The Middle East is ramping up for another major conflict; one in which my native Qatar stands with the West. May reason and freedom triumph over radical Islam! But I have a warning about the country whose celebrated leaders imprisoned and tortured me for advocating democracy. They are allies of governments – not of societies.
„The genocide in Gaza has captured the world’s attention, galvanising an unprecedented global solidarity movement in support of Palestine.“ This was the tone of Al Jazeera’s Centre for Studies annual Forum, held in Doha from the 7-9 of last month. Framed as a space for competing viewpoints and balanced analysis, the forum speakers includedKhaled Meshaal, a senior Hamas operative, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, President of the Federal Republic of Somalia, Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi and the rather sinisterly titled ‚Vice President of the Center for China and Globalization,‘ Victor Gao.
One might think there would be a single Israeli to represent the modern legal status quo, but no. According to the fatalistic glee of their literature „at the global level, there are increasing indications that the world is moving toward a multipolar order, one that breaks the monopoly of power and redistributes military, economic, political and technological influence among several competing centres.“ Apparently, if you are as heavily invested as Qatar is in the collapse of the rules based order, then any other point of view is dismissed as inappropriate. The American voice of their ‚emerging multipolar World Order‘ was an insufferable college activist, Guy Christiansen, recently named ‚Antisemite of the Year.‘ Mr Christiansen speaks up for armed resistance over peaceful protest and was recently expelled from the University of Ohio for his TikTok diatribes. How very unsurprising, therefore, that he should end up fast tracked to this air-conditioned Valhalla for sponsored shills, there to whine about Western Imperialism from one of the wealthiest states ever conceived by… er… the British Empire.
It is only at events such as these, when Al Jazeera’s biases are allowed to run as unopposed as they did within besieged Gaza, that we get to see the reality of Qatar’s mouthpiece for terrorism. Al Jazeera is directed by Sheikh Hamad bin Thani and Sheikh Nasser bin Faisal of the Ruling Al Thani dynasty and handles the PR for Qatar’s radical Islamist allies. Leading figures from Al Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah and other terrorist organisations not only reside in Doha but are given airtime on the mainstream airwaves in the interests of free speech and constructive dialogue (almost as if the same welcome would be extended to Christian clerics in Qatar). For more than two decades, the Al Jazeera network has been little more than a front for terrorist leaders and potentates to rail against the West in plain sight and all under a pretence of neutrality.
It was during the evacuation of Afghanistan, however, that Qatar truly became the first non-democratic, Wahhabi State to join a great omertà among democratic leaders. Al Jazeera stepped up to present the whole shambolic operation as an orderly withdrawal (with help from Qatar’s own armed forces at the Al Udeid Air Base), rather than a retreat. Qatar’s bid for Western trust has become: ‚your lies are safe with us,‘ and the West has reciprocated by hosting lavish state dinners for the Al Thanis and turning a blind eye to the flagrant corruption and human rights abuses ever since. The building of Mosques throughout Europe, the funding of Western academia and patronising of politicians is a grim portent of what is to come if we consider our military allies to be our ideological allies. Qatar has learned to play the democratic game without exposing itself to democratic penalties and, sooner or later, the West will be ground down until it can find the willpower to dismiss the opinions of its benefactor, expressed under autocratic immunity.
At the Al Jazeera Forum, the West allowed all of its diplomatic troubles to be squeezed into an air-conditioned city-state of 300,000 citizens in the Persian Gulf, hoping to avoid implicating swathes of populous and acculturated civilisation. But as Al Jazeera congratulate themselves on another PR Job well done, let us stop pretending that the people we endlessly ‚engage with‘ merely hold different views. They do not oppose Western policy, they oppose Western civilisation.
It is important to start talking about this now because the 24th Doha Forum opens this December under the banner of „Diplomacy, Dialogue and Diversity“. This is Qatar’s great congress for World leaders and, this year, it is themed: „Redefining Global Trust.“ Qatar are certainly managing to do just that.
About the author: Khalid Al-Hail is a defector from the Qatari ruling establishment, the president of the Qatar National Democratic Party, and the country’s most prominent opposition spokesman. Now living in exile in the United Kingdom, he is a successful international businessman and the leading advocate for democratic reform in Qatar, known for exposing the regime’s state-backed influence operations and media manipulation abroad.
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