Mugnieh was not well liked in Kuwait, to say the least: at one point, he was considered public enemy number one. He was allegedly behind a 1988 airliner hijacking that resulted in the death of two Kuwaitis.
The latest crisis in Kuwait started on Feb. 16 when a demonstration in homage to Mugnieh, organized by Shiites, took place. Following this, authorities arrested eight Shiite personalities, including two ex-MPs and a cleric. They were accused of belonging to an organization called Hezbollah-Kuwait, of wanting to overthrow the regime and propagating false news on the country abroad to tarnish Kuwait's image. They were all later freed on bail.
But that is not all: the attorney general has asked parliament to remove the immunity of two current Shiite MPs. And Kuwaiti minister of the interior, Sheikh Jaber Khaled al-Sabbah, announced that the state would "deport any expatriate who took part" in the rally.
Overall tension is increasing in the tiny Gulf emirate. Multiple bomb threats have been made in the past weeks. On March 8 an anonymous caller warned authorities that two bombs were going to explode aboard two incoming planes.
The arrests of the Shiites personalities caused the ire of the Shiite community that followed up with two more important demonstrations. Shiites represent about one-third of Kuwait's 1 million population. They feel that they are being unfairly treated by the Sunni regime. A young Shiite, Abbas, told the Lebanese daily L'Orient-Le Jour: "I love Kuwait. It is my country, but such actions tell me that I am not welcome."
This situation has much broader implications and might involve the major player in the region: Iran. In fact, rumors of Iran's involvement in stirring chaos in the Gulf, by using the local Shiite population, have been abound in recent years. For analyst Nabil al-Fadhi, Iran is behind this crisis because it is looking to deter Kuwait from allowing the United States to launch attacks against the Islamic republic from its territory.
But the trouble is far from limited just to Kuwait. In fact, Bahrain has witnessed numerous incidents, including riots by members of its Shiite community. And in Manama, just over the March 8 weekend, the ranch belonging to the prime minister's adviser was torched along with several cars.
Finally, Saudi Arabia is not immune to tensions with its Shiite community, who mostly live in the oil-rich Eastern provinces.
In light of Iran's expansion ambitions and its will and ability to stir chaos in the region (look at Lebanon, for example), the fears of the Gulf countries are clearly justified. If one thought that the situation was not explosive and complicated enough between the West and Iran, now one must take into account the potential domestic turmoil that may be brewing in some countries in the region.
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Olivier Guitta, an adjunct fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and a foreign affairs and counterterrorism consultant, is the founder of the newsletter The Croissant (www.thecroissant.com).