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.
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