Category Archives: Qatar

Study this Spring in Qatar

Anthropology/Sociology, Development, Islam: Introduction, Qatar, Teaching Resources, Travel


Qatar: Religion, Economy, and Sustainability

A course offered in Qatar for the Spring Term 2012 (Travel: March 24 — April 5, 2012)

Led by: Tugrul Keskin, PSU — International and Middle Eastern Studies Middle East Studies Coordinator (INTL)

Over the last twenty years, with the emergence of the global economy, Qatar has become a center of an economic boom in the Persian Gulf. This economic transformation has also shaped the social and political characteristics of Qatar. In the Gulf region, Qatar has one of the fastest growing education systems, increased levels of women’s participation in education and the workplace, and more open media and communications systems. Therefore, Qatar uniquely represents a new trend in the Middle East. In this study abroad course, we will explore and try to understand these changes based on our interactions with Qatari organizations, politicians, citizens, educators and etc.

Study abroad in Qatar offers students the unique opportunity to understand religion, economy and sustainability from the perspective of course materials in addition to discussion with community members and leaders, and visits to historical venues. This will help to contextualize the inter-relationships between contemporary Qatari society, and its historical, economic and geo-political underpinnings. It will enable students to interact with and directly explore issues that are core to the Muslim Societies. Continue reading Study this Spring in Qatar →

Falconry and Chicanery

Animals, Folklore and Proverbs, Qatar


The hunting trip is a time when falconers night spend up to six weeks away from their homes, families and business in the desert. These days the trip need no longer be frugal and it is possible to provide every comfort.

So writes the Qatari veterinarian Faris al-Timimi in his 1987 book Falcons & Falconry in Qatar (Doha: Ali bin Ali Press). I met Dr. al-Timimi in 1988, when I was conducting research in Qatar on the seasonal almanac knowledge of the Gulf. He showed me some of his prized falcons and explained the long established practice of hunting with falcons in Qatar. At that time a superb falcon might be worth $30,000, so I can only imagine what a prize falcon would sell for in today’s commercially enhanced Qatar. Unlike many other sports, where the animals are domesticated and, in Darwinian terms, bred for the task, the best hunting birds are said to be those captured young in the wild. Those that are captured and kept for a future hunting season are those who excel at catching the bustard (Chlamydotis undulata), known in Arabic as the houbara.

There is a rich literature on Arab falconry,known as bayzara in Arabic. In his 10th century bibliographic survey of Arabic books, Ibn al-Nadīm listed ten books on the subject, in addition to the numerous references that would have been found in other kinds of texts. Today both texts and videos are only a click away in cyberspace, including sites devoted specifically to falcon hunting in Qatar. Al-Jazeera recently posted a photographic montage on the most recent hunting expeditions in Qatar. In addition to the use of falcons, followed by high-speed cars rather than racing camels, there is the use of hunting dogs. While the trajectory of a falcon on its prey is purely natural, the sport of hunting dogs has reached a true dog-days syndrome, as an contraption-bound gazelle along a mechanical path substitutes for the open range, the host of SUVs spurting up dust. I do not doubt that Abbasid princes or Mamluk sultans would have adopted the same vehicular superiority, if they had known it, but there is something pitiful about an animal trapped in a mechanical game that does not give the prey a sporting chance.

For a set of extraordinary pictures by photographer Matthew Cassel on falcon hunting in Qatar al-Jazeera, click here.

Daniel Martin Varisco

Doha Dèjá Vu

Architecture, Qatar, Travel


Skyscrapers dominate the modern skyline of Doha

In 1988-1989 I received a Fulbright Islamic Civilization Research Grant to carry out research on the Arab almanac tradition. Most of this time I was sponsored in Doha, Qatar by the Gulf States Folklore Center. Tempus fugit, to be sure. The folklore center no longer exists and Doha is quite a different city these days. A week ago I arrived in Doha to give two lectures at Qatar University, one on the sailing seasons around the Gulf and one on traditional agriculture in Yemen. In the two decades plus since I last visited Doha it is obvious that the city has changed dramatically. I do not remember any skyscrapers on my first visit. Doha was a sleepy little haven with the grand Doha Sheraton the eye candy. And quite an eyeful it was and remains.

