Media coverage of Islam in the west is leading to the dangerous “dehumanization” of Muslims around the world, Qatar’s Sheikha Moza bint Nasser has warned in an unusually frank address at the University of Oxford yesterday.
During her speech, the Qatar Foundation chairperson and mother of the Emir accused western nations of employing “double standards” when it came to reporting on deaths of Muslims in violent situations.
“Why is it that apologies are offered when Europeans are mistakenly killed by drones but only silence follows when innocent Yemeni and Pakistani children and civilians are killed by the same drones?
Why do Muslim lives seem to matter less than the lives of others? If they matter at all. I believe this dehumanization is cultivated through a process of Muslim-phobia.”
She also compared the international condemnation that followed the Charlie Hebdo massacre in January, when 12 people were killed, with the resulting discourse after three young Muslim students were gunned down in their home in North Carolina the following month.
“Why is it that world leaders gathered to march in defense of Charlie Hebdo, while the Chapel Hill murders were shrugged off as a parking dispute?” she was quoted as saying in the Guardian.
She said that regardless of a person’s nationality, their identity was being defined solely by their religion, an action that “homogenized” Muslims as a single “other” entity, of which people had become fearful and distrustful.
“For example, a Muslim is first and foremost identified as a Muslim, rather than simply a human being. Whether they are Pakistani, Malaysian, Senegalese, or even British-born, their multiple identities are leveled under a constructed monolith of Islam,” she said.
‘Collective responsibility’
The prominent wife of the father Emir was speaking yesterday as she opened an extension to the Middle East Center, which was designed by Iraq-born architect Zaha Hadid.
While she regularly gives public addresses, these are usually in relation to health and education rather than international politics.
During her speech, Sheikha Moza highlighted the use of the word “medieval” by media to describe the actions of armed groups in the region.
“It is a naïve refusal to accept our collective responsibility. Isis is as modern as Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib. They are all products of our age,” she said.
She also said Muslim countries themselves are to blame for practicing “Islamophobia from within” by creating fear and suspicion of all things Islamic in order “to solidify (their) existing grip on power,” QNA quotes her as saying.
Rather than suppressing demands for change, as has happened in the so-called Arab Spring, people in the Muslim world should engage in discussion, she added:
“It is evident that colonization leaves behind deep material, political, cultural and psychological scars, and gaping wounds. Debate is needed. Violent repression is not. Could this be a reason why we, as Muslims, have lost confidence in our ability to apply the universal and eternal Islamic values to our living traditions?”
Finally, Sheikha Moza called on young Muslims to take on the responsibility of showing that “Islam is a rich, living moral tradition that can offer solutions to universal challenges” in the future.
Emir’s comments
Her comments follow the recent publishing of an opinion piece by the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani for the New York Times in February, in which he said that extremists were driven by “hopelessness,” rather than any religious beliefs.
“I know that many in the West look at the terrorist threat and say that the problem is Islam. But as a Muslim, I can tell you that the problem isn’t Islam — it’s hopelessness.
“It’s the kind of hopelessness that abounds in the Syrian and Palestinian refugee camps, and in war-weary towns and villages in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Libya and Gaza,” he added in the column, which was published ahead of his first state visit to the US.
The outspoken statements come at a time when Qatar is facing heavy criticism in European and North American media for human rights and workers’ welfare ahead of hosting the World Cup, in addition to a perception that it supports armed groups that are active in the region.
Thoughts?
Deal with the problems of the workers in Qatar first. You’re supposed to be the mother of the state.
And many of the injustices happen in QF which is her baby.
Qatar Foundation actually has a commendable workers’ charter. The problem with labour in Qatar is not QF but that government is yet to set appropriate standards for all to follow. Meantime, standards are left to individual organisations. Some excel while many fail miserably.
Right… because that is what all politicians do. The White House ONLY deals with domestic issues. The UK Parliament only comments on what is happening on its own island? She is a political figure so if she is invited to speak at Oxford… she will talk about global issues.
The UK and US prop up their own systems of indentured servitude (financial systems, education, healthcare etc), as do many so called developed nations, politicians rarely deal with domestic issues, at least with the spotlight on Qatar, changes are happening, hopefully the wait doesn’t turn everyone into a bunch of complaining cynics! Perhaps DN can provide a platform that highlights more constructive ways of helping out.
