The World Cup puts the spotlight on Qatar, but also brings attention to its human rights record and politics – 4 things to know

David Mednicoff, Chair, Department of Judaic and Near Eastern Studies, and Associate Professor of Middle Eastern Studies and Public Policy, UMass Amherst, The Conversation on Nov 23, 2022

Published in Political News

4. And Western critiques may conceal other agendas

Qatari officials have suggested that international attention to foreign workers’ conditions is part of a broader pattern of Westerners belittling Arabs and Muslims. One blatant example is an October issue of the French right-wing satirical magazine “Le Canard enchaîné,” which depicted Qatari soccer players as terrorists.

Calls in some parts of Europe for a widespread World Cup boycott add fuel to this and other arguments that the European and American impression of Qatar is hypocritical and possibly Islamophobic. Though hardly a neutral observer, Gianni Infantino, the president of FIFA, which carries out the World Cup, reflected many Gulf Arabs’ views when he argued that Europe’s history of exploiting Middle Easterners and others gives it little moral high ground on issues of non-Western rights.

Because no Middle Eastern or Muslim-majority country had hosted the World Cup before 2022, Qatar’s achievement is significant. The Economist argues that Qatar’s responsiveness to pressures to improve its human rights climate may make it a more appropriate host for a global sporting event than other countries with poor human rights records, such as China or Russia.

Yet genuine global concern about rights in countries like Qatar and mistrust between the Middle East and the West will persist. Can new global awareness of Qatar lead to more nuanced understanding of both cross-cultural similarities and differences between Arab Islamic countries and the rest of the world? For the moment, this is as hard to know as which country will win the World Cup.

This article is republished from The Conversation, an independent nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: David Mednicoff, UMass Amherst. The Conversation has a variety of fascinating free newsletters.

David Mednicoff received a grant to conduct independent research from 2012-2016 from the Qatar National Research Fund. However, he currently receives no funding from any Qatari or other Middle Eastern research or other organization.