Beloved of all Syrians when covering Israeli aggression against Arabs, such as the famous live broadcasts of the onslaught on Gaza , Al Jazeera and its financial backer the Emir of Qatar have run afoul of regime supporters in Damascus.
Infuriated by what they see as Al Jazeera’s exaggerated coverage of the regime’s crackdown on protestors, pro-Assad mobs have twice attacked the Qatari embassy in Damascus in the past week, hurling tomatoes and rocks, just as they did at the US and French embassies a few days earlier.
Qatar and Syria had long enjoyed cordial relations, but recently Al Jazeera, the Doha-based satellite news channel with both Arabic and English versions, has come under strong criticism by the Syrian regime for its coverage of the popular revolt against President Bashar al-Assad's dictatorship.
Qatar’s emir, a Sunni Muslim, is believed to have turned decisively against the Assad regime in part when the majority Sunni Muslim protestors in Syria continued to be killed by Assad's security forces, which mainly, like the president, belong to the minority Allawite sect, an offshoot of Shia Islam.
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