KUWAIT CITY — Moving to grind out political dissent at home while the world’s attention is focused on fighting militant extremists in Iraq and Syria, the government of Kuwait is increasingly wielding a penalty that was once rare here: revoking citizenship.

The severity of the punishment, imposed for offenses that sometimes amount to little more than disagreeing with the government, has stoked bitterness and raised an unaccustomed fear that new lines are being drawn between loyalty and treason.

Kuwait, where citizens have elected full-throated Parliaments for decades and lawmakers have publicly criticized official corruption, has been the most politically open of the conservative Persian Gulf monarchies.

But as tensions in the country have been growing, analysts said, the revocations have raised concerns that Kuwait is also taking cues from some of its more repressive neighbors in the region, including some that have won praise from the United States for joining the military campaign against the Islamic State.