"I believe the Kuwaiti public is annoyed and offended by religious extremism, and is therefore prepared to fight it with the law," said Ahmad Bishara, secretary general of a liberal pressure group, the National Democratic Movement (NDM). "The government will be in a difficult position if it backs down this time because there is popular pressure to take action," he said.

The cabinet on Sunday asked its National Security Council to study the growth of the Islamic movement and report back with its recommendations.

"It is time the government took stern action against those who want to take the law into their hands," feminist Masouma al-Mubarak said.

Seven men were charged Sunday with the vicious beating of a 20-year-old Kuwaiti female student for failing to wear hijab. The Interior Ministry promptly arrested six of the accused while one remained at large.

All of Kuwait's seven daily newspapers carried photographs of the six detainees on their front pages below headlines decrying “Islamic extremism.”

"Islamic groups have exceeded the limit by too far this time and I believe the publication of these photos is an indication of the government's determination," said Shamlan al-Essa, a political science professor at Kuwait University. "I believe Kuwait is under real international and regional pressure to take action against these groups. This time things are really serious."

But a Western diplomat here shed doubts on what level of action the government would actually take. "Yes, it is different this time, but I think it will eventually amount to no decisive action. The people who carried out the attack will be punished and nothing more," said the diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

"I believe the Kuwaiti government still does not think that Islamists in the emirate pose a threat to the regime, so I really doubt whether there is going to be a harsh action," he added.

Interior Minister Sheikh Mohammad Khaled al-Sabah said Sunday that the Takfir and Hijra group was responsible for the attack on the Kuwaiti student.

Takfir and Hijra, which gained infamy in Egypt during the 1970s, believes Muslim society is no longer truly Islamic and calls on believers to return to the roots of their religion.

The group is also known as the "Desert Flogging Group" because its members are accused of having kidnapped several expatriate workers in recent years and beaten them in the desert for alleged immoral acts.

Kuwaiti newspaper columnists warned Saturday of Algerian-style violence in the oil-rich emirate, but Islamist MP Walid al-Tabtabai slammed the whole incident as a "plot against Islamic groups in Kuwait."

Islamist groups have gained tremendous popularity in Kuwait since the 1991 Gulf War, which evicted Iraqi occupation forces.

But most of them support a peaceful transformation of society and are active in the oil-rich Gulf state's outspoken parliament, in which they control around one-third of the 50 seats.

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