DOHA — Facing a storm of European criticism
ahead of the start of the
World Cup, Qatar on Tuesday stepped up its diplomatic
and media riposte, which has included threatening “legal” action to defend its
name.
اضافة اعلان
Five days from the opening game, Qatar’s
chief World Cup organizer said attacks on the Gulf state had been launched
because it “competed as equals and snatched” the World Cup from rival bidders.
A senior member of the
Qatar Football Association called European critics “the
enemy”.
Facing criticism of its treatment of
foreign workers and rights for women and the LGBTQ community, the wealthy Gulf
state has long used the case that everyone is “welcome” at the World Cup and
said opponents were acting in bad faith.
The tone has changed in recent weeks,
highlighted by comments by the emir, Sheikh Tamim Hamad Al-Thani, who told the
national legislature on October 25 that Qatar had faced an “unprecedented” and
growing campaign that smacked of “double standards”.
Three days later, the German ambassador
to Doha was summoned over comments made by his country’s interior minister
casting doubt on whether Qatar should host the World Cup.
In an interview with AFP, Qatar’s
Labor Minister Ali bin Samikh Al-Marri said “racism” was behind the onslaught on his
country’s record. “They don’t want to allow a small country, an Arab country,
an Islamic country, to organize the World Cup,” he said.
Qatar’s media has spoken of a
“systematic conspiracy” by European rivals. Al-Sharq newspaper slammed “the
arrogance” of some European countries.
On a recent European tour, Foreign
Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani said in the media
interviews that there was “a lot of hypocrisy in these attacks”.
World Cup ‘enemy’
“They are being peddled
by a very small number of people, in 10 countries at most, who are not at all
representative of the rest of the world,” he told Le Monde without naming those
involved.
After a recent British media report on
the hacking of opponents of Qatar’s World Cup hosting, a government official
warned: “Qatar will not stand by when confronted by such baseless allegations,
and all our legal options at our disposal are being explored to ensure those
responsible are held to account.”
The bitterness expressed in some
newspaper editorials is starting to be seen in comments by some officials.
Sheikh Ahmed bin Hamad Al-Thani, a
member of the Qatar Football Association executive, told Al-Sharq in an
interview published Tuesday: “For me, the presence of the enemy is a blessing
and not a curse, because this may push you to do your work in the best possible
way.”
Hassan Al-Thawadi, secretary general of
Qatar’s organizing committee, told Al Jazeera television that the Gulf state’s
unnamed opponents were jealous of its hosting.
“The campaigns are due to the fact that
Qatar is an
Arab country that was able to compete as equals and snatch the
hosting of the tournament.”
He said the attacks were based on “the
stereotyped image of the Arab world, which is one of the reasons we fought to
host the World Cup, to change the stereotyped idea about Arabs.”
A European diplomat in Doha said the
Qatar government had reached “the end of the line with the criticism.”
“They blame us even though very little is coming from
governments,” added the diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity because of
the sensitivity of the topic.
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