Saudi, Egypt and Bahrain want to shut down Qatar’s Al Jazeera

Accusations of harbouring terrorists have been hurled at Qatar and questions about the stationing of Turkish troops in Qatar have been raised by Saudi, Bahrain and Egypt. Qatar is now being asked to shut down Al Jazeera.

In a recent article, in The Economist – Hands off Al Jazeera( it’s been highlighted that the Saudi’s want to close Al Jazeera down, along with some other countries in the Middle East. If you’ve been wondering why so much negative attention is being given to Qatar, then look no further. Qatar is evolving and embracing more forward-thinking approaches and their news station, Al Jazeera, appears to be a beacon of light in an often oppressive political climate. Now the Saudis want to shut it down.

However, it has been claimed by the Saudi’s, Bahrain and Egypt that Qatar is harbouring terrorists. Donald Trump is liaising with both sides and said there have been ‘interesting developments’. The Saudi’s are also unhappy about the stationing of Turkish troops in Qatar. However it begs the question – why would they be requesting that Qatar should shut down Al Jazeera?

The Saudi King has recently had a little jaunt to Bali and he took 1500 staff, two escalators, a limo and tonnes of luggage. In a recent report, the Saudi Prince Aziz was sued for causing an inordinate amount of damage in a property was ‘partying’ in (Independant, 2016) For the royals in Saudi Arabia going on huge jollies around the world appears to be the norm. Party hard until the break of dawn and then impose Sharia Law on the rest of your country. The hypocrisy and double standards don’t really get any more palpable.

You might’ve read that now the very handsome Prince Hassan Jameel is dating the pop star Rihanna. Surely this has got to be where Sharia Law ends and civilisation begins. To impose Sharia Law on your female subjects whilst dating a somewhat risqué pop icon seems odd to say the least.

For women in Saudi it’s like living in the dark ages of Britain. They must cover up, have chaperones, ask for permission to leave the country and can’t even drive. To top it all off they aren’t allowed to have sex outside marriage and if they do some awful fate awaits them – like being stoned to death. It was reported in 2015 that a woman was sentenced to being stoned to death for adultery (Mirror, 2015). Saudi Arabia continues to execute its civilians and a female maid from Ethiopia was also executed in 2011 (Newsweek, 2017). The first execution in Saudi occurred in January of this year and it is reported that 153 citizens were executed last year after being tried in secret courts (Newsweek, 2017)

Much to the dismay of those who’ve viewed the UN as a beacon of advancement, now Saudi has joined the UN human rights committee. Surely the prerequisite for joining should’ve started with – no stoning to death of women, of any kind, ever, under any circumstances. Apparently that hasn’t come into the equation of their membership. I don’t blame you for feeling flabbergasted – who wouldn’t be? (Indepthnews, 2017)

Its highly unlikely that Saudi will come close to having their wish granted and Donald Trump has done a U-turn by selling Qatar fighter jets. At the moment Trump is mediating between both parties and the picture is not absolutely clear. However the pressure to shut down Al Jazeera doesn’t make sense to an outsider, who views the station as a beacon in the midst, of what appears to be, grand scale hypocrisy.