Rise of IS elicits soul searching in Arab Gulf, a source of funds and fighters
(The Christian Science Monitor) Across the Arab monarchies of the Gulf, the rise of the self-declared Islamic State has kicked off a wave of finger pointing and soul searching to try to divine how a group so brutal could emerge so close by.
Op-eds and dinner conversations revolve around potential culprits, from President Bashar al-Assad in Syria to President Barack Obama in Washington to local Kuwaiti sheikhs raising funds for the Sunni jihadist group.
A few times a week, Hamad Albloshi’s phone buzzes with a message from relatives or friends that IS militants have attacked another Shi‘ite shrine.
