A new trending hashtag about Qatar on Twitter has sparked an online debate, with many participants expressing their love and support for the country, while others attacked the nation and its foreign policy.
The Arabic hashtag قول_كلمة_لقطر#, or “say a word for Qatar,” launched yesterday, and includes hundreds of tweets from Qataris, Doha-based expats and people living abroad.
It remains unclear how the hashtag got started. But speaking to Doha News, one of the participants, Abdel Latif Al Jassem, said many people who commented wished to express their gratitude for Qatar.
https://twitter.com/G_3360/status/618675666427363328
Translation: By Allah, I love you Qatar, we praise you nation.
زرتها كم مرة ولم أجد فيها غير الحضارة والتطور و (إحترام الضيف).
شكرًا يا قطر
— Marwan (@mog8191) July 8, 2015
Translation: I visited it a few times and found only civilization, development and respect for their guests (tourists)…Thank you Qatar.
Others said they believed the hashtag was created to give people from around the region a chance to speak their minds about the Gulf country.
https://twitter.com/ali_mahmoud3/status/618596971792723969
Translation: We are not (your) slaves.
Other comments were more light-hearted, poking fun at the country’s small size and population of two million people, which includes 755 districts and eight municipalities, each with its own distinct name.
هل تعلم ان ان البيبسي 2 لتر ممنوعه ف #قطر عشان لو فارت هتغرقهم 😂😂😂 #قول_كلمه_لقطر
— Aya Ⓜ️ohamed 🦅🇪🇬 (@aya_egy) July 8, 2015
Translation: Did you know that the two litter bottle of Pepsi is banned in Qatar, because if it foams over, (the people of Qatar) will drown.
https://twitter.com/maganenooooo/status/618603960300109824
Translation: Qatar is the easiest country to count its population, through this device (referring to the abacus in the picture).
Foreign policy
Many of the tweets focused on Qatar’s foreign policy, specifically toward Arab countries such as Egypt.
Qatar was against the military ousting of former Egyptian President and Muslim Brotherhood-backed Muhammad Morsi in 2013.
This has caused tension between the country and its GCC neighbors, as well as Egypt, who previously accused Qatar of supporting the Brotherhood – which many countries view as a threat to their own governments.
https://twitter.com/FAFBM/status/618686919791112192
Translation: Distance yourself from the deviated ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood. What’s your business with the Brotherhood’s ideology?
But not everyone lambasted Qatar’s foreign efforts:
https://twitter.com/4004abdullah/status/618633442213756928
Translation: $50 million to support the Rohingya (Muslims) in Indonesia. Reconstruction of Gaza after the Zionist occupation. Supporting the Syrian Revolution…Thank you Qatar.
https://twitter.com/az111222/status/618692883940413440
Translation: Qatar is a country we love and we love its people; if there are political differences, we won’t allow them to cause a rift between us as the people.
What would you like to say for Qatar? Thoughts?
Why is the hashtag in Arabic, when more than 70% of Qatari population do not read ,write or understand Arabic.
because it was started by arabs probably. you’re more than welcome to start one in english
Isn’t that what Doha News is for?
Why would DohaNews start a controversial hash tag? How is that news? 🙂
Doha news is for reporting on it. You can start one of you want.
Cause Arabic is the official language of Qatar and spoken by lot many in Qatar. Ofcourse you never bothered learning it. Its anothet matter if you were in germany, you would have learnt german in a month.
Maybe because the German employers might have included German language classes as part of the recruitment of foreign workers
Your hypothetical situation is indeed correct. I worked in Qatar and several members of staff begged QF for Arabic courses again and again for years. We were very interested in learning Arabic, or at least trying. I left Qatar for Germany, and guess what? German language classes offered to all interested staff starting the first week we arrived!
Damn those Germans and their pesky efficiency, do they have to show the whole world up all the time?
🙂
Even that should be spoonfed to you. Anything else you want?
Yes, Freedom to leave the country without asking permission from one’s employer.
*crickets chirping*
Your username will suffice!
Yeah, it also aptly describes your education and work skills.
The negative tweets come mainly from Egypt.
It is either Egyptians or Emiratis. Egypitans are Pro-Sissi idiots and Emiratis are security services staff insulting Qatar. It makes the hash tag futile with few interesting tweets and mostly stupid and indecent insults
Most of the Emiratis I’ve seen on Twitter lately act like clones of that buffoon Dhahi Khalfan when it comes to foreign policy.
That guy is the Kadhafi of the UAE, but with less powers (Thank God)
It’s incredibly hypocritical. They really need to take a look at their own tyrannical foreign and domestic policies before they criticize those of another country, imo.
Nice, Shabina. Delete my comment that explains how Doha News has no idea what they’re reporting on.
I haven’t deleted anything yet. Will check pending. But if all you’re doing is hurling insults at us, this isn’t the forum for it.
Wasn’t deleted. My bad.
Since we’re on the topic, where is the forum to go and hurl insults at you?
Become a member, start a thread on the private forum 🙂
We really have hit the silly season … Take a summer vacation DN it’s becoming embarrassing ……
Comn Doha News, you can do better…
Seems to be some very selective tweets.
We had some trouble, given all the cursing, in curating the tweets, as this is a family-friendly publication 🙂
Arabic language learners would have loved to have some insight into all that cursing!
I honestly didn’t think there’d be any positive tweets from the sheer amount of tweets that kept insulting Qataris with the “finest” of Arabic cusses. Personally, I’m wondering why nobody’s trying to enjoy the last few days of Ramadan and wasting their good deeds by purposely insulting others.
I THINK EGYPTIANS SHOULD BE KICKED OUT TO THEIR COUNTRIES TO EXPRESS THEIR LOVE BETTER
Deleting for stereotyping.
The Rohingya are in Burma, not Indonesia…………..