Assembly and sanctioned by the Emir’.
12 Nathan Brown and Amr Hamzawy, ‘Between Religion and Politics’, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washintgon, 2010, p.121
13 Available at: <http://www.arabtimesonline.com/news/article-79-amendment-will-step-extremism-need-tackle-challenges-now/> (last accessed 25 February 2017).
14 Amr Hamzawy, ‘Interview with Dr. Badr Al Nashi, president of Kuwait's Islamic Constitutional Movement (ICM)’, Carnegie Endowment, (2008). Available at <http://carnegieendowment.org/sada/20913 > (last accessed 15 February 2017).
15 Courtney Freer, ‘The rise of pragmatic Islamism in Kuwait’s post Arab Spring opposition movement’, Brookings, (2015). Available at: < https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Kuwait_Freer-FINALE.pdf > (last accessed 1 December 2016).
16 Nathan Brown, ‘Kuwait’s 2008 Parliamentary Elections: A setback for Democratic Islamism’, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, (2008). Available at: <http://carnegieendowment.org/files/brown_kuwait2.pdf> (last accessed 1 December 2016).
17 Falah Abdullah al-Mdaires, Op.Cit. 33-34.
18 Zoltan Pall, ‘Kuwaiti Salafism and its growing influence in the levant’, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, (2014). Available at: < http://carnegieendowment.org/2014/05/07/kuwaiti-salafism-and-its-growing-influence-in-levant-pub-55514 > (last accessed 1 December 2016).
19 Zoltan Pall, Kuwaiti Salafism after the Arab Uprisings MEI Insight No. 124 (April 2015): 1.
20 While al-Mdaires is labeling al-Oun and al-Sultan as Salafi Group members (Op.Cit. 35), Michael Herb is not attributing group affiliation to any of them in his Kuwait Politics Database, available at <http://www.kuwaitpolitics.org/maj198100.htm> (last accessed 1 December 2016).
21 Zoltan Pall, Op.Cit. 9
22 Falah Abdullah al-Mdaires, Op.Cit. 47-49.
23 Bjorn Olav Utvik, ‘The Ikhwanization of the Salafis: Piety in the Politics of Egypt and Kuwait’, Middle East Critique, 23:1 (2014): 23.
24 Zoltan Pall, Op.Cit. 11
25 Bjorn Olav Utvik, Op.Cit. 22.
26 There is a discrepancy in the figure of candidates the UP nominated in 2008 elections. While Michael Herb’s database mentioned 8, Falah Abdullah al Mdaires stated 11 (Op.Cit., 75), and Bjorn Olav Utvik 12 (Op.Cit., 23).
27 There is a discrepancy in the figure of candidates and seats obtained by the INC-NIA 1992 elections. While Michael Herb’s database mentions one candidate and seat obtained, Falah Abdullah al Mdaires stated two seats out of four candidates (Op.Cit., 98).
28 Hamad Albloshi, ‘Sectarianism and the Arab Spring: The Case of the Kuwaiti Shi’a’, The Muslim World, 106: 112.
29 Luarence Louer, Transnational Shia Politics: Religion and Poitical Networks in the Gulf (New York: Columbia Univesity Press, 2008), 126, cited in Hamad Albloshi, Op.Cit. 111.
30 According to Fatiha Dazi‑Heni, “[t]he 2011 movement very much resembled that of 2006. Many of the political activists involved in the “Nabīha khamsa” movement were at the forefront of the 2011 demonstrations and sit‑ins. As early as November 2010, they launched a campaign on the Internet to demand the ousting of Prime Minister Nāṣir Muḥammad, using “al‑sha‘b yurīd isqāt Nāṣir” (the people wants the fall of Nāṣir) as their main slogan.” https://cy.revues.org/2868.
33 Personal observations of the author in Kuwait, February 2012.
35 The Popular Action Bloc was a nationalist group created in 2001 and headed by former parliament speaker Ahmed al-Saadoun, that included members from both tribal and urban, as well as Sunni and Shi’a background.
36 http://www.kuwaitpolitics.org/positions51.htm
37 http://www.kuwaitpolitics.org/positions50.htm
39 Available at: <http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsPrint/59470.aspx> (last accessed 1 December 2016).
40 http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-19964068
44 http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-26487092
47 http://www.mei.edu/content/article/kuwait-s-pragmatic-islamists
48 Courtney Freer, Op.Cit. 13.
49 Zoltan Pall, 2015, Op.Cit.
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