“Arab Media and Terrorism Issues” unveils Al Jazeera’s role in backing terrorism

Cairo - After losing their patience, Egypt, Saudi, the UAE, Bahrain and Yemen have severed their diplomatic ties with Qatar, accusing Doha of supporting terrorism in the region. Although Qatar is an Arab country, Doha funded terrorist acts against its Arab neighbors with $64.2 billion from 2010 to 2015. 

Undoubtedly, Al Jazeera satellite channel played a role clearly focusing on backing “extremist trends” starting from late leader of al-Qaeda Osama bin Laden to extremist groups currently spread across the Arab world. 

In his book, “Media and Terrorism Issues” published 10 years ago, Egyptian member of parliament Abdel Rahim Ali, warned against the damaging role played by Al Jazeera and its support for extremist groups after the Arab Spring revolutions.

Ali reviewed Al Jazeera’s stances which are characterized by lack of objective criteria, and untrusted materials regarding different issues in the region. He explained that sole owner of Al Jazeera, the Qatari government, has used the channel for years with the aim of settling accounts with its enemies, namely Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Jordan and Egypt.

Ali highlighted Qatar’s intensive campaign against what it called the U.S. presence in Saudi Arabia and instigated public opinion against Riyadh, which denied such reports. Surprisingly, U.S. forces relocated from a base near Riyadh to a station in Al Udeid base in Qatar itself.

The author went on to say that Al Jazeera deliberately adopted the same method in dealing with the issue of Israeli-Qatari ties, when the Gulf Arab state had diplomatic relations with Israel and opened an Israeli office in Doha. However, Al Jazeera has never tackled or discussed this issue while, at the same time, there is daily criticism by the channel on other Arab countries that have ties with Israel.