Panel discussion decries Western attack on Qatar and Arab countries

A panel discussion on the Western campaigns against Qatar and the Arab countries was organised by Qatar Press Center (QPC) in co-operation with Qatar News Agency (QNA) on Sunday.In his inaugural address, QPC president Saad Mohamed al-Rumaihi hailed the FIFA World Cup in Qatar as a unique global sporting event, which may not be repeated again in the Middle East region."This panel of discussion has coincided with the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022," he pointed out while stressing the rights of the peoples of the region and the world to rejoice, and noting that soccer is not for a particular continent."It is a game of the poor and the real face of competition and more than a billion people around the world are watching the World Cup in Qatar," he stated.Al-Rumaihi said that QPC and QNA wanted to organise the panel to discuss all the false campaigns and allegations being raised and promoted against Qatar and the Arab youth, attempting to underestimate their right to organise the World Cup.He thanked QNA Director General Ahmed bin Said al-Rumaihi for his efforts and active contribution to hold the discussion and said other initiatives will be launched in the future, with some journalists concerned invited to express opinions about their World Cup experience.The Middle East Council on Global Affairs director Dr Tariq Mohamed Yousef said that the voices criticising Qatar and its World Cup hosting, since the kick-off of the tournament, grew lower after seeing and experiencing the on-the-ground realities.Upon watching the distinguished World Cup opening ceremony, the anti-Qatar campaigns faded, with major issues and topics replacing the superficial and side issues, Dr Yousef said pointing out that such negative media campaigns targeted more than one country and more than one major event in the world, as was the case in the Olympic Games in China, as well as before the start of the 2028 World Cup in Russia.However, these campaigns decreased in intensity over the time over the success achieved, he said.Voicing concern that the new world is abuzz with changes, differences and tensions that affect values, customs, cultures, civilisation and other fundamentals, Dr Yousef stressed the need to not underestimate these hypotheses because, according to him, the Western world is going through internal challenges and social tensions, known by some as cultural wars that may tear its societies politically and culturally, and push them to unprecedented models of governance and legal challenges."The media campaign that Qatar faced is in fact a warning of what may happen in the world, and of the challenges that Arab countries may face at all levels in the coming period," Dr Yousef said.He hailed as a World Cup legacy that many visitors and fans from Western countries closely watched the Qatari, Gulf and Arab customs, traditions and heritage, including their wearing Qatari and Gulf attire during matches, as well as the acquisition of many things that represent cultural symbols of Arab countries.He added that if it was built on, there will be a lot of positive and even unexpected results and reactions."The World Cup opened the way for a new thinking about transcending traditional geography, and leave a long-lasting legacy," he added.Prof Dr Khaled al-Hroub, Professor in residence of the faculty of liberal arts at Northwestern University in Qatar, ascribed the motives of the Western attack on the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, to the Western sense of superiority and centrality as well as the orientalist legacy that provides a distorted picture of the region."The World Cup in Qatar revealed the depth of that Western centralism and racism, while nourishing it with the classic and new orientalist thought that stands behind many distorted Western stereotypes about the Arab region."The Western media reinforced those negative stereotypes about the East, and revealed the extent of the depth of Western racism against the other.This Western centralism triggered a feeling that hosting major events, such as the World Cup, is confined to the West, in complete disregard for the nature of this sporting event that is called the World Cup."This sporting event is called the World Cup, not the Cup of the West, and any country has the right to organise it in a way that reflects its culture, traditions and identity, as happened in previous editions in Korea and Japan, Russia, Brazil and other countries, Prof Dr al-Hroub said, defending the universality of the mega event.The noted academic reaffirmed that classical and new orientalism fed the Western racism, which stands behind the attacks on the World Cup in Qatar.He believed that the old Orientalism continues and renews and stands behind Western perceptions that Western media constantly convey about the East, calling for Western countries to cleanse of this orientalist legacy that does not accept the other's identity and culture.Prof Dr al-Hroub stressed the importance of promoting cultural diversity worldwide, based on mutual respect, and rejecting all attempts at cultural hegemony and imposing certain values on the different peoples.The World Cup in Qatar reaffirmed and highlighted the issue of cultural diversity."Qatar sought to send messages of diversity through the World Cup opening ceremony, highlighting a Qur'anic verse, diversified personalities that appeared during the ceremony, and the authentic Arab values shown in the stands.These World Cup messages presented a realistic and wonderful picture of the Arab region that values and respects women as a mother, sister and wife, and respects and guarantees the rights of people with disabilities as demonstrated at the opening ceremony, and respects all world cultures and the values and cultures of peoples," he said.Nazim Bessol, Algerian journalist and a member of the executive office of the International Sports Press Association- Africa region, said the campaigns against Qatar were more severe and fierce than those targeting other countries in the past."The attack on Qatar is for being an Arab country with an Islamic religious culture," he asserted while ascribing the criticism to the negative stereotypes promoted by Western press and cinema."The fans who attended the tournament's fascinating organising, Arab generosity, ancient traditions and Islamic culture, ultimate security, and unprecedented atmosphere, contributed to altering these disinformation campaigns," he said.The moderator of the event, QPC vice president and Gulf Times Editor-in-Chief Faisal Abdulhameed al-Mudahka, hailed the event as a tool to confront the suspicious and systematic media campaigns and the fierce attack targeting Qatar since winning the World Cup bid in 2010."The fallacies of the Western media were a systematic distortion of Arab and Islamic worlds," he said while stressing the need for the collaboration of Arab countries and their media institutions to confront such campaigns and reformulate the media discourse, especially since they possess the required technology and financial and human resources.Al-Mudahka emphasised the importance of respecting the different cultures and values of all the peoples of the world, and the need for the Western world to stop imposing its own values, and the practice of intellectual intimidation on the other parts of the world.