Qatar World Cup 2022: Muslims 'Can Go To Mecca' To Avoid Partying Soccer Fans

Muslims angered at the prospect of rowdy revelers descending onto Qatar for the 2022 World Cup games have been told to make a pilgrimage to Mecca during the tournament, the National in Abu Dhabi is reporting.

FIFA's selection of Qatar has already sparked controversy both locally and abroad. Though many international critics have drawn attention to the tiny nation's less-than-stellar soccer pedigree and soaring summer temperatures, some locals say they are concerned with the impact an influx of partying foreigners may have on the conservative society.

"As a choice, they could go [to Mecca]. There's no obligation to stay in this country, is there?" said Ijaz Ahmad, the British head of Islamic culture at the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs' Fanar Center told the National. "They can go on the Umrah or they can go on holiday to London."

FIFA officials have reportedly assured soccer fans they will circumvent Qatar's conservative alcohol laws by setting up special "fan zones" where drinking will be permitted during the games, but the concern hasn't been ignored by locals. "Islam is quite clear that we shouldn't be drinking alcohol," Amhed said. "Drinking 16 pints of lager doesn't do anyone any good."

Let Qatar 2022 not be built on brutalityMigrant workers face unsafe conditions, a ban on unions and unpaid wages. Will Qatar clean up its act for this World Cup?

Nicholas McGeehan guardian.co.uk, Monday 6 December 2010 18.59 GMT

Comment is free's only piece on the decision to let Qatar host the World Cup 2022 chided Islamophobic reactions to the news and depicted Qatar as a relatively progressive, if slightly dull, Gulf state that looks after its citizens and is "quite a nice place to visit".


The fact that it prefers to deport rather than lash homosexuals was provided as evidence of its progress, as was the fact that Qatari women have more rights than women in Saudi Arabia. Quotes proving the country's commitment to education were lifted directly from the website of the Qatar Foundation, an organisation set up by its emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani.


Criticism of Qatar's victory is not just correct, it is highly necessary. Unfortunately, it has been misdirected. While concerns over women's rights and attitudes to homosexuality (not to mention the irresponsible lunacy of air-conditioning the desert) are entirely valid, there has been no meaningful criticism of what is by far the most problematic aspect of Qatar 2022: the systematic exploitation of the country's migrant workforce and the possible enslavement of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of impoverished south Asian migrant workers, who will be imported to meet the demands of a construction sector expected to swell twentyfold from $5bn to $100bn over the next 12 years.


Migrant workers constitute approximately 70% of Qatar's population of 1.4 million and a significant number of these are unskilled and semi-skilled workers from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka. The treatment of workers in the construction sector in Qatar is as exploitative as the well-publicised abuse of migrant workers in its glitzy neighbour, the United Arab Emirates.


Workers arrive in the country heavily indebted, having borrowed from moneylenders or mortgaged their land to finance inflated travel and visa costs. Their passports are immediately and customarily confiscated and they are typically forced to sign a revised contract that pays them a significantly lower rate than was originally agreed.


Strikes and trade unions are expressly banned, and the labour and immigration status of migrants is regulated by the kafala system, which ties each worker to one employer in a highly dependent relationship. The results are depressingly familiar: unpaid wages, inhumane living conditions, unsafe working conditions and suicides.


Qatar, one of the wealthiest countries in the world, has been referred to as a "death trap for hundreds of thousands of construction workers" from some of the poorest countries in the world. Female domestic workers, meanwhile, are not covered by national labour law – an omission which, as Amnesty International rightly pointed out, "allows employers to exploit, enslave, abuse, assault and injure their domestic workers with virtual impunity". There is a strong argument for saying that in the worst cases of abuse, the treatment of migrant workers constitutes slavery in international law.


To scholars of slavery, an assertion that the institution is alive and well in Gulf states such as Qatar should come as no surprise. Slavery has always flourished in societies with an overly developed sense of honour such as ancient Rome and Greece, and the southern states of the US. Recent highly publicised cases involving members of the royal families of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates provide clear evidence of the attitudes of the regions' ruling elites to servitude.


