The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs just released an interesting paper on the relationship between Al-Jazeera, the Muslim Brotherhood, and the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani:
The director general of the network, Wadah Khanfar, was a member of the organization in Jordan, where he was arrested. Today he is one of the closest advisers of the emir. Sheikh Qaradawi is also a member of the inner circle of the emir and is known to work closely with Khanfar. Both support Hamas. Arab researchers have succeeded in uncovering a number of other Brothers working for the network, but it is surmised that there are many more. The general consensus is that Yusuf al-Qaradawi is the visible tip of the iceberg. In an article published in 2003 in the London-based Arabic daily Asharq Alawsat, Maamun Fendi, a well-known Egyptian liberal thinker today living in the United States, wrote that some 50 percent of the network's personnel belong to the Muslim Brothers. He added that their influence in Qatar was rising both in the network and among government circles . . . .
The channel does not encourage openness. It has its own agenda. It has become a weapon in the hands of an ambitious emir who may be driven by the Muslim Brothers and who is threatening the stability of the Middle East.
This sheds some light on Egypt's hostility to Al-Jazeera. The Mubarak regime's hostility towards the Muslim Brotherhood is well-known. Just today, there were more arrest raids.