I arrived at an auspicious moment, the evening of Qatar’s National Day. The entire day was devoted to celebration. Thus the trip that would normally take less than 20 minutes to go from the airport to the Sheraton was accomplished in six hours. The roads were blocked with SUVs and Mercedes colorfully marked and many with young boys on top waving the Qatari flag and sporting scarves with the image of the emir and his heir apparent. I missed the fireworks, but the enthusiasm of the throng made the long journey well worth it.


The majestic Doha Sheraton Hotel

The Doha Sheraton is a grand old place. Having been erected in 1982, such a luxury hotel is an architectural shayba. But it still inspires, with a pyramid exterior and inside right out of an arabesque garden from the 1001 Nights. Back then it stood alone, a harbinger of change; today it is almost dwarfed by a series of skyscrapers jutting out of the ground in various original shapes. Here is an architect’s paradise with almost every building sporting a unique design.


The Museum of Islamic Art at night

My last day I visited the Museum of Islamic Art, which houses a magnificent spread of Quranic manuscript pages, pottery, metalwork and jewelry from all over the region, especially from Iran. Their website has a number of impressive e-cards available. The main Qatar Museum is being renovated, but the Arab Museum of Modern Art has opened and one on Orientalism is in the works. Qatar’s wealth is making Doha a museum Mecca, one that is sure to draw a large number of tourists in the years to come.


Dunkin’ Donuts invades Suq Waqif

When I first visited the Doha suq, it was hardly worthy of the title; to put it mildly, it was quite miskin. But now it has been recreated as a tourist attraction (with paid parking) and live music. It has many of the old kinds of shops, from textiles to spices, but then there are the foreign intrusions, such as a Dunkin’ Donuts located near the parking lot. Just what Doha needs: stale globalized donuts.

Flying to and from New York was on Qatar Airways, which has the most outstanding business class I have ever experienced. It is hard to imagine a better first class experience. Next time you are traveling to the Gulf, consider a stop in Doha. Midst the turmoil embroiling the region, Qatar remains a stable oasis of growth. Such a tiny nation, but one that is really making a mark culturally and politically in the region.

Yusuf al-Qaradawi: Fatwa on Islam and Democracy

"Arab Spring", Islamic Law, Islamic Texts, Qatar

by Yusuf al-Qaradawi, Islamopedia, June 27, 2011

The Islamic state is a civil one, like other governments in the modern world and the only difference is that it makes Islamic Shari’a its reference. We would like to highlight, in this chapter, that the Islamic state is based on the Shura Council, allegiance, free choice of the nation to its ruler, advice to him, accountability of him, obedience to him, break of his allegiance if he commands sin, and the nation’s right to dismiss him if he insists on straying and deviation. This approach makes the essence of the Islamic state close to the democratic one.

By democracy we mean political democracy. As economic democracy is concerned, it means capitalism and it has its advantages and disadvantages, so we have been conservative about it while the social democracy means liberalism holding the absolute freedom, and we have been conservative about it too. Capitalism (of Qaron, a king of the past) is unacceptable to us since it is based on an idea of wealth refused by the Holy Quran. As Qaron said about his wealth, “I have been given it according to my knowledge”(stories: 78). Or as people said to Prophet Shoaib, “Does your prayer command us to leave what our fathers worshiped or that we do in our money what we want (Hud: 87).