Changes are happening? Promise of change is happening. Nobody has any faith that REAL change will ever happen.
Broad, unsubstantiated statements designed to be accepted at face value by playing on emotions or being divisive, AND from someone who’s handle is the reporter? Sounds about right in relation to the state of “journalism” these days
She could suggest to her son the need for a minimum wage, for starters.
The son is already pushing her out. That might get her “disappeared”.
i would have thought freedom of movement came first.
any minimum wage that affords someone a decent life in qatar, means they would hire people who are more skilled than the current work force leaving thousands of workers (if not more) out of a job. in the long run that would be better for qatar as it means more skilled labour and better quality work. for the people working here now though, that would be bad. to help them i would focus on allowing people to switch jobs get rid of NOC and safer work environments
you could say that to any world leader that mentions any global issue
I’m afraid she’s right.
Right?
True – that injustice happens around the world and stereotyping exists. But pointing fingers at the West do not erase the fact that injustice happens in her own country. Lets deal with whats happening here first.
She is partly right, Muslims have been demonised in the west but many maintstream muslim organisations are pursuing a line that they are the victims in this, not the people murdered by those claiming to do it in the name of Islam.
Islam needs a reformation from within, a reinterpretation of the religion itself. Critical study and evaluation of Islam is not a crime and should not lead to death threats or oppression.
That old shill of equating Chapel Hill with Charlie Hebdo? Give it up people, it isn’t going to work, the equivalence isn’t there – choose a better example. I suppose she is committed though, the QF made the blunder of choosing it to hoist their banner on and can’t go back now. As for ‘hopelessness’, hmmm, many of these killers seem to believe that they are driven by religious beliefs, and that is all that matters. I’m deeply disappointed by her belief that Islamic values are universal and eternal – seems to me that is half of where the distrust of Islam comes from – just that mindset.
I’m sorry to deviate here (and I know Shabina will delete this). Will Dohanews not post the latest news about the criminal proceeding tied to 2022 World Cup Bid? And the arrest of 6 Fifa officials?
Give them time, it is still a developing story. The official press conferences are just happening, and it is a BIG story and the clear Qatar connection has just been announced.
We had just been waiting for FIFA’s statements before publishing the story. It went up a bit ago.
By far the biggest threat to Muslims is other Muslims. I suppose it’s easier to blame others than look inward.
Some chutzpah for her to talk about the ‘dehumanization’ of Muslims generally, when, right under her nose, the day-to-day dehumanization of the large groups of labourers and domestic workers, with many Muslims among them, who are helping construct and support this giant vanity project continues unabated.
As usual Shieka Moza talks a lot of sense but it’s a two way street. Non Muslims in Muslim majority countries suffer horrendously. One of the reasons Saudi struggles to deal with Islamic State is that their ideologies are so similar. Pakistan persecutes non Muslims as a matter of course, (witness the current justice for Hindus in Pak campaign) as well as Christians.
Qatar does better than most, but the fact is you will find more mosques in Europe of all denominations that you will find alternative places of worship in Muslim countries. In some even being an atheist is the death penalty and in Bangladesh Muslim activists there have killed three bloggers recently for having a different opinion to mainstream Muslims!
I guess the response is clean up your own back garden before you start complaining about the weeds in others
First sentence, change to “Muslim majority” .
Thanks plus a couple of spelling mistakes!
This statement is very true
“It is evident that colonization leaves behind deep material, political, cultural and psychological scars, and gaping wounds. Debate is needed. Violent repression is not. ”
The Muslim conquest of the levant has left us with the problem of Palestine and Israel today as well as Syria and Lebanon. If the early Muslims were more peaceful rather than carving out a huge empire they called a caliphate many of the problems in the Middle East, North Africa, Persia, Pakistanis, India and the levant would not exist today.
lol hypocrisy is real with this one………
“It is evident that colonization leaves behind deep material, political, cultural and psychological scars, and gaping wounds. Debate is needed. Violent repression is not. ” This goes so well with British and French and nowadays the US.
insurgency and terrorism and political instability at this level has only been around for 100 years since the end of WW1 period. when the British at that time did what they do best which is divide and conquer. The West attacked and divided the middle east(conquering the Ottoman empire) the West created Israel and the puppet states of the ME today to guard Israels borders. and is doing it today by delegitimizing elected and popular Islamist leaders and governments (Muslim brotherhood, Hamas , Fajr libya) and backing secular puppets to act as border guards for Israel, Egypt is an example.
