Kuwait launched today an investigation into a Shi'ite magazine that caused an uproar by allegedly insulting a wife of Islam's Prophet Mohammad.
Information Minister Mohammad Abulhasan said the Lebanese al-Minbar magazine, which was being printed illegally in the majority Sunni Muslim Gulf state despite being banned since 2003, was blasphemous.
''Al-Minbar is not licensed in Kuwait but was still being printed and circulated, and it publishes ideas that do not conform with the Islamic sharia,'' he told Reuters.
''The public prosecution is currently investigating the matter and anyone who is involved with the magazine or responsible for printing it.'' Security sources said the magazine had caused a furore in the tiny Gulf Arab state by publishing an article regarded as blasphemous about Prophet Mohammad's favourite wife, Aisha.
Shi'ites accuse Aisha of siding with the opponents of Caliph Ali, the first and most revered Imam of the Shi'ite sect.
Al-Minbar was banned early last year soon after it published articles that allegedly promoted the Shi'ite sect of Islam while defaming figures revered by Sunni Muslims.
It has since been smuggled into the country on compact discs and printed and distributed illegally, security sources said. These discs have since been seized in a police raid.
The 2003 U S-led war on Iraq and the emergence of the long-repressed Shi'ites as a political force in Kuwait's northern neighbour has heightened sensitivities between Islam's main Shi'ite and Sunni sects.
Shi'ites make up one-third of Kuwait's indigenous population of some 900,000 people, holding five seats in the 50-member parliament and one post in the 18-member cabinet.