Othman Al Khamees

Biography

Othman Al Khamees is a Kuwaiti Salafist preacher. Khamees studied at the Imam Muhammad Bin Saud Islamic University in Riyadh, and holds a Masters degree in Islamic Hadith. Khamees is anti-Shia, often using divisive rhetoric rooted in fundamental Sunni interpretations of Islam to propagate anti-Shia narratives, particularly during his online sermons and guest appearances on television. Khamees also uses fundamental rhetoric to target Jews and Christians who broke God’s commandments, recently stating that some Jews and Christians were like ‘apes and pigs due to their rejection of God’s commands’.

Evidence of Hate Speech/Incitement:

January 2021: Khamees created uproar across parts of the Gulf for referring to the UAE’s Abrahamic House - a structure with a Mosque, a Church and a Synagogue as “an act of apostasy and heresy”, further adding that the Abrahamic House, which sees to create interfaith tolerance among the three Abrahamic faiths as following “Satan’s steps”.

December 2020: Khamees stated that some Jews were turned into apes while some Christians were turned into pigs for rejecting Jesus. He stated in this online lecture, that not all Jews and Christians can be likened to apes and pigs, but only a portion due to their rejection of Allah’s commands.

January 2019: Khamees stated in an online sermon that apostates must be killed not because Islam must be forced upon them, but because they are committing a crime in the same way adulterers, murderers or thieves commit crimes.

October 2017: In a TV interview, Khamees accuses Shias of killing the revered grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, Hussein in the 7th century. By accusing Shias of killing one of their own most renowned figures in Islam is an attempt by Khamees at stoking further hatred of Shias by Sunnis.

November 2016: In an online TV interview, Khamees mocked the Persian accent of reciting the Quran, and claimed that Shias cannot recite the Quran properly, and it wasn’t due to them “not being Arabs”, but because of their Shiism. This was in response to a call by an Iraqi Shia woman who criticised Khameed for openly considering Shias to be non-Muslims.

June 2016: In an online sermon, Khamees referred to Druze, Bahais, and other sects loosely related to Shias as heretics, and that they cannot be counted as Muslims. In the same sermon, Khamees referred to Zaydis - the second largest Shia sect after Twelver Shias - as heretics. In his 90-minute sermon, Khameed also referred to Twelver Shiism which constitutes the largest number of Shias worldwide as a “perversion”.

October 2015: Khamees stated that only non-Muslims [infidels] must be enslaved, and that enslaving Muslims as a result of war between Muslims is not permitted.