Israel which is at root of most of the problems, is a illegitimate state that was created and is being lead by European converts(Ashkenazim) and during the founding of Israel 80% of the population are ashkenazi of polish Russian Italian and Argie decent with little to absolutely no Semitic blood. and the Emir kinda answers the radicalization part
Before you reply and say it was the Muslims who made the middle east a mess search for “WW1 through Arab eyes part 3” on youtube its a documentary made by aljazeera English.
Do you know nothing about the First Caliphate or even the Second or Third? What about Caliph Abu Bakr or Caliph Umar? (Umar was a particularly impressive war leader) How about the Battle of Fahl where the self proclaimed Sword of Allah won a remarkable victory and conquered Palestine? Are we not living with that legacy today….
Or does your version of history only start at the begining of European Colonisation?
why dont you go further back and bring up the Pharaohs while your at it, its clear the immediate effect on the middle east today comes from the world wars, not from 1000 years ago.
Yes you could but no one can deny the effect that Christanity and Islam has had on the region and continues to have to this day. The effect of those two religions and Judaism has far outlasted the empires and countries founded in their name and is the legacy we all live with today. Saudi used to be a diverse place of religious beliefs but everything that is not Islam is now banned, a practise similar to Qatar until a few years ago. Also the scars of Jewish and Muslim conflicts over the last 1400 years still dominate the levant as the Jews believe that their land was ‘stolen’ from them from the muslim conquerers and it is their right to get it back.
Laventines and Semitic Jews converted (half the tribes in Qatar are Qahtani and alot of Qahtanis were jews before islam with there grand father Qahtan being an isralite) . the jews that say they want there land back have no right or even history they are European converts who got kicked out of there countries after WW2
Ummm, what?
Much like the Palestinians then? No right, no claim, not from there, and kicked out after WW2. Okay, glad that is settled.
hes saying they dont have a right or a claim not because they got kicked out, but because they’re European not middle eastern
On the other hand, many are Semites like the the rest of the Middle East, they are therefore part of the family. Clearly then Mizrahi jews have as legitimate claim as anyone else from this region, even if you don’t wish to acknowledge Ashkenazi and Sephardic claims. Though it gets complicated as the many of Sephardic stock fled the old Al Andalus region because of the horrors of the Muslim invasion. The simple fact is, until very recently, the majority of Israelis traced their ancestry back to Arab lands, or lands conquered by the Arabs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aliyah
enjoy reading, almost half of israel is middle eastern, i have no issue with them claiming their own nation, i in fact support it, kurds want their own country, sunni and shia in iraq each want their own. why cant the jews ask for the same. no problem with that. i do have a problem with polish, russian, latvian, etc. claiming the middle east over a claim they still have a drop of middle eastern blood left in them from nearly a 1000 years ago. iggy azelea is more aborigine and justin beiber is more native american than those guys are middle eastern.
I have become confused. I’m not sure that we are even having the same conversation.
Christians or Muslims or Jews, dont care, if you’re from here have what ever impact you want, our problem we deal with it. my issue is all the impact invaders had on this place. jews from the middle east can claim it all they want, they have a right to it, as do Muslims and Christians. you know who doesnt have a claim? english, french, russian, polish, latvian, indian,ghana etc etc
Following that logic why isn’t Germany completely stuffed?
A) germany hasnt been occupied/colonised for nearly as much time as say north africa, middle east or many asian nations
B) if germany had half the worlds oil then i assure you its occupires would still be constantly messing with it
C) germany is still a country of mostly white people and at least at the time that would have made a big difference in terms of its right to “self rule” you can say it makes no difference today but back then, no way
Those sound like excuses rather than explanations. There’s a whole lot of places with plenty of oil and no white people and/or were colonized for a plenty long time that are nowhere near as much mess as some places in the middle east. Blaming colonialism today is a cop out. It had an impact undeniably but to continue to blame it today is to avoid addressing the problems.
The Muslim conquests only brought freed semites from an invading roman empire, economic prosperity, human rights and basic laws and unification with all equal. and the laventines love it
Sykze-pico took away the right to a soverign country the right to having ur own forign policy if its not in the Wests interests regiem change time, another example of hamas being demonised when they won after being encouraged to join the election by the US.
i can not say this enought before replying please check my sources and watch the AJ documentry (WW1 through arab eyes part 3)
Yeah, and the Japanese only brought prosperity and freedom to conquered Korea and Taiwan. The Muslim conquests were as brutal and horrific as any other, that is to be expected, that is the nature of conquest and invasion.
