Qatar is playing a dangerous, two-faced game: political researcher

CAIRO – 8 August 2017: In an article published on the National Interest website on Sunday, Harvard Belfer Center fellow researcher Nawaf Obaid said that Qatar is playing a dangerous game against the other Arab countries by backing, financing and hosting the Muslim Brotherhood.

“As far as the Saudis and their allies are concerned, Qatar is playing a dangerous, two-faced game,” Obaid said, adding that Doha’s government has been calling for democracy to help the group [labeled as terrorist by a judicial rule] to come to power in the Arab countries, while they have done nothing to support democracy in their own country.

Obaid started to explain more about the relationship between Doha’s government and the Muslim Brotherhood and their leaders, especially Egyptian-born Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who is considered a very close friend to former Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani.

Three reasons were stated within Obaid’s analysis as to why the Muslim Brotherhood never succeeded to fit within any political system. “Its emphasis on religious ideology over developmental economics has alienated Arab populaces, who have a growing preference for secular and effective governance; its inability to keep its numerous affiliates in step has led to the perception that it is too riddled with infighting to coherently govern; and it has been unable to quell suspicions regarding its connection to extremist violence,” Obaid wrote.

Furthermore, Obaid explained that Qatar has supported the Brotherhood, hosting and financing them in order to gain some importance among the other Arab countries. However, to do so, they choose to back a group that has been proven to have relations with other terrorist groups and internationally-wanted people.

“Fueled by a desire to exercise outsized influence and a sense of its own importance within the original lineage of Islam, Qatar has long harbored Muslim Brotherhood leaders and supported its attempts to seize power in various Arab nations,” Obaid stated.

He reviewed the rising powers of the terrorist-labeled group within the Arabic region, saying that they gained some power in a few countries for a while, including Egypt, Tunisia and Palestine; however, shortly later, they lost their ability to control and last in power after proving they can offer so little.