According to Islamic thought, human being are heirs to the wealth of God. The Quran said: spend of that He made you heirs in it (Iron: 7). The true owner of the wealth is Allah while the rich man is trustee of this wealth and agent of the real owner. So ownership is bound with some duties and obligations as it is constrained in consumption, investment, distribution and circulation. Also, the giving of alms (Zakat) is imposed on the wealthy as one of the pillars of Islam. And usury, monopoly, fraud, injustice, extravagance, luxury, treasuring and other transactions are prohibited to the owners. With these admonitions and law, we could dull the dangerous nail of the capitalism, so as to achieve social justice, care for vulnerable groups in society such as orphans, the needy and the wayfarers, and work on a better distribution of the wealth “in order not to be the circulated among the rich of you” (al-Hashr: 7). Continue reading Yusuf al-Qaradawi: Fatwa on Islam and Democracy →

Tabsir Redux: The Cynical Dairy Farmer’s Guide to the New Middle East

"Arab Spring", Arab-Israeli Conflict, Bahrain, Egypt, Humor and Satire, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Lebanon, Libya, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Yemen


BY Karim Sadjapour, Foreign Policy, June 15, 2011

How a couple of cows explain a changing region: equal opportunity offender edition.

In the early years of the Cold War, in an effort to simplify — and parody — various political ideologies and philosophies, irreverent wits, in the spirit of George Orwell, went back to the farm. No one really knows how the two-cow joke known as “Parable of the Isms” came about, but most students of Political Science 101 have likely come across some variation of the following definitions:

Socialism: You have two cows. The government takes one of them and gives it to your neighbor.

Communism: You have two cows. The government takes them both and provides you with milk.

Nazism: You have two cows. The government shoots you and takes the cows.

Capitalism: You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull.

Over the years, the parables gradually expanded, using the two-cow joke to explain everything from French unions (You have two cows. You go on strike because you want three cows.) to the Republican Party (You have two cows. Your neighbor has none. So what?). While in its original iteration the cows were a metaphor for currency, capital, and property, they later began to take on different meanings.

Today, the Middle East has replaced the Cold War as America’s primary foreign-policy preoccupation. As opposed to the seemingly ideologically homogenous communist bloc, however, the 22 diverse countries that compose the modern Middle East are still confusing to most Americans. Why can’t the Israeli and Palestinians stop fighting already? What’s the difference between Libya and Lebanon again?

Herewith then is a satirical effort to simplify the essence of Middle Eastern governments so that, in the immortal words of George W. Bush, “the boys in Lubbock” can read it. And, rather than symbolizing property, the cows here symbolize people, which — funny enough — is how most Middle Eastern regimes have traditionally viewed their populations.

Saudi Arabia
You have two cows with endless reserves of milk. Gorge them with grass, prevent them from interacting with bulls, and import South Asians to milk them.

Iran
You have two cows. You interrogate them until they concede they are Zionist agents. You send their milk to southern Lebanon and Gaza, or render it into highly enriched cream. International sanctions prevent your milk from being bought on the open market.

Syria
You have five cows, one of whom is an Alawite. Feed the Alawite cow well; beat the non-Alawite cows. Use the milk to finance your wife’s shopping sprees in London.

Lebanon
You have two cows. Syria claims ownership over them. You take them abroad and start successful cattle farms in Africa, Australia, and Latin America. You send the proceeds back home so your relatives can afford cosmetic surgery and Mercedes-Benzes.

Hezbollah
You have no cows. During breaks from milking on the teat of the Iranian cow you call for Israel’s annihilation. Continue reading Tabsir Redux: The Cynical Dairy Farmer’s Guide to the New Middle East →

Sikand on Qaradawi

Egypt, Islamic Law, Islamic Texts, Qatar


[Webshaykh’s note: The following is a book review by Yoginder Sikand, who maintains the blog Madrasa Reforms in India.]
 
Review of Global Mufti—The Phenomenon of Yusuf al-Qaradawi.
Edited by Jakob Skaovgaard-Peterson & Bettina Graf (Hurst & Co, London, 2009,
ISBN: 978-1-85065-939-6

Reviewed by: Yoginder Sikand
 
 
The Qatar-based Egyptian Yusuf al-Qaradawi is among the most well-known Islamic scholars on the contemporary global scene. It might be something of an exaggeration to label him as a ‘phenomenon’ and as the ‘global mufti’—which is what the very title of this book hails him as—but that he exercises an enormous influence in numerous Islamic scholarly and activist circles is undeniable.
 
