MEMRI Droppin' Knowledge??

In my humble opinion, MEMRI tends to cherry pick what it presents on its website and a lot of their translations are out of context. That said, they do manage to get some interesting clips from time to time. A recent interesting one was about the celebration of Carnival in Tripoli, called Zambo. A more profound clip is an interview with Kuwaiti academic and columnist, Ibtihal Al-Khatib. I wish MEMRI didn't chop up the interview so much, but I am hoping they do that for time and not biased selectivity in this case. The main thrust of the conversation is on the role of religion in the modern Arab state. I think a lot of people are still adjusting to the idea that a significant segments of Gulf society is so progressive. Here is the clip, if you are having trouble loading the video, try this link.

Here is an excerpt:
Interviewer: But the sanctity did not disappear. It remains in the holy texts.
Dr. Ibtihal Al-Khatib: I do not dispute this. All I'm saying is that you cannot use these texts to build a modern state. I say this is impossible, because there are many different ways of understanding these texts. In addition, in modern countries, there are not only Muslims. You cannot build a country on Islam alone, and exclude followers of other religions.
Interviewer: So you want a state that has nothing to do with Islam?
Dr. Ibtihal Al-Khatib: I want a state that is not based on religion - a civil state. But one of the conditions is to protect people who want to practice their religion. Let me give you an example. The Bohra is a Muslim sect, which has recently been denied the right to have a mosque in Kuwait. Why?
Interviewer: You want to defend religious rights with secularism.
Dr. Ibtihal Al-Khatib: Secularism protects the rights of minorities, and all the religious rights. Of course.
Interviewer: Sometimes the rights of the majority are lost amid all the talk about the rights of the minorities.
Dr. Ibtihal Al-Khatib: How can they be lost, if you establish a civil regime that protects everybody, and tells you that just as you are free to follow your Sunni path, I am free to follow my Shiite path, and Christians and Jews have their rights too? This way we are all equal and protected by the secular regime, which treats us all without discrimination.