By Clemens Heni, PhD
BERLIN–The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) decided on Thursday, Dec. 2, to give the 2022 soccer World Cup to Qatar. Qatar is not known for soccer. Will the second most important TV event worldwide become a huge platform for the entire Arab world and Qatar in particular to spread anti-Semitism?
Besides the fact that Qatar has literally zero relevance for the history of soccer, and regardless the fact that playing soccer in summer 2022 in a country known for over 40 degree Celsius is beyond discussion, politically this decision is even much more important. FIFA president Blatter said yesterday that he hopes that this decision will help the Middle East to become more peaceful. Really?
Let’s have a short look on anti-Semitism in Qatar from 2003 until today. In June 2010 a blog reported about an anti-Semitic cartoon, published in the Qatar daily al-Watan on June 2, 2010:
“The cartoon depicts nearly all classic anti-Semitic caricatures of a Jew: religious, hook nosed, wearing glasses and ugly. In addition, it depicts the Jew, representing Israel, as an octopus holding a bloody machete with its tentacles reading ‘terrorist state’ in Arabic. The octopus has long been an anti-Semitic symbol. It is widely used as a metaphor for organizations and governments with wide control. This association has been particularly assigned to the idea of a global Jewish conspiracy, most notable with the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion. The false notion is that Jews, in an organized manner, extend their tentacles, or control, around the world.“
A country which allows such cartoons to be printed in its dailies has no right to host any international event. Qatar is world-infamous for hosting one of the most influential Sunni Islamists, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, too.Al-Qardawi presents the conflict with Israel as a campaign between Islam and the Jews and says that Jews should be killed, citing a well-known Islamic tradition.
On January 9, 2009, Qatar based Yusuf al-Qaradawi in fact said on al-Jazeera TV (translation bei MEMRI):
“Oh Allah, take this oppressive, Jewish, Zionist band of people. Oh Allah, do not spare a single one of them. Oh Allah, count their numbers, and kill them, down to the very last one.”
The AntiDefamation League (ADL) reported about more anti-Semitic cartoons in Qatar in 2003 – compare it with the cartoon in 2010 described above:
“Anti-Semitic stereotypes continue to be prevalent in cartoons published in the Qatari newspaper, Al-Watan. These cartoons demonize Jews, often depicting them as dirty, hook-nosed, money-hungry world dominators.”
Although newspapers in Qatar are all privately owned, many board members and owners are either government officials or have ties to the government. Al-Watan’s chairman, Hamad bin Sahim al Thani, is a member of the royal family. Qatar’s Foreign Minister, Hamed bin Jasem bin Jaber al Thani, owns half of the newspaper.
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Heni specializes in the study of anti-Semitism around the world