The Survival and Political Participation of a Kuwaiti Shia Movement: The National Islamic Alliance

Abstract

The National Islamic Alliance (NIA) has evolved as a leading Shia Kuwaiti political group since the 1980s. The NIA participates in electoral politics and Kuwaiti cabinets. While its roots go back to Shia activists in Kuwait, some of whom were linked to Iraq's Islamic Da'wa Party in the end of the 1960s, it is a pragmatic and Kuwaiti nationalist group. The article argues that the NIA shifted from being an active opposition group in the 1990s to a pro-ruling family and government group in 2008. The NIA's transformation was partly a response to the rise of sectarian politics in Kuwait and the opposition's resentment of the NIA's mourning of Imad Mughniyeh, a Lebanese Hezbollah leader. The article includes first-hand and secondary resources, including interviews and the NIA's figures' public statements to unpack the NIA's foundation, structure and changing relationship with the ruling family as well as its political engagement and positions on the Kuwaiti protest movement (2011–2013).