How Saudi Arabia has Betrayed Islamic World

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After Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia all of sudden Saudi Arabia and their allies have severed relations with Qatar. There are more reasons behind it, why Saudi Arabia has cut diplomatic ties with Qatar. First of all, Qatar is the world’s largest producer of liquified natural gas. Saudi Arabia has accused Qatar of supporting Hamas and Muslim brotherhood. Saudi Arabia, along with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt, have cut ties with Qatar and moved to isolate the Gulf nation, accusing it of harboring extremists. Qatar has denied the allegations. Qatar doesn’t regard Hamas and Muslim brotherhood terrorist Organizations. Now we need to look at the situation in depth.

In 2013, Saudi played a very pivotal role in destabilizing the Muslim brotherhood in Egypt. Mohammad Morsi was first democratically-elected president in Egypt. After one year in office, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi overthrow of the country’s first democratically-elected president. Abdel Fattah El-Sisi was military chief at the time who led the takeover and ran for president for two years later, winning the vote in a landslide. Since coup, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi has launched crackdown and has declared the Muslim brotherhood a “terrorist organization.” Thousands of members of Muslim brotherhood have sentenced to death or life imprisonment. When people start protesting against coup in Egypt. According to human rights report, the Egyptian police and military opened fire with live ammunition on crowd of demonstrators. In Rab’a Square, Egyptian security forces carried out one of the world’s largest killings of demonstrators in a single day in recent history. The actual death toll exceeded 4,000 but it is impossible to present an accurate figure even today because many families took their loved ones away without registering their deaths at the interior ministry. Others refused to sign papers at the hospital that demanded that their relatives had died of “natural causes” or were “involved in accidents.” The regime wanted to cover up its crimes through such subterfuge.

Saudi Arabia publicly supported the coup and declared the Muslim brotherhood a “terrorist organization”. Saudi Arabia awarded a staggering $8 billion dollar aid package to bolster the Egyptian economy. This was in an effort to fortify the position Sisi’s power grab that resulted in the killing of an estimated 817 peaceful protesters at Rabaa al-Adawiya Square in Cairo, the imprisonment of the previous government and thousands of it’s supporters, including former President Muhammad Morsi who is currently on trial.

When Muslim brotherhood came in power in 2013, it posed a direct threat to Saudi monarchy system. Saudi Arabia fears the rise to power of Islamists both at home and outside. Saudi Arabia claims that their constitution is the Quran and the application of sharia. It is completely a white lie. Saudi Arabia is deceiving Muslims in the name of Islam. Saudi leadership fears losing its influence in the Middle East. It wants to remain the fake Islamic model in the Arab region. Muslim brotherhood combined Islamist politics with democracy which threatens the Saudi model and alarms the Saudi. Late King Abdullah clearly stated that he continued to support Sisi’s government in order to eradicate Muslim brotherhood in Egypt. Saudi contribution to the demise of the Muslim brotherhood will be remembered for good by the Muslims as a betrayal of Islam.

Now let’s return to the main topic of Qatar. I have already said that Qatar is the world’s largest producer of liquified natural gas. This is another cause of severing relationship with Qatar. I would like shed light on this issue. Japan’s co, the world’s biggest buyer of liquefied natural gas, recently said it has been informed that there will be no impact on LPG supplies after some Arab countries cut diplomatic ties with Qatar. In April 2017, Qatar lifted a self-imposed ban on developing the world’s biggest natural gas field, which it is shares ownership with Iran, in an attempt to stave off an expected rise in competition. Saudi doesn’t want Qatar to improve its relationship with Iran, the Saudi’s arch-enemy. There is rivalry between Saudi and Iran; both countries are engaged in a series of proxy wars across the region. Now Saudi is trying to impose policies on Qatar.

One of Qatar’s most significant assets is Al-Jazeera news channel, whose influence is resented by other governments. Last month, four Arab countries blocked Al-Jazeera after comments attributed to the Qatari emir in praise of Iran appeared. Qatar alleged that hackers take over the website of its state run news agency and faked the commentsh

The last but not least, Saudi and along with UAE, Bahrain and Egypt are demanding Doha stop supporting the Palestinian group. Hamas, which has controlled Gaza since 2007, is regarded the daughter movement of the Muslim brotherhood and a close ally of Doha. Qatar has transferred hundreds of millions of dollars to Gaza. Qatar has helped Hamas diplomatically by providing asylum for exiled Hamas leaders. After the last war in Gaza in 2014, Qatar committed $ 1billion towards reconstruction, humanitarian projects and electricity costs. Israel has directly supported Saudi and other countries against Qatar. Israeli intelligence is covertly working with Saudi intelligence, trying to destabilize the Qatar like they did it in Libya, Egypt, and Iraq. The Israeli intelligence source told news channels that another round of fighting in Gaza is just a matter of time “If not this summer then the next one, and if not, then one after that, for sure.’’

Aqib Farooq Mir
(miraqib454@gmail.com)