Akram Khozam

Akram Khozam was the former Moscow Bureau chief of Al Jazeera. He had occupied that position for 9 years until he was replaced by Amro Abdel-Hamid in late September 2005. [http://www.akhbaruna.com/node/74]

Anti-Muslim statements

Akram Khozam angered the Muslim community in Russia in 2004 after he declared to a Russian TV channel that Islam promotes terrorism and that the Qur'an incite violence. He also said that three of the Muslim Caliphs were killed in internal terrorist conflicts. Mr. Geidar Dzhemal, the head of the Islamic Committee of Russia, asked Al Jazeera to fire Mr. Khozam. [http://www.kommersant.com/page.asp?idr=35&id=610306] Al Jazeera stated that the replacement of Akram Khozam in September 2005 was not related to the complaints raised by the Islamic Committee and was unrelated to Mr Khozam's statements.

Replaced as Moscow Bureau Chief

On the 20 September 2005 the news broke that Akram Khozam was being replaced as the Al Jazeera Moscow Bureau Chief. Initial reports incorrectly indicated that Mr. Khozam had been fired [http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1495049,00050003.htm] but the Arabic site [http://www.akhbaruna.com Akhbaruna] confirmed that Mr. Khozam had just "been moved into a different role". [http://www.akhbaruna.com/node/74]

It emerged that Al Jazeera had been concerned about the way the former Soviet bloc was being covered and wanted to invigorate its coverage by recruiting the widely acclaimed Russian Arab journalist Amro Abdel-Hamid to replace Akram Khozam. Mr. Abdel-Hamid was formerly the head of the Al-Arabiyya office in Moscow before joining Al Jazeera.