International
dwnews-DW News
Qatar,
Nov
26:
It
seems
as
though
every
day,
criticism
of
Qatar,
host
nation
of
this
month’s
soccer
World
Cup,
grows
louder.
The
small,
energy-rich
Gulf
country
—
the
first
Middle
Eastern
nation
to
put
on
this
particular
sporting
mega-event
—
has
been
condemned
for
its
treatment
of
migrant
workers,
the
LGBTQ
community
and
women,
as
well
as
for
suspicions
around
how
it
was
awarded
the
international
tournament
in
the
first
place.
But
at
the
same
time,
another
chorus
has
also
been
getting
louder,
too.
Commentators
from
both
inside
and
outside
the
Arabic-speaking
world
are
asking
why
Qatar
is
being
so
harshly
criticized,
suggesting
it
has
less
to
do
with
political
issues
and
more
to
do
with
racism,
Orientalism,
even
Islamophobia.
Protesting
racism,
European
hypocrisy
“As
Arabs,
we
think
that
if
this
tournament
was
being
hosted
in
a
non-Arab
country,
there
wouldn’t
be
the
same
sort
of
uproar,”
Syrian
novelist
Wafa
Alloush
wrote
in
an
editorial
on
the
Arabic-language
news
website
run
by
Turkish
broadcaster,
TRT.
Controversial
Islamist
Zakir
Naik
was
not
invited
to
FIFA
World
Cup:
Qatar
tells
India
”There
are
many
things
about
Qatar
that
deserve
to
be
criticized
and
put
under
the
spotlight,”
Khaled
al-Hroub,
a
professor
in
Qatar,
wrote
on
the
UK-based
website,
Middle
East
Eye.
“But
there
is
a
huge
gulf
between
criticizing
a
country
for
specific
wrongdoings
and
using
disparaging
cultural
statements
and
stereotypes
that
tap
into
embedded
racism.”
Other
columnists
in
Arabic-language
media
asked
why
there
was
far
less
intense
criticism
leveled
at
Russia,
host
of
the
last
football
World
Cup.
They
also
suggested
it
was
hypocritical
of
European
countries
to
criticize
Qatar
when
they
have
yet
to
properly
reckon
with
their
own
colonial
histories
in
the
Middle
East
and
Africa
and
how
they
deal
with
migration.
A
thread
about
all
the
European
firms
involved
in
the
World
Cup
so
white
people
would
stop
screaming—
Hala
K.
(@halak404)
November
23,
2022
That
sort
of
sentiment
was
also
reflected
on
social
media,
where
users
joked
about
the
fact
that,
if
the
German
team
had
only
focused
on
soccerrather
than
human
rights,
they
might
not
have
lost
to
Japan
in
their
match
this
week.
It
has
all
been
a
bit
much,
Yasser
Abdel
Aziz,
an
Egyptian
expert
on
media
issues,
agreed.
“Qatar
is
not
above
criticism,”
he
told
DW.
“But
so
far,
its
hosting
of
the
World
Cup
doesn’t
seem
to
merit
the
level
of
negativity
we
have
seen
from
some
Western
media
outlets.”
Abdel
Aziz
had
noticed
a
strong
cultural
bias
in
some
of
the
criticism,
which
focused
on
the
difference
between
Western
and
Middle
Eastern
cultures.
But
is
it
racist?
Dictionary
definitions
say
racism
is
“the
belief
that
different
races
possess
distinct
characteristics,
abilities,
or
qualities”
and
that
Orientalism
is
a
distorted
view
of
the
differences
between
Arab
people
and
cultures,
and
Europeans.
Orientalism
also
often
involves
a
feeling
of
European
superiority
over
the
Middle
East.
And
it
is
true
that
some
of
the
media
coverage
of
the
sports
contest
in
Qatar
has
landed
in
that
territory.
A
French
magazine
published
a
cartoon
of
the
Qatari
football
team
dressed
as
terrorists;
while
captions
in
a
British
newspaper,
The
Times,
suggested
Qataris
were
not
used
to
seeing
women
dressed
in
Western-style
clothing.
The
captions,
which
were
false,
have
since
been
amended.
Another
French
reporter
said
he
was
surprised
by
the
number
of
mosques
in
Qatar,
and
Doha
locals
reported
visitors
were
asking
them
whether
females
needed
to
wear
headscarves.
All
these
incidents
demonstrate
a
lack
of
knowledge
about
the
country
and
the
region.
Fact
Check:
Are
foot-ball
fans
sneaking
in
disguised
beer
cans
in
Qatar
However,
it
is
also
true
that
a
lot
of
the
current
arguments
being
published
around
the
topic
rely
on
a
debating
tactic
known
as
“whataboutery,”
where
one
responds
to
a
serious
accusation
with
an
equally
serious
counter-accusation,
thereby
distracting
from
the
issue
that
started
the
argument
in
the
first
place.
As
has
been
pointed
out
by
human
rights
activists
on
social
media,
it’s
possible
to
discuss
European
hypocrisy
on
issues
like
colonialism
and
migration,
and
Qatar’s
human
rights
problems
at
the
same
time.
As
the
backlash
to
Qatar
criticism
has
become
louder,
there
are
also
some
suspicions
that
such
an
zero-sum
argument
is
being
promoted
deliberately.
#Qatar
and
it’s
hired
PR
guns
are
today
trying
to
spin
a
narrative
that
no
one
ever
cared
about
human
rights
issues
in
the
hosts
of
major
sporting
events
before
#WorldCup2022.It’s
a
load
of
rubbish.
