(CNN) -- A conservative novelist in Saudi Arabia has triggered a firestorm on social media after one his tweets was misunderstood in Western media. 

The translation snafu hinged on a subtle grammatical fine point, said Abdallah al-Dawood. 

An article on the Financial Times online reported that he had called for women working as cashiers to be sexually harassed. 

The story was picked up by several news outlets, including the BBC and the Huffington Post. 

Even Arab media that reported on him used the erroneous Western translation. Al Arabiya, for example, cited the BBC story. 

Al-Dawood sought to clarify his stance in interviews with journalists. 

Speaking with Sabq, a Saudi daily, the hardliner vented his anger over the mistranslation of his message. No one had called or messaged him to confirm its meaning, he said. 

By then it was too late. 

It all began with a tweet on Sunday. 

Women in Saudi Arabia have begun working in shops, triggering vitriol from religious conservatives. 

Al-Dawood took to Twitter to express in his conservative criticism of women working as receptionists or cashiers to his 98,000 plus followers. He linked to an ultra-conservative academic study to support his view. 

His tweet: 

Getting lots of "interaction in the trending of #femalecashiers #harassfemalecashiers This a link to a master's degree thesis that considers the job of the female receptionist and cashier to be human trafficking." 

The hash tag #harassfemalecashiers raised ire with some who took it as a command to 'harass female cashiers.' But in Arabic the wording can be understood two ways. Al-Dawood was using the phase to say: "They would harass female cashiers," he has said. 
Who ran the original report?
 Financial Times online reported