News A group of Kuwaiti clerics have come to the defence of a leading Kuwaiti pop singer who has been condemned to death by a Saudi Arabian cleric. It was declared by Saudi cleric Hamoud bin Shuaibi - although he qualified it by saying that the Kuwaiti religious authorities were the only body competent to carry out the death sentence. The Kuwait clerics, representing Kuwait's main Islamic groups, have declared the fatwa illegal because Mr Shuaibi is not qualified even to issue the edict.
Singers often draw the ire of Islamic religious authorities around the Muslim world.
Earlier this year, organisers of an annual shopping festival in Kuwait bowed to pressure from Islamist members of parliament and banned Lebanese singer Aasi al-Hellani because of allegations that he had put verses from the Koran to music. In 1999 a court in Lebanon acquitted a renowned nationalist singer, Marcel Khalife, of charges of insulting Islam. Such cases are seen as reflecting a growing threat to freedom of speech and religious tolerance even in some of the Middle East's more liberal states. Pages on this site may not be copied or framed. The site provides information that helps equip Christians to logically present and defend the Christian faith, and that aids non-Christians in their comparison of various religious claims.