UAE clashes with Qatar over Brotherhood leader
The United Arab Emirates has fired an unprecedented diplomatic broadside against Qatar as the two Gulf states clash over the role of political Islam in the Middle East.
The UAE said on Sunday it had summoned Qatar’s ambassador to protest against “insolent remarks” made by Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, based in the Qatari capital Doha, who is regarded as the spiritual leader of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood.
Mr Qaradawi, in a sermon broadcast on Qatar state media on Friday, reportedly criticised the UAE for being against the rule of Islamic government.
Anwar Gargash, the UAE’s minister of state for foreign affairs, said Abu Dhabi – rejecting such “seditious and hateful” speech – had taken this “unprecedented” step because Qatar had failed to prevent its religious and media platforms from insulting a “brotherly and neighbourly country.”
Bilateral tensions have risen in recent years after Doha promoted Islamist groups during the unrest of the Arab spring – tensions that came to a head in Egypt.
Saudi Arabia, the regional Arab superpower, and the UAE backed the military ouster of the elected Muslim Brotherhood government of Mohamed Morsi, who had been supported by Qatar. Abu Dhabi and Riyadh are the leading supporters of the interim Egyptian government.
Mr Qaradawi, meanwhile, has strongly criticised Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Egypt’s defence minister and its most powerful figure, from his base in Doha.
“We have sought during the past few days to contain the issue through continuous top-level contacts between the two countries,” said Mr Gargash.
Mr Gargash, quoted by UAE’s official news agency, said an official statement from Qatar had not denounced the contents of the speech and did not “offer any guarantees that this will never happen again”.
Khaled al-Attiyah, Qatar’s foreign minister, said remarks made by the scholar did not represent the country’s foreign policy. In remarks carried by the Qatar News Agency, he said relations between Qatar and the UAE were “strategic”.
This is not the first time that Mr Qaradawi, who has lived in Doha for decades, has criticised the UAE. But previous spats have been confined to public disagreements via social media, rather than official complaints.
“The UAE is asking Qatar to put al-Qaradawi on a leash, but Qatar is not budging,” says Abdulkhaleq Abdullah, a political scientist in the UAE. “Qatar is being asked to either join the Gulf or play the maverick role, and it would appear that they think that being a maverick helps rather than hurts Qatar.”
Analysts had thought that Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, the ruler of Qatar who took over from his father last year, would introduce a more conciliatory approach after years of aggravating neighbours with its foreign policy.
The UAE has over the past couple of years cracked down on domestic Islamists, focusing its attentions on al-Islah, a group it has accused of being a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Dr Mahmood al-Jaidah, a Qatari, was detained almost a year ago at Dubai airport and is set to be sentenced on Monday on charges of aiding al-Islah, which has been advocating for political reform in the UAE.