Once the voice of Arab world, Al-jazeera now in limbo

THE FORMAT of Sharia and Life – Al-jazeera’s most popular religious broadcast – was simple.

Anyone from across the Islamic world could call in and put their questions to Yusuf al-qaradawi, an Egyptian cleric.

Over nearly 20 years of weekly broadcasts from Qatar, each drawing millions of viewers, Mr Qaradawi would answer questions that ranged from: “Is smoking permitted during Ramadan?” to: “Could a Palestinian woman take off her hijab when carrying out a suicide bombing in Israel?” The ageing mufti’s support for attacks on Israel led to him being banned from entering both Britain and the US, but it was his support for the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists that infuriated the rulers of Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

Although the show ended in 2013, Mr Qaradawi was not forgotten. This week Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the UAE officially designated him as a terrorist as part of their coordinated diplomatic campaign to isolate Qatar and bring it to heel.

One of the goals of that campaign is to force the closure of Al-jazeera, which is owned by the Qatari state. The network’s bureaus in Saudi Arabia and Jordan have already been shut down and its websites have come under a sustained cyber attack from unidentified hackers. On Friday Saudi Arabia banned hotels from showing the network.

The Arab powers aligning against Qatar accuse the network’s Arabic channels of giving a platform to terrorists in Syria and of inciting people across the region to rise up against their governments.

Al-jazeera’s defenders argue that the network is a brave, independent voice in a region where most television channels slavishly follow their government’s line.

Unlike in the other Gulf countries, Qatar embraced the Arab Spring and Al-jazeera did too. Some analysts say the uprisings may not have even happened without Al-jazeera’s 24-hour coverage and its mass distribution of videos that would otherwise not have left Youtube.

Meanwhile, its journalists have been arrested, harassed and expelled by governments from Palestine to Saudi Arabia to Iraq. The question now is whether the blockade will be able to assert enough pressure on Qatar to force it to close Al-jazeera.