#PayUpFIFA
https://t.co/G1CqHl52Ao—
Andrew
Stroehlein
(@astroehlein)
November
22,
2022
“The
Qataris
have
been
preparing
themselves
[for
debates
like
this]
from
very
early
on,”
said
Jens
Sejer
Andersen,
international
director
at
the
Play
the
Game
initiative
at
the
Danish
Institute
for
Sports
Studies.
The
initiative,
founded
in
1997,
tries
to
raise
ethical
standards
in
sport
of
all
kinds.
As
an
example,
Andersen
pointed
to
an
investigation
published
earlier
this
monthby
Switzerland’s
public
broadcaster,
Swiss
info.
It
looked
into
what
was
known
as
“Project
Merciless,”
a
years-long
espionage
operation
conducted
against
FIFA
officials
by
Qatar.
“I
can’t
deny
there
may
be
critics
with
a
racist
or
Orientalist
viewpoint,”
Andersen
said,
“but
there
are
a
number
of
people,
who
are
more
or
less
dependent
on
Qatari
money,
who
have
been
using
this
argument
[pointing
to
Western
hypocrisy]
with
conspicuous
frequency
in
recent
months
to
shame
critics
—
even
when
the
criticism
is
relevant.”
Infantino’s
spiel
showcases
multiple
rhetorical
tricks
of
what
we
might
term
the
“deploying
anti-Orientalism
as
a
cudgel
to
squash
substantive
critiques
of
power”
trade.
I
grew
very
familiar
w/
these
in
Turkey
(from
current
AKP
gov)
&
in
Tunisia
(from
Kais
Saied
&
his
defenders).—
Monica
Marks
(@MonicaLMarks)
November
24,
2022
Controversy
is
not
black
and
white
No
matter
where
the
controversy
is
coming
from
though,
it
is
impacting
coverage
of
issues
that
deserve
discussion,
whether
they
reflect
negatively
or
positively
on
Qatar
and
international
sports
in
general,
experts
told
DW.
It
is
understandable
that
Qatar
is
being
criticized,
said
Andy
Spalding,
a
law
professor
from
the
University
of
Richmond
in
the
US.
“But
there
is
a
lot
more
going
on
here,”
says
Spalding,
an
expert
on
human
rights
at
sporting
mega-events
who
is
currently
in
Qatar.
There
is
a
lot
of
nuance
missing
from
this
debate
he
told
DW,
and
just
talking
about
stereotypes,
whether
that
comes
from
a
conscious
bias
or
not,
is
partially
to
blame.
However,
he
added,
it’s
not
just
racism
or
Orientalism
that
is
causing
this
level
of
outrage.
Other
things
also
factor
in.
“As
a
result
of
controversies
around
the
hosts
of
a
number
of
recent
sports
mega-events
—
China,
Russia
and
South
Africa
—
we
have
come
to
see
the
hosting
of
these
events
in
non-Western
countries
as
inherently
prone
to
corruption
and
human
rights
problems,”
Spalding
explained.
But
in
fact,
Spalding
reported,
Qatar
has
behaved
quite
differently
to
former
host
countries
like
China
or
Russia.
“In
response
to
human
rights
problems,
China,
for
example,
basically
gave
the
West
the
middle
finger
and
said
you
can’t
make
us
change,”
he
said.
But,
under
pressure,
Qatar
has
amended
labor
laws
and
improved
its
relationship
with
bodies
like
the
International
Labor
Organization,
he
pointed
out.
“The
Western
media
just
doesn’t
seem
to
want
to
acknowledge
successes
on
this
front,”
Spalding
continued.
Making
mega-sports
better
Acknowledging
that
is
important
because,
Spalding
argues,
“if
we
want
to
make
sports
more
human
rights-compliant,
we
need
to
learn
from
that.
Otherwise
we
deprive
ourselves
of
a
tool
we’ll
want
to
use
in
the
coming
years
in
countries
like,
say,
the
US.”
The
US,
Canada
and
Mexico
will
host
the
next
World
Cup
in
2026.
While
Play
The
Game’s
Andersen
agreed
that
Qatar
has
come
in
for
more
criticism
than
many
other
countries
hosting
large
sporting
events,
he
doesn’t
believe
Qatar’s
progress
has
been
ignored.
“Although
the
jury
is
still
out
on
enforcement
of
those
reforms,
we
welcome
and
appreciate
them,”
Andersen
told
DW.
“And
we’re
not
saying
that
Qatar
has
no
right
to
host
a
World
Cup.
We’re
just
saying
that
more
must
be
done
from
Qatar’s
side,
and
certainly
from
FIFA’s.”
In
fact,
Andersen
believes
FIFA
is
a
big
part
of
the
reason
why
Qatar
has
come
in
for
more
bad
press
than
usual.
“If
there
were
any
conviction
that
FIFA
was
becoming
more
transparent,
democratic
or
fair,
then
I
think
that
would
also
influence
the
way
that
we
look
at
the
World
Cup
in
Qatar.
Instead,
corruption
in
FIFA
reflects
badly
on
Qatar,
even
in
cases
where
Qatar
has
no
stake
in
the
corruption,”
he
argued.
Probably
the
most
important
thing
now
is
that
sports
fans
have
a
realistic
debate
about
the
values
around
these
huge
events,
Andersen
concluded,
including
occasions
like
the
Olympics.
“For
what
it’s
worth,
Qatar
and
FIFA
can
at
least
take
credit
for
causing
such
an
important
global
debate
about
the
value
of
sports,”
he
said.
Source: DW
