Kuwaiti protesters pray before marching
Kuwaiti protesters pray before marchingReuters

“Arabs need to have large portions of their brains examined.”

This comment was not made by a Christian or a Jew, but - believe it or not - a Kuwaiti columnist.

The columnist, Fouad Al-Hashem, made the comment during an interview with Al-Arabiya in which he spoke about the tendency of the Arab peoples to idolize leaders.

The interview aired on January 16, 2014 and was translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

“The late Saudi author Abdallah Al-Qusaimi wrote in one of his books that the Arabs are ‘all talk.’ The truth is that the Arabs are, in fact, ‘all mental’ – they need to have large portions of their brains examined,” said Al-Hashem.

“I’ve come to believe that the entire issue of the robbing of Palestine was not just in order to establish a homeland for the Jewish people, but to enable the Arab and Muslim rulers to go on peddling this cause. Thus, they have turned their peoples into laughingstocks, and have managed to rule their countries,” he continued.

“Take Saddam Hussein, for example. As a Kuwaiti, this example is the most relevant to me. When he invaded Kuwait, he threatened to hang the bodies of the Americans from the walls of Baghdad. During his trial, Saddam said to the judge: ‘Without the Americans, neither you nor your father could have dragged me here,’” he said.

Referring to Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait in the early 1990s, Al-Hashem said, “This is another indication of the stupidity of this leader, who is still considered a hero by millions of Arabs. Saddam had already won the hearts of 90% of the Kuwaitis, and did not need to invade Kuwait and occupy it with his tanks. If only he had been smarter... I kept asking myself whether he was a collaborator, a madman, or a fool.”

“In my view, on Judgment Day, 90% of the inhabitants of Hell will be Arabs and people who pretend to be pious Muslims,” he continued.

The columnist noted that Muslim leaders tended to use "resistance to Israel" as a way of rallying support which they were not deserving of.

“When Operation Cast Lead broke out between Hamas and Israel, I was one of the harshest critics of [Turkish Prime Minister] Erdogan and his inflammatory statements. I warned the Arab youth and the Gulf citizens about him, and I was sentenced to prison for this. If not for the integrity of the Kuwaiti justice system, I would have spent months behind bars because of my articles against Erdogan. People followed him as if he was a new prophet,” Al-Hashem told Al-Arabiya.

"Today, however, 4-6 years later, Erdogan has been exposed, and people see someone different from the man they used to idolize,” he continued.

Al-Hashem did not spare Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah from criticism either, noting that in the 2006 Second Lebanon War, Nasrallah had talked about bombing “beyond Haifa”.

“Where have his aspirations shifted to? Talk of ‘beyond Al-Qusayr’ and ‘beyond Aleppo’ has replaced ‘beyond Haifa’ and ‘beyond Tel Aviv,’” said Al-Hashem, referring to Hezbollah’s active fighting in Syria.