by Rosie Alfatlawi

An Egyptian journalist has sparked anger after he implied that Hurricane Irma, which has battered the Caribbean and parts of the US, was divine punishment.

Ahmed Mansour also compared the massive storm to the “soldiers of Allah’ in a series of social media posts.

On Facebook and Twitter, Mansour first shared an image of Americans queuing up in their cars to flee the path of Irma, accompanied by the Quranic verse: “And He shows you His signs. So which of the signs of Allah do you deny?”

A tweet with the same picture was captioned with a different Quranic verse, implying the hurricane was a “display of God’s greatness which many dare to deny.”

He later tweeted a picture of US airspace as planes flew away from the area affected by the hurricane, writing: “the great escape for Americans from Hurricane Irma, 332 planes leave in one push from the airports of Florida and hundreds of thousands of cars are outside. ‘And none knows the soldiers of your Lord except Him.’”

Another tweet by AlJazeera presenter comparing hurricane Irma to Allah's soldiers. "And none knows the soldiers of your Lord except Him." pic.twitter.com/jkJGxDIVT6 — Jenan Moussa (@jenanmoussa) September 12, 2017

He was slammed on social media for his comments.

Reporter with Dubai-based Al Aan TV, Jenan Moussa attacked Mansour’s posts in a series of tweets:

Sums up difference btwn AlJazeera Arabic & AlJazeera English: In Arabic, u call 4 destruction of infidels by Irma. In English, u apologize. pic.twitter.com/YxbFnonK1i — Jenan Moussa (@jenanmoussa) September 12, 2017

As usual, apologists defend these nasty tweets by the AlJazeera presenter. Here translation of Quran verses he uses. Judge for urself. pic.twitter.com/f1VjJlAQHr — Jenan Moussa (@jenanmoussa) September 12, 2017

According to Saudi Arabia’s Arab News, one Facebook user in Miami, Florida, responded to Mansour, saying: “[if your post] contained some kind of hatred or gloating against non-Muslims, do not forget that many Muslims actually live in Florida.”

Egyptian media analyst, Abdellatif El-Menawy also told the Saudi webiste that “to suggest that Americans fleeing Hurricane Irma is divine punishment is atrocious, inhuman, insensitive and unprofessional. This is simply unacceptable.”

“Does he think what is happening in Myanmar is divine punishment? Do the Muslims in Myanmar deserve what is happening to them? This is despicable on Mansour’s part. He shouldn’t have said what he said,” he added.

Following the outcry, Mansour deleted the posts, tweeting a much more tame appeal for God to help those experiencing the storm, and later sharing apologies in English and Arabic.

If my post offended anyone, I'm sorry. I assure you that I didn't intend to belittle such calamity that affects the lives of so many people. — A Mansour أحمد منصور (@amansouraja) September 10, 2017

While Mansour's words were shocking and unpleasant, it is possible that Saudi Arabia’s Arab News had another motive for picking up on them so enthusiastically.

The Egyptian is a journalist with Qatar’s Al Jazeera network, which has been at the center of the diplomatic crisis with Doha.

The state-run Qatari channel was banned in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt after they began an embargo of Qatar at the beginning of June. Its closure was one of 13 demands issued by the boycotting countries as condition for ending their blockade.

In fact, this battle of the media outlets has been characteristic of this period of regional tensions.

Yesterday, on the sixteenth anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the US, Saudi-funded Al-Arabiya shared a 16-year-old clip of Al Jazeera’s coverage of events on that day.

In the footage, the caption claims, “#AlJazeera's Khadija Benguenna justified the 9/11 attacks 'because of US foreign policies'”.

However, from her tone, it seems that the Algerian news anchor was posing a question to an interviewee, political writer Ahmed Dheban Al-Rabi’e, as to whether he thought the attack was “the result of US foreign policies.”

And it is not just Saudi news sites that have targeted Al Jazeera during the crisis.

Qatar-linked Middle East Eye, another whose closure was in the list of demands, has called out Al Arabiya for producing a graphic showing a Qatari plane being shot down for entering Saudi airspace.

You can be sure, then, whatever the issue at the moment it will be used for political point-scoring between Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

