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By : Fahad Shoqiran

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:: The crisis with Qatar exposed several networks and relations and solved many mysteries. For two decades, cells worked day and night as part of a Qatari project that revealed its magnitude when the four countries, i.e. Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt, announced boycotting the small turbulent emirate.

One of these cells was tasked with monitoring Saudi media to harm its credibility among Saudis. They monitored television channels, dailies, magazines, podiums and institutions, and the entire war was managed without harming Qatari and Turkish media.

They pushed for unjustified criticism against Saudi figures, statesmen, intellectuals, authors and journalists continued as they aimed to cast out honest Saudis from the sphere of Saudi interests so Qatar can solely steer the wheel and direct the public opinion.

Despite all this fuss, they could not achieve the aims of countries that sponsor the Brotherhood in the region as Saudis’ and Gulf citizens’ awareness thus thwarted their attempts.

Unfounded criticism

Accusing others of Zionism has been a major part of Qatar’s direct project. Criticizing anything related to the path of its regional expansion has been enough to accuse others of Zionism. The same applied to criticizing the Muslim Brotherhood and viewing it as a terrorist group whose ideas are the basis of concepts which nurtured Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and criticizing Hamas as a group that carries out suicide terrorist operations against civilians thus sabotaging the Palestinian cause and violating agreements between the different parties.

No matter how the Qatari crisis ends, it must lead to taking extremists to trial and subjugating them to Royal Order A/44 which criminalized terrorist groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood

Fahad Suleiman Shoqiran

All this is celebrated by Qatar’s institutions and it’s fully sponsored by the regime. Perhaps days will reveal more and expose writers who wanted to harm Saudi media and symbols in order to exonerate the media of countries which sponsor the Brotherhood.

These cheap accusations of Zionism no longer served the Brotherhood’s goal to intimidate as they’ve been overly consumed. Not only that but all those who were accused of it are actually supporters of civil projects and they are purely loyal to their countries and against radical movements in all their forms. Those using arms outside the context of the state are committing a terrorist act regardless of the legitimacy and fairness of their cause.

The recent developments with Qatar came as a surprise and they will target all those who served the Qatari project and worked against their country’s media and institutions that looked after their people’s interests. It’s strange that someone spent one third of his life attacking one media outlet without criticizing any Qatari institution ever! Can this be a coincidence? Time will answer to it and official institutions will clarify this and get to the bottom of it.

The current Gulf developments exposed horrible decline of morals. Many figures have been involved in this hostile Qatari project for the past two decades. They were aware that the main goal was to worry Saudi Arabia, provoke it and distract it from developing. They rode the wave against Saudi Arabia and hatefully spoke out against it. However, the dream quickly shattered and Qatar has now been boycotted and it’s defending itself while drowning because of its evil acts. The story here is not about Qatar’s hostility and grudges as the crisis must pave the way for internal accountability.

Ending the crisis

No matter how the Qatari crisis ends, it must lead to taking extremists to trial and subjugating them to Royal Order A/44 which criminalized terrorist groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood. This is an occasion to hold accountable the figures who’ve been involved in Qatar’s project to stir problems and incite strife as such acts are tantamount to high treason. They must be punished especially that the Saudi government has all the data and documents which clarify the accusations against those working for the hostile Qatari project.

The Qatari media and its affiliates have failed. They’ve been exposed as we now know that all these online campaigns were launched from Doha to cast out and discredit the media that defends Saudi Arabia’s interests. It’s time for accountability. There is a great difference between those who defended their country and protected it and those who worked against it and betrayed it.

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Fahad Shoqiran is a Saudi writer and researcher who also founded the Riyadh philosophers group. His writings have appeared in pan-Arab newspaper Asharq al-Awsat, Alarabiya.net, among others. He also blogs on philosophies, cultures and arts. He tweets @shoqiran.

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Disclaimer: Views expressed by writers in the Column section are their own and do not reflect RiyadhVision’s point-of-view.

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