Abu Ghaith who grew up with the Muslim Brotherhood, first gained attention during the 1990–1991 Iraqi invasion and occupation of Kuwait. His sermons denouncing the occupation and Iraqi President Saddam Hussein gained him some degree of popularity amongst the Kuwaiti people. In 1992, he went to Bosnia and Herzegovina for nearly a month to do some "relief services" there. He later joined Muslim guerillas in the Bosnian War in summer 1994. The Kuwaiti government subsequently removed him from the mosque and banned him from giving sermons, as he used to stridently criticize the Kuwaiti government and other Arab governments, then he became a high school teacher of religion.