Actually I’m not saying one empire is better than another and the Semites were actually pretty happy to get rid of the Romans but to think they got paradise in their place, well unfortunately no. Iran is a good contemporary example, the people were pleased to get rid of the hated Shah but got a religious dictatorship in its place and even less freedom.
It’s is also true the Arabs were betrayed by the western powers in the 20th century. Promises broken on a regularly basis.
actually one empire is better than another, you can say what you want about the british empire for example, still better than the nazi’s. although its a matter of opinion
actually if the british and french empires haven’t invaded most of the planet and colonised every continent in many cases completely eradicating the natives, broke their world war promises to the nations they occupied, maybe behaved like they had a shred of honour the world would be a much better place
At least the French and English did not set out to commit genocide in order to please “the god”. They did so for reasons of self interest. Only faithful Muslims are deluded enough to believe that the genocide of the Christian levant Egypt and North Africa were “good” and “noble”. Yet these believers have the hypocrisy to criticize non Muslims for what Muslims do more completely and will less remorse. We see your moral darkness you unholy believers it is on your foreheads like a mark of satan.
ahhaha actually they did, infact they killed far more people than middle eastern people ever did. the french in north africa and the levant, the english empire in almost every country on the planet, and the genocide of native americans, millions in africa and two world wars. most of that is in just the last 200 years, look at your entire history and you can easily see who has done more harm to the world
Does that give other people the moral imperative to ‘catch-up’ and carry out their own killing? I shudder!
Ummm are you shuddering at your own comment!? I don’t think people are mentioning that anyone has the moral imperative to kill someone else.
I think you have to argue on percentage of pop at the time. Europeans killed more in absolute terms but the Muslim conquests killed and enslaved a higher percentage of humanity. The Mongols push you into 2nd place though with their murderous spree
Bit of a generalisation there Mohammed. Talking of recent history, 1.2 million Muslims killed in the Irag/Iran war of the 1980’s – at the hands of Muslims. The colonial wars of the west have long since been replaced by the religious wars of the east
Deleting for crazy talk (“unholy believers” “mark of satan”)
Lol. I hope he was talking about me
And ‘crazy talk’ is in the terms of service? Which appendix has the definition of crazy talk?
First line of our policy: The number one rule is to be respectful.
Love you Sheika. You said just the right words!
“For example, a Muslim is first and foremost identified as a Muslim, rather than simply a human being. Whether they are Pakistani, Malaysian, Senegalese, or even British-born, their multiple identities are leveled under a constructed monolith of Islam,” she said.”–From what I see that’s what Muslims do to themselves.
That’s very true, how many time have we heard a Muslim saying in reference to the Mohd’s cartoons that so offend them, that they love Mohd move than their own family.
Hey sheika… how about working towards banning slavery? Or would that mean you live in a tent in the desert?
Deleting for attack.
I believe this is just another case of westernophobia. Apparently you can add phobia at the end of anything and claim offense. Whiteophobia is rampant nowadays. I’ve previously met some hinduophobists but the I didn’t get to spend much time with them.
Mama of the King….clean up all the CRAP you have created in Qatar….take a walk out side of your PRESTINE Palace and get rid of all your hired help.
Spend a week in a homeless shelter or a soup kitchen.
The Catholic church can teach Islam a few things like how they created HOSPITALs for the sick when they were shunned
and schools that educated children and taught them RESPECT FOR ALL not just their own kind King Mama
Although Islamophobia and prejudice exist, most of the comments are very wishy-washy. But the call on young Muslims to take on the responsibility of showing that “Islam is a rich, living moral tradition that can offer solutions to universal challenges” is a good one. Globally, the obscenely unfair distribution of money, corruption, lack of equal rights for different genders/races/sexual orientation/migrant labourers/refugees/non-citizens and crimes against environment need to be tackled. Please lead the way, starting in Qatar.
Btw: I see Hamad bin Khalifa Chair in Contemporary Islamic Thought is part of the Oxford-based center. Are there any similar chairs regarding Christian/Judaist/Hindu Thought in Qatar?
