Qatar-ISIS link revealed

Ali Rajab

A member of the Qatari royal family has unintentionally revealed links between her country and ISIS by commenting on an announcement by the Emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad, that Qatar would not close down the news channel, al-Jazeera.

Commenting on the announcement, Mariam al-Thani, said the channel, which has just celebrated its 23rd anniversary, will “last” and “expand”.

Surprisingly enough, this is the same slogan ISIS terrorists used to repeat to show that their presumed Islamic caliphate would continue to live and grow bigger.

“Happy new year to al-Jazeera and its staff,” Mariam wrote on Twitter on November 1.

She ended the comment with the “lasting and expanding” hastag. This was a bit consistent with the conduct of the Qatari news channel, following the death of ISIS caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Al-Jazeera’s presenters wore black on the day was declared dead by US President Donald Trump.

This created a social media buzz. A Saudi activist said al-Jazeera was mourning the death of one of Qatar’s allies.

Platform for terrorists

Al-Jazeera is the world’s most outstanding platform for terrorists. The channel had hosted a huge number of terrorists, including al-Qaeda’s founder and late leader Osama bin Laden. It also hosted the current head of the terrorist organization, Ayman al-Zawahiri, as well as Abu Mohamed al-Julani, the emir of al-Nusra Front.

Human rights groups have submitted dozens of reports against Qatar to the United Nations Human Rights Council for using hate speech, according to Ayman Oqeil, the head of the Egyptian rights group, Maat Foundation for Peace, Development, and Human Rights.

He said al-Jazeera had broadcast audios of al-Zawahiri several times. Oqeil accused al-Jazeera of working to make its viewers sympathize with terrorists by repeatedly hosting them and airing their audio recordings.

In March 2018, the Council of Senior Scholars in Saudi Arabia

General Secretariat for Senior Religious Scholars accused al-Jazeera of deceiving its viewers and fomenting strife and conflicts in the Arab world.

The channel has turned into a mouthpiece for terrorist groups, the council said.

Backing

In September 2017, a study by al-Mezmaah Center contained proof of Qatar’s support of ISIS. The study revealed that Doha was the most important refuge for the electronic army of the terrorist organization. This electronic army was especially active in attacking the anti-terrorism quartet which is made up of the United Arab Emirates; Saudi Arabia; Egypt, and Bahrain.

ISIS issued a statement a few days ago, in which it declared support to the Qataris against the boycott of the member states of the quartet. This statement throw strong light on the presence of connections between Qatar and the terrorist organization.

Dubious relations

Islamist affairs specialist Hesham al-Najjar said Qatari support to terrorist organization is now a fact known by everybody.

“Al-Jazeera has hosted the most important terror leaders,” al-Najjar told The Reference.

He added that the Qatari news channel had preceded every other media organization in covering terrorist attacks, which shows that it knew about these attacks beforehand.