Hizbut Tahrir Afghanistan Calls FIFA World Cup A 'Historic Disgrace,' Criticizes Qatar For Lavish Spending: 'The Regime Uses Its Massive Oil Resources, Which Belong To The Islamic Ummah, For Its Personal Promotion'

In a series of tweets and articles, Hizbut Tahrir Afghanistan criticized Qatar for its lavish spending on hosting the 2022 FIFA World Cup, saying the Islamic Ummah is the real owner of the massive oil resources that Qatar enjoys but that the Qatari government uses it for self-promotion. On November 21, 2022, Hizbut Tahrir tweeted in Pashtu: "The Qatari regime uses the massive oil resources, which belong to the Islamic Ummah, for its personal promotion at a time when the real owners of these resources are living in poverty and extreme economic difficulties."[1]

In another Pashtu-language tweet the same day, the organization said: "Hosting the World Cup by Qatar is a historic shame from all aspects. These arrangements cost more than $200 billion. This level is enough to eliminate poverty from the world permanently."[2] This tweet seems to be extracted from a Pashtu-language article published on the website of Hizbut Tahrir Afghanistan. The article, titled "The Football World Cup In Qatar: A Historic Disgrace," repeats the same point and comments: "This [Qatari] regime uses its massive oil resources, which belong to the Islamic Ummah, for its personal promotion at a time when the real owners of these resources are living in poverty and extreme economic difficulty."[3] Hizbut Tahrir Afghanistan also noted that most European politicians have strongly criticized Qatar for human rights violations and have demanded the boycott of the World Cup in solidarity with the gay community.

"Recently, Denmark's state-run television, DR, which broadcasts under the Ministry of Culture, released an authentic report showing the corrupt and cruel side of the World Cup," it says, adding: "There is no doubt that Qatar is a racist, cruel, and dictatorial country that continues to exploit laborers and keeps them in modern slavery. Such treatment has killed more than 6,500 people."[4]

It lashes out at Denmark for its double standards, such as making special laws favoring Ukrainian immigrants but worrying about the rights of foreign workers in Qatar. "The self-centered and hypocrite Westerners have no right to blame Qatar as their own hands are stained with colonialism, selling weapons to authoritarian regimes, and causing killings and destruction in Afghanistan and Iraq. They have no right to lecture other nations about protecting human rights. This is the hypocrisy of the West, and its double standards are aimed at covering their barbaric and satanic deeds," it observes.[5]

Having criticized the West, the article proposes the establishment of the Islamic Caliphate as a cure for all problems in the world. "The world needs an ideological alternative that can implement a stable and unchanging morality and humanity without any discrimination and hypocrisy. The only alternative to the double standards of capitalism is true Islamic values..." it adds.[6]

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In a separate Dari-language article titled "The Qatar World Cup And The Ecstasy Of Luxuries," the organization says that no healthy and realistic mind can justify spending around $200 billion on a 28-day football tournament.[7] Citing an "Amnesty International" report showing deaths of thousands of workers for the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, the article states: "How can a healthy conscience accept the death of thousands of people for the enjoyment of 1,500,000 people?"[8]

The article cites a hadith to advance its argument that the Islamic Ummah, not the Qatari royal family, owns the natural resources of Qatar. It asks: "Who allowed the sheikhs of Qatar to squander the [global Muslim] nation's wealth so boldly?"[9] It goes on: "Qatar has included only a few shari'a orders in their laws, but reports say these shari'a punishments are given only to non-Qatari origin [people] in Qatar. On the other hand, Qatar is the guesthouse of the United States; the Al-Udeid military base [in Doha], from which drones take off and target Muslims in their own lands, has been given to the U.S. Qatari officials are so powerless in representing Islam that they cannot even courageously say that homosexuality is forbidden [in Islam]," the article adds.[10]