This book is a collection of essays on diverse aspects of Qaradawi’s life, achievements and writings. In their introductory essay, the editors of the volume provide a broad overview of his life, against which they situate his scholarly and activist accomplishments. Born in a poor family in a village in Egypt in 1926, Qaradawi studied at Cairo’s Al-Azhar, then the largest seat of traditional Islamic learning, after which he shifted to Qatar as emissary of his alma mater. It was there, we are told, that Qaradawi established himself as a noted scholar and activist, traveling widely across the world and establishing a number of Islamic institutions. The editors provide a pen-portrait of a passionate, dedicated scholar-activist, seeking to revive the rapidly disappearing tradition of socially-engaged ulema, who Qaradawi believes, should lead Muslims in the twenty-first century. Continue reading Sikand on Qaradawi →

Repairing American public diplomacy

Iraq War, Journalism and Media, Obama Administration, Qatar

Repairing American public diplomacy

by William Rugh, Arab Media and Society, Winter, 2009

It is widely believed among academics who study the subject, and among former practitioners, that public diplomacy has not achieved its full potential,[1] and we are hopeful that the Obama Administration will now solve some of its problems. This essay focuses on the most important challenges, which in many ways concern broadcasting to the Arab world.

Public diplomacy is of course not a panacea. America’s foreign policy decisions such as the Iraq war, or its policies at home such as the Patriot Act and Guantanamo detentions, have been strongly criticized abroad, undermining our international reputation and respect. Public diplomacy by itself cannot eliminate all criticism of our policies. It can only help to mitigate objections by explaining the U.S. government’s reasons for these policies, and by reminding foreign audiences of the aspects of America they still admire, in its society, culture and political system.

It is also true that the election of Barack Obama, which has generated a generally positive reaction around the world, will not by itself burnish America’s tarnished image abroad. His new policies may help, but misunderstandings of the United States will continue, out of ignorance or deliberate distortion. Public diplomacy programs can help present an accurate picture of America to foreign audiences, a task more important than ever in this age of 24/7 information proliferation.

What are the systemic problems hindering U.S. public diplomacy and how can the Obama Administration fix them? Continue reading Repairing American public diplomacy →

The Little Rebellion that Was

Huthis, Qatar, Terrorism Issue, Yemen


[Illustration: Emir Hamad Bin Khalifa al-Thani of Qatar, left; bombed out buildings in northern Yemeni town of Sa‘da in 2004 fighting, center; Husayn al-Houthi, right.]

In September, 2004, Yemen’s military captured and killed a Zaydi cleric in the northern part of their country. His name was Husayn al-Houthi and he is alleged to have started a rebellion with a strong anti-American thrust. Although claims were made that he was trying to revive the Zaydi imamate (which was toppled in 1962 in the revolution that formed a republic in North Yemen), such an al-Qaeda clone conspiracy theory are exaggerated. Nevertheless, his followers carried on a regional rebellion, lately under the leadership of his son Abd al-Malik, and as a result thousands of soldiers, rebels and civilians have died and tens of thousands of civilians have been displaced. It is not surprising that you may not have seen much about the fighting in the media. Indeed it has been a little rebellion compared to events in Iraq, Afghanistan or Gaza, and it certainly did not threaten the ruling government’s overall hold on the country. But it was certainly a big deal in Yemen. And now, with mediation by the Emir of Qatar, it appears that there will be an end to the armed conflict. Details are provided in today’s Yemen Observer.

Al-Houthi rebels descend the mountains, lay down their weapons

Written By: Nasser Arrabyee
Yemen Observer, Jun 30, 2007

Al-Houthi rebels have come down from the mountains of northern Yemen to put down their weapons and return home, as instructed by a Qatari-brokered agreement to end the five-month war between them and the government troops, said mediators Thursday. Continue reading The Little Rebellion that Was →