Head of TV channel fired for 'extremist' leanings

RIYADH: Prince Alwaleed bin Talal has fired Kuwaiti preacher and motivational speaker Tareq Al-Suwaidan as director of the religious television channel he owns for what he described as “extremist inclinations” and links to the Muslim Brotherhood.
The prince said Suwaidan, who has more than 1.9 million Twitter followers and is known across the Arab world for his lectures on self-improvement from an Islamic perspective, had identified himself as “one of the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood” during a lecture in Yemen.
“There is no place for those who carry any deviant thoughts at Al-Resalah Channel,” Alwaleed wrote in a letter to Suwaidan, according to a news release from the prince’s office.
Prince Alwaleed said in the letter that he had repeatedly warned Suwaidan against political affiliation.
Suwaidan responded on Twitter, “Only the weak worry about earning a living, and no one abandons his principles but he who cares about earthly matters.”
Saudi Arabia has come out strongly in support of an army crackdown on the Brotherhood in Egypt following the military overthrow of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi last month.
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah on Friday called on Arabs to stand together against “attempts to destabilize” Egypt, in a message of support for the military leadership.