Qatar subverts human rights and Western security interests, writes Jordan Cope. The West must use this World Cup to reflect on and change its increasingly dependent and dangerous relationship with Qatar.
Before it even began, the World Cup in Qatar had already become the most controversial in history. It provoked widespread protests from fans, players, and soccer associations who continue to campaign against Qatar’s track record on human and migrant labor rights. Homosexuality remains punishable by death in Qatar, where over 6,500 foreign laborers have died since Qatar was awarded the World Cup.
Qatar’s Islamist ties provoked diplomatic crises, causing Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE to withdraw their ambassadors in 2014, and to boycott Doha between 2017 and 2021. In 1995, Emir Hamad and his wife founded the Qatar Foundation, which has enticed many prestigious U.S. universities, such as Georgetown and Cornell Medicine, to open branches in Qatar. In 1996, Qatar began construction on the Al Udeid Base — now the largest U.S. base in the Middle East — with Emir Hamad hoping that “the U.S. would use it in the future.” Emir Hamad founded Al Jazeera the same year, and in 1997 he relaunched Qatar Airways hoping to make it a “leading international airline.
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