LONDON: The host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” show took aim at Qatar and Al Jazeera this week, saying criticism of the latter over “glorifying” terror is justified.
Joe Scarborough, a former member of the US House of Representatives, was speaking about the diplomatic row in the Gulf, in which Qatar has been accused by its neighbors of supporting extremism.
Scarborough claimed that the Doha-funded news network Al Jazeera had been guilty of “glorifying” terrorism.
“You’ve got the Saudis, the UAE, Israel, a lot of people correctly saying (that) Qatar has been funding terrorist organizations, Hezbollah, they’ve been funding radical aspects of the Muslim Brotherhood, they have been spreading disinformation… Through Al Jazeera,” Scarborough said.
“What the Saudis and the UAE (were) saying to them for years (was) ‘why are you glorifying Osama Bin Laden? Why are our children turning on the TV set and seeing these wonderful documentaries about Osama Bin Laden, the guy who’s trying to kill us?’ So it’s not as if the UAE and the Saudis don’t have a point here.”
Al Jazeera, the country’s state-funded broadcaster, has previously been accused of being a mouthpiece for Doha.
Ƶ, the UAE, Egypt and Bahrain on June 5 cut diplomatic and transport ties with Doha, accusing it of backing terrorism.