CAIRO – 22 July 017: “Won’t the Arab Spring be renewed in Kuwait? Kuwait is an authoritarian administration amid an era of revolutions and protests.
The Kuwaiti government brings mercenaries to criticize its people,” these allegations are not research hypotheses, but bold statements made by well-known anchor Faisal al-Qasem on the Doha-based Al-Jazeera channel in November 2012.
The Al-Jazeera channel’s attack on the Kuwaiti administration has a long history. In November 2011, the Kuwaiti National Assembly witnessed a chaotic day when some of its so-called opposition parliamentarians stormed the parliament. This event enjoyed significant coverage by the Qatar-operated channel, claiming the opposition was oppressed by the Kuwaiti government.
On November 13, 2012, the Al-Jazeera Center for Studies published a report calming that Kuwaitis are not democrats. According to the report’s author, Kuwait has established a democratic regime, but it does not have democratic statesmen to run the regime.
Following the 2011 riots, Al-Jazeera published reports on its website calling for a governmental “reshuffle” and change in the Kuwaiti administration on allegations of inefficiency in running the country.
Al-Jazeera claims thousands of masses broke into the Kuwaiti Parliament
Al-Jazeera’s postulation of a so-called Arab Spring in Kuwait was not surprising as it covered the Arab riots and protests in Tunisia, Egypt, Syria and Libya. However, the Qatari news channel did not bother to cover the eight month revolution in Bahrain.
Many Kuwaiti members of the National Assembly, backed by decisions of their government, have revealed Qatari conspiracies against their state.
Kuwaiti member of the National Assembly reveals Qatar's conspiracy against his country
In December 2010, the Al-Jazeera office in Kuwait City was closed by government officials after airing a story on police crackdowns. Al-Jazeera television said that in addition to closing the office, Kuwaiti authorities withdrew the accreditation of its correspondents.
After Al-Jazeera’s hostile stance against Kuwait’s involvement in the US-led war on Iraq, and for security reasons, Kuwait closed Al-Jazeera’s office from November 2002 until May 2005.
This followed an official visit by Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, whose country has often had problems with other Arab states over controversial coverage by Al-Jazeera.
On July 9, 2017, UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Dr. Anwar bin Mohammed Gargash sent a letter to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR) about the persistent promotion of extremist ideologies by Qatar's Al-Jazeera channel.
The letter makes clear that Al-Jazeera's reporting has repeatedly crossed the threshold of incitement to hostility, violence and discrimination, and lists several examples of such content.
For instance, on February 18, 2008, following the re-publication of a blasphemous cartoon, Al-Jazeera TV broadcast a speech by the spokesman of the Salah Al Din brigades in Gaza that called on Muslims to "burn down the offices of the newspapers that affronted our Prophet, and bomb them so that body parts go flying".
Two separate plans to assassinate the cartoonist and staff of the newspaper that published the cartoon, were later thwarted by police.
Most recently, the mother and sister of one of the perpetrators of the London Bridge attack, Youssef Zaghba, told the Times (UK) that her son was radicalized by watching Al-Jazeera.
The letter further highlights how Al-Jazeera has promoted anti-Semitic violence by broadcasting sermons by spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood Yusuf Al-Qaradawi in which he praised Hitler, described the Holocaust as "divine punishment" and called on Allah to "take this oppressive, Jewish, Zionist band of people and kill them, down to the very last one."
On June 5, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain severed ties with Qatar on charges of supporting terrorism and extremists in the region. The Arab Quartet demanded that Qatar shut down Al-Jazeera channel which leads violence and riots provocation and incitement in the region.
Since the beginning of the Arab-Qatari rift, Kuwait has led many reconciliation attempts to bridge the gap between the Arab nations, but Qatar refused to close the channel and insisted on defying the Arab unity.
Kuwait has consistently attempted to mediate between Qatar and other Arab nations, but it seems that Qatar does not respect the Kuwaiti mediation.
In 2009, Kuwait hosted a reconciliation-meeting among Former President of Egypt Hosni Mubarak, Former Prince of Qatar Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa and President of Syria Bashar Assad under the auspices of King of Saudi Arabia King Abdullah bin Abdel Aziz and Prince of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah.
Al-Jazeera Report on November 13, 2012 on Kuwait
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