?How About a Draw

اسم الكاتب : Meshari Alruwaih

المشاهدات : 604

How About a Draw?

No doubt, this World Cup is not just about football. What was supposed to be a sporting event turned into cultural confrontation, mainly, between the west and Muslim societies. Yes, this is not just about Qatar any more. The confrontation has turned into one where Qatar is seen as a heroic representative of the wider Islamic World battling the licentious west to protect the hearts and minds of Muslims around the world.

From the beginning, the Western media has focused on two issues: migrant workers’ rights and LGBTQ situation here in Qatar. Yet, for some reason the balance have titled towards the latter, a moral and strategic mistake, I believe, that made things much easier for us in the Muslim world. Now that they gave us the easy problem, I will take it!

In the West, they start from the assumption that LGBTQ rights are basic human rights and therefore it is not up for discussion. Likewise, we start from a belief that is not up for discussion, that is: the right to grow and develop in a family made of a mother and a father is a basic human right. Furthermore, we believe that homosexuality is ruining the definition of Family, the most important institution in any society. Not just for its role in reproduction of human race but also as the only efficient unit of human interaction where individuals can develop emotionally and morally. That is where the distinctive attributes and qualities of a man and a woman come together under a long-term commitment to provide the right environment for children to grow. We believe that two men or two women cannot do this emotional and moral job. Let alone, of course, the reproduction job. See how easy it is!

Of course, the liberals and leftists in the west will rush to the argument of adoption: you can make a perfectly happy family by bringing together two men and adopted kids. Yet, we might ask what is the source of adopted children? Where they come from?

 It is well known that the major source of adopted kids, at least in the west, is “one night stands”, those of us who lived in the west know that “one night stands” are not isolated encounters but a social practice and I hesitate to call it a social institution in western societies. The result is an army of single mothers facing two options: abortion or throwing their babies to be adopted by gay couples.  Since it is a social practice then it is up for theorization and exploration for its causal powers, and how they relate to failure of western societies. Here, we understand this cycle and we would rather continue enjoying the warmth of traditional families over chasing sexual desires.

Theories aside, I acknowledge that most of the above is shared by conservatives in the west and the majority of regions around the world. There is no thing distinctively Islamic about protecting the institution of the family from liberal sexual freedoms or Leftists aggression against traditional gender identities and biological facts.

Beside the fact that this world cup has been the most family friendly in history there is yet another benefit: the increasing awareness in the west that they are one region among other regions in the world. Moreover, as my good friend Professor Nayef Bin Nahar of Qatar University puts it: “the west needs to learn that they are not the spokesperson for humanity”.

Despite the apparent reluctance, I believe that there is or will be a wider conversation in western societies around family issues in the context of understanding that communicating with others on moral issues without a prior assumed sense of superiority is actually beneficial.

On the Qatari and Muslim Societies side, it is all good here; we have beaten Argentina, Belgium, France, and in a different game Germany, let alone the LGBTQ global campaigns. For one thing, we have brought the term “homosexuality” back into use in global public discourse. Moreover, and as you can guess from the use of the term “we” Muslim solidarity is at its highest since a very long time.

Although we can walk out as clear winners from this world cup, let me propose a draw you go home and think deeply about your unconditional support for homosexuality and other sexual problems and how this support relates to family values, while we rethink the status and rights of migrant workers. Despite the fake numbers of migrant workers deaths circulating in western media it is still an issue that needs to be pressed hard in this region.

Meshari Alruwaih
Assistant Professor of International Relations at Qatar University.