The massive boom in Qatar's construction sector will bring hundreds of thousands of south Asian migrant workers into a culturally, politically and socially homogenous region in which slavery's moral repugnance has not yet been fully recognised, and a country whose labour market was designed to grant employers absolute control over their workers.


Qatar is far from backward: Doha-based al-Jazeera's boldness in criticising its neighbours is testament to that, even accounting for recent WikiLeaks revelations. But its treatment of its migrant workforce is, in stark contrast to the lavish treatment of its nationals, crude and brutal. Allowing women to drive and not whipping homosexuals does not a progressive state make, and morally relativist defences of the country play into the hands of those who seek to delay reform.


Qatar 2022 represents an opportunity for the country to take the lead on workers' rights in the region. As the International Labour Organisation urged this week, it should abolish the kafala system, introduce a national minimum wage and make provision for the introduction of trade unions. If it does not do so, Qatar 2022 will be constructed on the sort of brutality we naively associate with a bygone era.

Why FIFA was right
By Michael Burgess
Published: 9:55AM Thursday December 09, 2010 Source: ONE Sport

The much maligned decision to grant the 2022 World Cup to Qatar may turn out to be a FIFA masterstroke, as Michael Burgess explains.

Most of the football world see it as a Qatar-strophe. Giving the 2022 World Cup to the tiny Middle East nation beggars belief, especially given the strong bids from Australia and the USA. But there are several compelling reasons why the FIFA executive committee may have got it right.

Firstly, one should remember the immense contribution of the Middle East to world football.

Who can forget the Kuwait team in 1982, walking off the pitch in protest when a French goal had been scored just after a phantom whistle in the crowd? They were eventually persuaded to return, but their antics compelled the referee to eventually disallow the French goal, which had been awarded.

Also memorable was the Saudi Arabian team in 2002. Germany had come into the tournament lacking confidence and belief but recovered both in 90 minutes of mayhem, beating the Saudis 8-0. With just a touch of Deutsche humour coach Rudi Voeller reflected that "We have to keep our feet on the ground because we know our opponent wasn't that strong.''

The United Arab Emirates team of 1990 also provided plenty of entertainment, conceding eleven goals in their three group matches and scoring just once.

The genius of the FIFA decision will also virtually stamp out hooliganism. Surely the stadiums will be ventilated, but as FIFA vice president Chuck Blazer said himself, "you can't air condition a whole country".

With temperatures expected to reach 50 degrees Celsius, it will simply be too hot for the random pre and post match scuffles that tend to break out between the English and French supporters, or the English and German, or the English and.... just about anyone. Plus the sight of the pasty European fans struggling in the heat and getting redder and more sunburnt as the tournament progresses will make for compelling television viewing. It will be akin to an episode of 'Survivor.'

Having the Cup in Qatar should also ensure that all players are fully focussed on their football. Unlike say the United States (1994), France (1998), Japan (2002) and Germany (2006) there will be limited distractions available and the highly paid professionals will either be training or wiling away time in their seven star hotels.

The transport issues that have complicated several of the recent FIFA showpieces will also be a thing of the past in Qatar 2022. With nine stadiums in an area the size of Auckland, it will be plain sailing for teams, supporters and the media to follow the teams around.

By agreeing to play football in the desert, and defying all the logic of modern science, FIFA has given hope to countries where there previously was none. Brazil to host the Winter Olympics? Sure why not? Switzerland to stage the world surfing championships? Okay, lets do it! Hong Kong to host the world cross country championships? Go for it! The world mountain biking champs in the Netherlands? yes sir!

Plus, the organisation, planning and logistics of the tournament should go off without a hitch. None of those messy elements like "democracy'' and "freedom of speech'' are there to get in the way and even those unwieldy things called "human rights'' are limited in scope and range.

There are also hundred of thousands of 'non-citizens', immigrant workers from South Asia and the non-oil rich Arab states, available to build the infrastructure (and stadium-sized air conditioning units) that will be required.

The regulations around employment of foreigners in Qatar, where the majority cannot enter or exit the country without the permission of their `sponsor', has been compared to modern slavery - but hey - they will all enjoy watching the football, right?