In English, the site is best known for its liberal, progressive politics and embrace of popular culture. But its new Arabic offshoot seems to be heading in a different direction.

Huffington Post Arabia

An Algerian columnist recently warned of a growing trend that could bring Islamic civilization crashing down: the selfie. More young Muslims are taking selfies, he noted, a symptom of "the diseases and the viruses of the Western world" making their way into Arab lands. "I consider my article as an open letter to all the Islamic Ummah's youth," the piece said, excluding the approximately 1 in 10 Arabs who are not Muslim in the process. "It is a call to stop adopting such sick behaviors that come to destroy our traditions and the basics of human cultural identity." Such sentiments are typical fare for readers of socially conservative and politically Islamist media in the Arab world. But its publisher was one new to the Arabic-language media scene, and better known for its close ties to liberal and progressive politics: the Huffington Post. While selfie culture is a mainstay of the Huffington Post's English-language sites, readers would rarely expect to see religious-tinged screeds denouncing them. Many Arab readers have expressed surprise and disappointment that Huffington Post Arabi, as the new site is known, seems to have taken such an editorial departure from its parent.

@HuffingtonPost your Arabic edition is a shame. Better revisit your strategy here. best of luck!

With this homophobic, vitriolic post esp @HuffingtonPost has let its Arabic site disgrace its brand http://t.co/BFfGnmfCzh

The selfie article is "one opinion expressed by one blogger," Nicholas Sabloff, the Huffington Post's executive international editor, told BuzzFeed News in a statement. "The views on the blog do not reflect HuffPost's global editorial viewpoint, nor the viewpoint of our HuffPost Arabi editors." But the themes of the article — of a declining and humiliated Muslim world needing to be reinvigorated by a return to traditional values — are classic tropes of conservative and Islamist media in the Arab world. So why are they showing up time and again on the outpost of one of America's best-known progressive websites? Critics of the new site have focused on the men overseeing it: Al Jazeera Arabic alumni Wadah Khanfar and Anas Fouda, both of whom are widely considered to be sympathetic to political Islam. Both deny any bias in their work, but the site has already been forced to withdraw an article due to its inflammatory message and language. There's a war against Islam, an Egyptian columnist warned in the article, published on Saturday. The conflict pits secularists and their military allies against the country's Muslims, he wrote, and the evidence is everywhere, from atheists being allowed on television to nudity being permitted in fashion shows. The government, he warned, would even allow "a press conference for gays in the heart of Cairo." The article drew on tropes common to Islamist media: resentment of liberals and secularists, the belief in a broad conspiracy against true Muslims, and incitement against gays and other minorities. Its publication by the Huffington Post had many bewildered. Amid a wave of criticism on social media — including for the derogatory Arabic term used to describe gay people — the post was taken down, less than a day after it was published. In its place is an editor's note, saying the article "should not have been published, as it contradicts the Huffington Post's editorial positions and guidelines which are based on encouraging positive dialogue and mutual respect."

It is such a disappointment how @HuffPostArabi turned to be.

@Zeyadsalem Nope. I had my suspicions when I read the name Waddah Khanfar

Since its launch in July, Huffington Post Arabi has published plenty of the kind of stuff you would see on its English-language mothership: quick aggregation of breaking news stories, lively entertainment coverage, and a healthy smattering of liberal bloggers. But it has also caused plenty of raised eyebrows on the Arab social web, as readers who associate the Huffington Post with left-wing celebrity columnists, sideboob, and reliably progressive takes on pop culture come across article after article infused with religious and social conservatism. The company says many of those raised eyebrows are inevitable as it tries to publish truly diverse voices in a region where war, revolution, and withering government crackdowns on opposition groups have left the public intensely divided, and quick to denounce those with opposing opinions. "In a region where the media landscape is polarized, we are trying to create a space where a diversity of perspectives can co-exist," Sabloff said. "Given the upheaval the region is experiencing, it is likely that articles which have a strong perspective or opinion may upset one group or another. But we want HuffPost Arabi to provide diversity and balance as a site."

Arabic Huffington Post's Annas Fouda claims that number of *Jews* in Egypt have increased after the coup! https://t.co/1q3Mvcb7wk