A better question to ask would be how many Western institutions have attempted to invest in such chairs. Qatar is investing in Oxford. Is Oxford willing to invest in Qatar? By the way, one of the institutions hosted in Education City is Georgetown University which is a Catholic, Jesuit university (actively religious and not in a historic sense like Harvard etc.)
The surgeon used the tops of her ears to augment her nipples in the late 1990s.
I’m suprised such comments are tolerated .. Not that they’re an attack on Qatar’s First Lady but simply in very poor taste
What do you expect to hear from a man with a pig snout for a nose and the lack of funds to correct this birth defect?
Deleting for crude attack.
may not be far off the mark but it is up to the Muslim faith to put its own house in order first, as its it the extremist muslims who degrade the faith and its co-habitation in many countries.
Stereotypes don’t kill people. Terrorists kill people. She’s complaining about the wrong things. And she probably owns slaves.
Deleting for attack.
It is easier to talk about double standards, fobias, human rights, freedom of expression, rule of law, transparency, democracy, etc. in far-away counties than your back yard
She’s right on many points, but I wish Qatar would use its resources to help Muslims who are suffering such as the Rohyngia Muslims in Burma who are being persecuted by Buddhists. And of course here there are many issues that need to be addressed and resolved as well before pointing fingers at others.
Wow! Well done Shieka Moza. A good day to bury bad news…
The past actions of the western powers in the Middle East were reprehensible. though of course often supported by the despotic families that rose to power as a result of them. However, much of the turmoil in the ME, including ISIS, is driven by the centuries old hate between Sunni and Shia and not by any “recent” western ideology or scheming – over 1 million Muslims died in the Iran/Iraq war and not a shot was fired from a !western” army. It is no wonder the west is scared of Islam. ISIS is composed of the same human beings that inhabit the rest of the world, the difference being that ISIS justify their barbarism by their interpretation of Islam. They may be barbaric but they obviously believe in the religious message that guides them. Even mainstream moderate “peaceful” Islam has core values that are completely at odds with the democracy and human rights that have developed in the west, and as every state with a majority of Muslims testifies, Islamic values become dominant in that state as mainstream Muslims fall under the power of the zealots. Yes we do see Muslims as a single entity, because in different ways they all follow a religion that presents a real and visible threat to an entire way of life.
Sheika Moza is simply pointing to the hypocrisy of the West, which proclaims in effect that Western violence is good violence, and that non-Western violence is bad violence. Our violence is good violence, your violence is bad violence. This is the vile ethos that sums up the colonial agenda, and it continues in many, many ways, unfortunately.
As for not a shot was fired by the western army, please acquaint yourself with the roles of the UK, US, France and Germany in arming and encouraging Saddam Hussein to attack Iran. Don’t you remember Rumsfeld shaking the hand of Saddam? The arms-to-Iraq scandal in the UK? The Germans helping the chemical and nuclear programmes, and the UK giving credit guarantees? Did the US or UK object then in the UN object to the use of chemical weapons being used against Iran? Of course, not since they supplied the technology. Did the object after Halabja? Of course not. Our violence is good violence when we give out the technology and it is used to further our own aims. Saddam was a Western proxy for most of his time, but who acted without permission in Kuwait, and when he did, the West acted. Only then did they all complain to the UN. Now his violence was bad violence since it was his own chosen violence, and not that proposed and supported by the West.
Is that clear?
It is easy to equate two similar incidents and forget about major concerns such as “running planes into buildings”, “ISIS”, “AlQaida”, “Suicide Bombings”, “muslims killing muslims solely on religious disagreements”, “Women inherit only 50% that of a man’s”, “women = half a testimony in court”, “The oppression of minorities in muslim dominated countries”, “The threat faced when leaving islam and the fact of it being illegal by law in many Islamic countries”, “Issues with the freedom of expression”, “Teachings of Jihad that is becoming increasingly more common practice”, “Teachings of hatred against other religions”, “Teachings of hatred against against Atheists”, “Teachings of hatred against LGBT”, “Ban/Control of alcohol”, “Ban/Control of pork meat”, “Hatred and wars between Muslims themselves” and more.
while there are some peaceful verses in Quraa’n, the fact that evil teachings exist alongside is enough to label Islam as an intolerant, dangerous and a threatening ideology to societies.
Possibly, try to solve the issues between muslims first.
Good discussion, all! Closing the thread now.