Doha is a confluence of people from the conflicting Arab nations — Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Egypt, Morocco, Syria, Iraq, Algeria and Tunisia.
At a coffee shop in Souq Waqif, I noticed a group of Arab youth
on couches, listening to Middle-East’s popular singer Fairuz Mostly in their early 20s. They nibbled the sugary ‘baklava’ and
smoked sisha (water-pipes), billowing it into the air.
The Syrian crisis, civil war in
Yemen and the unending tussle in Palestine have turned the Arab region into a
veritable fire ball, but it was difficult to spot a Shia, Sunni or Christian in
that group.
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| Former Barcelona star Xavi Hernandez, who now plays for Qatar's Al Sadd Club, is flanked by QFA officials. |
I enquired from my Lebanese friends if Beirut was safe to visit because I’m
still hounded by the violence and bombings when I was a child, watching the
footages in early 80s.
It was all peace and fine, but
suicide attacks in Beirut has upset me. The reverberation was heard in Baghdad
too. As the volatile Arab region continue to dodge peace, I wonder if the
Gulf’s maiden World Cup can ever unite Islam?
Middle Easterners are waiting for
the World Cup to happen so that they can show their region isn’t solely defined
by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and frequent violence. The FIFA tournament
is an excellent opportunity to unite the warring Arabs, but most non-Arab
expats also wonder why the Muslims are always at loggerheads in this part of
the world.
Is it all about arrogance being wealthy, intolerance or ideological differences that divide the Muslim world?
“We need to break down those perceptions about what we’re,” said Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy Secretary General Hassan Al Thawadi.
When I went to cover the Gulf Cup in the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh last year, I saw what football meant to the Arabs.
Yemen was and still on fire, but their motley population flocked to the King Fahd International Stadium in their open-hooded Nissan pick-up vans and cars. Yemen was playing against the host nation in a group game and they wanted to show solidarity.
Football provides a great social
distraction from ongoing violence by creating a sense of harmony amongst
traditionally divided groups, and the Gulf Cup was one such occasion.
But the FIFA tournament will see
fans in large numbers from the region — there’ll be Sunni and Shiite Muslims as
well as Middle-East Christians as well as Arab nations from North Africa.
“For the Arabs, the World Cup is a symbol of pride,” said one Yemeni, who has been working in Doha since 2006. His house in Aden has been blown into pieces by the Houthi rebels, but his family has found peace and shelter in Qatar.
“Hosting the World Cup constitutes a real opportunity to enlighten the future of the region and will contribute to the recovery of its economy and give clear hope for the youth,” he added.
Qatari officials claimed two billion people live within a four-hour flight radius of Doha. This means the World Cup, which has been held 10 times out of 20 in Europe, will have a Middle Eastern flavour.
Cairo, Tehran, Baghdad and Beirut
are approximately three hours flight-time away. Istanbul is four hours while
Gulf neighbours just a hop away, with Riyadh and Dubai is a six-hour drive from
Abu Samra, Qatar’s only land border with Saudi, some is 90km from Doha.
The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members — Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Bahrain, Oman — have backed Qatar against the barrage of criticisms by the western media over the alleged vote-buying in the bid process.
Other Arab nations Iraq, Jordan Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria and Egypt, who all participate in the Arab Games, have shown solidarity with the oil-rich nation, but we’ll have to wait post-2022 to see if the World Cup really diffused the flames in the region.
