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Al Jazeera - Feeding the Muslim Brotherhood's Political Agenda to the Arab World
- Suzan Quitaz (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) On May 5, 2024, the Israeli government accused Al Jazeera (AJ) of being a threat to its national security and a "mouthpiece for Hamas," closing the channel in Israel for 45 days. The broadcaster has a long track record of being barred from operating in several Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, UAE, Jordan, Egypt, and Morocco, for similar charges. U.S. State Department spokesperson Mathew Miller said on May 7, 2024, "We think Al Jazeera ought to be able to operate in Israel." Yet in 2016, America ordered the closure of AJ America. AJ is a well-known brand with enormous viewership. It understands how to target or manipulate its target audience. Its Arabic output is catered to appeal to the Arab Street mindset. The reportage is often emotionally charged, containing images of raw and brutal violence and bloodshed, displaying seriously injured and distressed civilians and even showing dead people. A second important factor to AJ's massive success is that it does not need to make a profit like other media outlets. Since its establishment in 1996, it has received billions of dollars from the rulers of Qatar. Iraqi journalist Sufian Al-Samarrai, Chairman of the Baghdad Post, calls Al Jazeera "nothing more than a platform of armed political Islamist gangs, and their ferocity and terrorism are promoted as a legitimate resistance." Its goal is "to overthrow the current secular-conservative Arab regimes...paving the way for political Islam, represented by the Muslim Brotherhood, to take over the region." The writer is a Kurdish-Iraqi journalist.