Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Beitar Jerusalem Decries Israel Football Association Penalty for Racism


Beitar fans unfurl the logo of assassinated extreme right wing Rabbi Meir Kahane's Jewish Defense Laugue


By James M. Dorsey

Troubled Beitar Jerusalem FC, the bad boy of Israeli soccer notorious for the racism and militant nationalism of its supporters, has denounced as “harsh, discriminatory and unsportsmanlike” the rejection by an Israeli Football Association (IFA) tribunal of its appeal against an earlier sentencing to a two-point deduction for behavior of its fans

In a statement, Beitar Jerusalem said that the rejection would not help the club’s management combat violence and racism and accused the IFA of wanting to harm Beitar.

The rejection by a three-judge panel comes as the club known for its right-wing anti-Palestinian politics and close ties to right-wing Israeli political leader is struggling to avoid relegation, seeking to shore up its bad boy image and raise funds with an initial public offering. It also comes at a time that the club is under attack for refusing to hire an Israeli Palestinian player on racial grounds.

The timing of the IFA ruling is also important to the association, which is under scrutiny in a match-fixing scandal. IFA Chairman Avi Luzon was last week the latest of scores of Israeli soccer officials to be questioned by police as part of an on-going match-fixing probe involving fraud, breach of trust and abuse of power. Police are seeking to establish whether referees were assigned to certain matches so as to influence their results.

The IFA judges reaffirmed the point reduction in a 2:1 vote, with one judge, Nadia Halabi, arguing in favor of ordering the club to play matches behind closed doors to persuade its fans to change their behavior instead of penalizing it with a loss of points.

In response to Beitar’s criticism, IFA officials, according to daily newspaper Ha’aretz, said repeated efforts to change the club’s fan behavior by reducing punishments meted out by the association’s disciplinary court had failed to produce results.

Beitar chairman "Itzik Kornfein really should take care of business in the team before he complains about honorable judges, who make independent decisions," one official said.

Beitar was sentenced to the two-point reduction after its fans shouted racist slurs against Nigerian-born international striker Toto Tamez during a match against Hapoel Tel Aviv.

Beitar has the worst disciplinary record in Israel’s Premier League. Since 2005 it has faced more than 20 hearings and has received various punishments, including point deductions, fines and matches behind closed doors because of its fans’ racist behavior.

Beitar’s matches often resemble a Middle Eastern battlefield. It’s mostly Sephardic fans of Middle Eastern and North African origin, revel in their status as the bad boys of Israeli soccer. Their dislike of Ashkenazi Jews of East European extraction rivals their disdain for Palestinians.

Supported by Israeli right wing leaders such as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Beitar traces its roots to a revanchist Zionist youth movement. Its founding players actively resisted the pre-state British mandate authorities.

Beitar is Israel’s only leading club never to have signed an Israeli Arab player because of fan pressure. Maccabi striker Mohammed Ghadir recently put Beitar on the spot when he challenged the club to hire him despite its discriminatory hiring policies.

Beitar fans shocked Israelis when they refused to observe a moment of silence for assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who initiated the first peace negotiations with the Palestinians.

Its racist outbursts have prompted the Israeli Football Association to become the Middle East’s only soccer institution to launch a campaign against racism and discrimination.

A crowned club that last won Israel’s Premier League and cup championships in 2008, Beitar has been struggling since its owner, Russian billionaire Arcadi Gaydamak, stopped living up to his financial obligations. His shares were subsequently impounded following a devastating result in a Jerusalem mayoral election and a series of financial scandals that persuaded him to leave Israel.

Hopes last year that Beitar would solve its financial problems and shed its racist image were dashed when the sale of the club to two American Jewish businessmen, one of whom is associated with Israel’s peace camp, fell through. The businessmen had vowed to change the behavior of Beitar fans.

Beitar has since entered into talks with potential financial underwriters led by Tel Aviv-based Migdal Capital Markets, part of Israel’s largest insurance group, about taking the club public to raise $25 million.

The move to take Beitar public on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange was initiated by Beitar’s general manager and former goalkeeper, Yitzhak Kornfein. Mr. Kornfein believes that the IPO will position Beitar as a profitable business.

Beitar backed out of an earlier attempt in 2000 to go public after then owner and businessman Gad Zeevi concluded that an IPO would not make the club commercially viable.

James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and the author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer.


Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Qatar pledges to adhere to international labour laws in walk-up to 2022 World Cup




By James M. Dorsey

Qatar, with trade union leaders set for a second round of discussions with world soccer body FIFA about questionable labour conditions in the Gulf state, has vowed to ensure that contractors involved in preparations for the 2022 World Cup will adhere to international labour laws.

An official of the trade union, Building and Wood Workers International, said the unions were scheduled to meet again with FIFA in late January, as a follow-up to a meeting in November with FIFA president Sepp Blatter.

FIFA pledged after that meeting to help bolster the rights of migrant workers building World Cup infrastructure in Qatar in a bid to fend off a global trade union campaign that would denounce under the slogan, 'No World Cup in Qatar without labour rights,' the Gulf state as a slave driver. The unions have given FIFA six months to ensure that Qatar meets international labour standards.

Qatar is the first Middle Eastern state to have won the right to host the world’s largest sporting event.

The union’s message to FIFA appears to have not been lost on Qatar even though union officials said they could not operate in the Gulf state, which has no unions of its own.

Speaking at Carnegie Mellon University’s campus in the Qatari capital of Doha, Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee Secretary General Hassan Al Thawadi conceded that "major sporting events shed a spotlight on conditions in countries. There are labour issues here in the country, but Qatar is committed to reform. We will require that contractors impose a clause to ensure that international labour standards are met. Sport and football in particular, is a very powerful force. Certainly we can use it for the benefit of the region."

