Kuwaiti thinker Tariq Suwaidan: Palestine is my cause and the nation's primary concern

The beginning of my acquaintance with the Kuwaiti Islamic preacher and thinker, Dr. Tariq Suwaidan to 1983, when we met in Fort Collins, Colorado, USA, where Dr. Musa Abu Marzouq and I were studying for a master’s degree at its famous university (CSU). It includes master's and doctoral studies.

At that time, we had a leadership position in the ranks of the Islamic Movement, as Dr. Tariq was responsible for the educational department, and I used to work with him in that department as a supervisor for the (Preachers’ Path) bulletin; It is a publication that includes ideas and guidance for the youth of the Islamic movement.

was dr. Tariq is one of the most active youth in the Gulf, and even one of its prominent Islamic leaders, as he was one of the founders of the Arab Muslim Youth Association (MAYA), which was a safe umbrella for our advocacy work among Arab students, as we were on the end of the year vacation (Christmas) holding our annual conference, whose presence he shared Six thousand people with their families, and its activities lasted for four days, during which we lived in an Islamic atmosphere, and we received from the legal sciences and the jurisprudence of minorities that benefit us in our alienation and the matter of our religion.

The Islamists in the West were moving with great freedom, as there were no restrictions on their intellectual and advocacy activities, and the famous scholars among the advocates of the Islamic movement used to come to America throughout the year to participate in our Arab community’s forums and Islamic celebrations, and they delivered lessons and religious sermons in mosques and Islamic centers.

was dr. Tariq was an undisputed star in the Islamic student work in America, and he was distinguished in his style and the way he presented his lectures on various aspects of Islamic knowledge. (joke), it makes you feel close to your heart.

During that period in the mid-1980s, there was competition between the Brotherhood over the leadership of the Islamic movement, as the organization was headed by Mr. Ahmed Makki; A brother from Sudan, and he was related to Dr. Hassan al-Turabi, which created fears and apprehensions among some organizational leaders from Egypt and Jordan that Brother Ahmed Makki is moving the Brotherhood organization towards Dr.’s thought. Hassan al-Turabi, who took his directions away from the Egyptian Brotherhood and the global organization of the Muslim Brotherhood.

In light of that fraternal atmosphere fraught with suspicion and tension, I began writing a series of articles related to our organizational disputes. Therefore, he made a decision to stop the newsletter from issuing, after checking with me if there was someone inciting me to target him, such as brother Tariq Suwaidan.

Nights and days passed, and the elections that he lost took place, and their results were in favor of the brothers from Egypt, Palestine, Jordan and Kuwait, and thus they achieved a change of leadership, and the selection of Dr. Ahmed Al-Qadi; He is an Egyptian doctor, distinguished by his high morals and paternal behavior to lead the organization. And with the advent of Dr. Ahmed Al-Qadi (may God have mercy on him), I have returned to issuing the Bulletin again.

was dr. Tariq Suwaidan is one of the closest leaders to our Palestinian work, as he never stopped his moral and material support for our activities in the American arena, and he did not miss an event that we invited him to participate in.. Because of his strong attachment to the Palestinian cause, he wrote a lot about it, and one of the most famous books he wrote was the encyclopedia (Palestine... Illustrated History), which is one of his early creations, and also (The Jews..

The Illustrated Encyclopedia), and among his books, which exceeded a hundred books, the issue of Palestine and history had an abundance of them, and from his televised lectures on more than one Arab satellite channel.

Dr. has grown up. Tariq Suwaidan grew up from an early age in a Palestinian Islamic atmosphere, as his home was in Kuwait, in a neighborhood inhabited by a Palestinian majority, and one of his sheikhs was the Palestinian preacher, Dr. Omar Al-Ashqar (may God have mercy on him), and among the colleagues of the mosque in which Brother Khaled Meshaal used to pray, and others from the symbols of the Palestinian Islamist action.

And when the leadership of the Brotherhood organization in America devolved to d. Musa Abu Marzouk in the second half of the eighties decade, was d. Tariq has always been by his side, and they worked together in leading the movement and promoting it and its activities to the early nineties.

One of the difficult moments we lived with Dr. Tariq that one day before his university graduation, Kuwait fell, as the Iraqi invasion of his country took place on the second of August 1990. With the occupation of Kuwait, Dr. Tariq is without a homeland to return to, so he came to Washington and opened a political office to defend his country's cause and mobilize support and solidarity for it.

During that period, we were truly among the most sympathetic and close people to him.. as we understood the magnitude of the ordeal that befell him and his country, and we moved to offer him - in the context of opinion and advice - everything we could, for he is a brother dear to our hearts, and he has always been a supporter of us and our cause, and now The time has come for repayment and fulfillment test.

With the liberation of Kuwait, d. Tariq America returned to his country, and communication and cordiality with him remained.. After the events of September 11, 2001, communication between us was cut off, and I only met him on one of his summer visits in 2003, when he brought to America a group of Kuwaiti youth in an entertaining advocacy program For about a month, he toured with them in many places and cities that have a global heritage value, in addition to visiting the Islamic centers scattered in western capitals.. Those trips were like recreational and educational tourism to introduce Islam and its civilization, and to get acquainted with the issues of the nation, including the issue of Palestine.

I had a strong friendship with Brother Tariq during the years we were in America for studies, and his wife, Sister Umm Muhammad, was one of the Islamic feminist leaders, and she was also in a relationship of friendship with my wife, so that my daughter’s name was “Mafaz”, which is derived from the verse (Indeed, the righteous have a reward), they were them who preceded us.

After I left America, I met Dr. Tariq Suwaidan once or twice in Lebanon and Qatar, but my follow-up to him did not stop after he became a famous media face on the “Al-Risala” satellite channel, and then through his training courses to build the Islamic leadership personality, some of which were held in Turkey and Malaysia, and he also gave distinguished performances in The Palestinian Al-Quds TV channel in Ramadan for international personalities who had imprints in the history of peoples and nations.

was dr. Tariq Suwaidan is a person ahead of his time, and he is a nation in a man, and he had a verse in his morals, and his style in the literature of difference is - rightly - a school from which we learned a lot, and that what we are of behaviors and literature are but some of the outpouring of his traits.