Anti-govt protesters run from tear gas released by police during clashes in front of the Supreme Judicial Council in Cairo yesterday.
DOHA: Known for Brotherhood-bashing, outspoken Dubai Police Chief, Dahi Khalfan, has now aimed his guns at Aljazeera TV Channel and criticised it severely for what he claimed was the Channel turning a blind eye to Friday’s protests against President Mohammed Mursi in Egypt.
Khalfan said he had lost trust in Aljazeera and called on fellow GCC nationals to boycott the popular Arabic Channel.
Khalfan posted some eight comments on his Twitter account yesterday criticising Aljazeera for ignoring the huge turnout of protesters at Cairo’s now-famous Tahrir Square against President Mursi assuming sweeping powers.
“Aljzaeera, take sides with the people of Egypt! Individuals (a reference to Mursi) come and go, but people remain. You Aljazeera journalists, have fear of God!” Khalfan exhorted the Doha-based TV station in a tweet message.
He said Aljazeera had destroyed Egypt and sown the seeds of discord in the country — a veiled reminder of the Channel’s active coverage of anti-Mubarak uprising in 2011 which eventually culminated in elections that saw Muslim Brotherhood emerge victorious.
The controversial Dubai police boss pooh-poohed Aljazeera and said while protesters had gathered at Tahrir Square, the TV Channel chose to re-telecast an old interview with Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal.
“It is misleading viewers,” said Khalfan. “Aljazeera, where is your neutrality? …We miss objectivity (in your coverage)…You should not act like a mouthpiece of Muslim Brotherhood.” He said Aljazeera had now become an object of ridicule in the Arab world because it was a dream that has been shattered. “It has made media fun and fantasy.” He dared the Channel to have an interactive dialogue with the ‘Arab citizen’.
Reactions began pouring in to Khalfan’s tweets as people tweeted back with many of them saying they wondered why Dubai’s top cop never ever supported anti-government protesters in Syria.
And, moreover, instead of supporting the recent anti-government protests in Kuwait, Khalfan chose to criticise them, pooh-poohed tweeters.
Agencies reported that Mursi faced a rebellion from judges who accused him yesterday of expanding his powers at their expense.
Prominent opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei said that there could be no dialogue with Egypt’s president until he scrapped a “dictatorial” decree that he said gave Mursi the powers of a pharaoh
New clashed broke out in the southern city of Assiut yesterday. Mursi’s opponents and members of the Muslim Brotherhood swung sticks and threw stones at each other outside the offices of the Brotherhood’s political party, leaving at least seven injured. Several hundred protesters remained in Tahrir Square.
ElBaradei and a six other prominent liberal leaders have announced the formation of a National Salvation Front aimed at rallying all non-Islamist groups together to force Mursi to rescind his edicts. Judges, angry at steps seen as undermining the judiciary, threatened to strike if it were not revoked and the opposition has called for more protests, with one planned for Tuesday.
The Peninsula/Agencies
