If only this were the case. Unfortunately, it's not. Wherever you search for them – in newspapers, including the Arabic-language press, on television or in conversations with colleagues from the region – no one can cite any sensible, comprehensible reasons for the blockade of the country and the accusations that have accompanied it.
Take the accusation that Qatar is supporting terrorism. This is absurd, given that it is being made by representatives of a country deemed to be one of the biggest – if not the biggest – sponsor of fundamentalist movements. While this does not refer to the government itself, there are several foundations active in Saudi Arabia that are reportedly promoting the kingdom's conservative – some would say reactionary – state religion of Wahhabism around the world. Indonesia and the Balkans are among the regions that have recently experienced the beneficial effects of this ideology. [...]
But Al-Jazeera has other voices as part of its programming, too. It also presents other positions that are very far from the questionable pronouncements of bearded clerics. Its program is pluralistic and, above all, far removed from the Wahhabi voices, fierce men with their fatwas, and pious aphorisms coming out of Saudi Arabia.
Qatar is certainly not a human rights paradise, as is demonstrated by the emirate's treatment of its guest workers, the majority of whom are Asian. As elsewhere in the Gulf region, this treatment is shameful.
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