UK media is is reporting on the launch of multiple new Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated TV stations, located mainly in Turkey. According to the BBC report, the new channels are said to be financially backed by Qatar:
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December 8, 2014 Despite the closure of its Egypt-based media in the wake of the ouster of Islamist President Muhammad Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) has continued to expand its media machine, with more and more TV stations and websites being launched overseas.
But the group might have spread its media wings too thinly. Its ever-growing outlets seem to have fallen short of having any conspicuous or significant influence on public opinion, whether in favour of the group or against the current regime of President Abd-al-Fattah al-Sisi.
The MB’s media apparatus was shut down at home right after the unseating of President Morsi in July 2013. Misr 25, the group’s then only official TV station, was closed on the day Morsi was ousted, as were other supportive Islamist channels.
This and the restrictions it faced afterwards led the MB to turn its attention outside Egypt. The warm relations between Morsi and the government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has been a vocal critic of Al-Sisi, made Turkey a key destination.
In less than 18 months, nearly half a dozen TV stations have been launched there, with suggestive names, such as Al-Shar’iyah (The Legitimacy), Rabi’ah (the name of square where Morsi’s supporters protested against his ouster), Mikammilin (We are continuing), Misr Al-An (Egypt Now) and Al-Sharq (The East).
The MB-affiliated TV channels are said to be financially backed by the tiny oil-rich state of Qatar, a key supporter of the MB.”
The GMBDW reported in September on the announcement by the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood that a number of its leaders had been asked by Qatar to leave the country. As we said in that post, we had doubts on the major media interpretation that the announcement represented a watershed in the relationship of Qatar with the Brotherhood. To repeat:
The relocation of a group of Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood leaders and clerics, while clearly a token gesture, does nothing at all to dismantle the significant infrastructure located in Qatar propping up the Global Muslim Brotherhood.
Qatari backing of the Muslim Brotherhood TV stations as described above would seem to confirm our interpretation of the September announcement.