Qatar has embarked on a mega infrastructure program in advance of the World Cup involving an $11 billion new international airport, a $5.5 billion deep water seaport, a $1 billion transport corridor in Doha, expenditure of $20 billion on roads and $4 billion for the construction of nine new stadiums and renovation of three existing ones.

Mr. Thawadi said at a brainstorm in Doha earlier this month on the role of government, business and NGOs in sports that the Gulf state would award the management contract for oversight of the infrastructure program in the first quarter of this year

The International Trade Union Confederations (ITUC), which represents 175 million workers in 153 countries, charged in a report earlier this year that the working conditions of migrant workers in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates were "inhuman."

Entitled ‘Hidden faces of the Gulf miracle,’ the multi-media report demanded that Qatar prove that migrant workers building infrastructure for the tournament are not subject to inhuman conditions.

It said that the working and living conditions of mostly Asian migrant labour in Qatar are unsafe and unregulated.

“A huge migrant labour force, with very little rights, no access to any unions, very unsafe practices and inhuman living conditions will be literally putting their lives on the line to deliver the 2022 World Cup,” ITUC general secretary Sharan Burrow said at the time of the report’s release.

Qatar and other oil-rich Gulf states have long been targeted by labour organizations for their treatment of particularly unskilled and low-skilled workers. Qatar like the UAE and others in the Gulf operates a sponsorship program under which all foreign workers have to have a local sponsor who can make seeking alternative employment or another sponsor difficult and who often retains the worker’s passport on employment. Trade unionists argue that the lack of a minimum wage further enhances exploitation of labour.

The issue of workers’ rights touches a raw nerve in countries like Qatar and the UAE where the local population constitutes a minority. Gulf states are concerned that improving labour conditions would not only have economic consequences but also give foreigners a greater stake in a society which ensures they are forced to leave the country once their contract has ended.

Pressure on Qatar from FIFA and the trade unions comes at a time that the Gulf state is enthralled in a debate about its national identity in which conservative and nationalist forces object to concessions being made to foreigners and fans expected to attend the World Cup such as allowing the sale of alcohol and pork. Qatar, which permits the serving of alcohol to foreigners in hotels and on board state-owned Qatar Airways, has said it would create free zones during the tournament in which fans would be allowed to consume alcohol.

An trade union campaign would tarnish Qatar’s international image carefully crafted with the launch in the 1990s of the Al Jazeera television network, the creation with Qatar Airways as a world class airline and the positioning of the Gulf state as an international sports hub with the hosting of tournaments like the World Cup and call into question FIFA’s vote in favour of Qatar. Qatar is preparing to also bid for the 2020 Olympic Games and the 2019 World Athletics Championship.

An international labour campaign would moreover revive some of the controversy that has overshadowed Qatar’s success in becoming the first Middle Eastern state to host a World Cup. That success has been mired by allegations of corruption that so far have proven unsubstantiated; the downfall of Mohammed Bin Hammam, the Qatari national who was FIFA vice-president and has been suspended as president of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) on charges of bribery, and concern that Qatar’s searing summer temperatures will impede performance during the tournament.

James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and the author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer.

Lebanese-Syrian soccer qualifier serves as barometer of troubled relations


Syrian soccer kowtows to Assad regime


By James M. Dorsey

A recent Lebanese-Syrian Asia Cup qualifier serves as an ironic barometer of troubled relations between the two countries seeking to chart their individual futures as well as that of their uneasy relationship.

Soldiers armed with machine guns controlled the entrances to the Rafik Hariri Stadium where the match was being played in the southern Lebanese city of Sidon named after a prime minister who was assassinated in 2005 allegedly with tacit Syrian complicity if not active participation. A United Nations tribunal last year indicted four members of Syria’s foremost Lebanese ally, Shiite militia Hezbollah, on charges of killing Mr. Hariri in a massive car bombing. Both Syria and Hezbollah have repeatedly denied involvement in the death of Mr. Hariri.

The killing of Mr. Hariri sparked massive anti-Syrian demonstrations that forced Damascus to withdraw its troops after 30 years from Lebanon. It also paved the way for the formal establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries after Syria dropped its refusal to formally recognize Lebanon as an independent state rather than a part of Greater Syria. Syria accredited Lebanon’s first ambassador to Damascus days before the match and welcomed a rare visit to Damascus by the Lebanese defence minister Elias Murr, who blames a failed 2005 attempt on his life on Syrian intelligence.

The massive security operation in a stadium bereft of spectators reflected the near civil war in Syria where a brutal government crackdown has failed to repress a ten month-old popular uprising against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad as well as the ripples of the revolt in Lebanon as a result of Hezbollah’s unqualified support for the Syrian leader.

Nevertheless, the very fact that Syria allowed its national team to travel abroad and that the match was the first in many years to be played on Lebanese soil rather than on neutral ground elsewhere in the Middle East speaks volumes about Syria’s relationship with Lebanon, one of only three Arab League countries to have voted against sanctioning the Assad regime for its brutality. More than 5,000 people are believed to have died in Syria since the uprising began in March of last year.

The fact that Syria allowed its national soccer team to Lebanon contrasts starkly with Syria’s refusal late last year to participate in the Arab Games in Bahrain for fear that some of its athletes might defect and confidence that Lebanon would not welcome any player seeking asylum.

Only two Syrian soccer players – national Under-23 goalkeeper and music composer Abd al Basset Saroot, a leader in the rebel stronghold of Homs, and national team goalkeeper Mosab Balhous who reportedly has been incarcerated since August on charges of sheltering armed gangs and possessing suspicious amounts of money – are known to have joined the revolt against Mr. Assad’s regime.

Syria placed its confidence in Lebanon despite deep-seated distrust between the two countries spilling regularly onto the soccer pitch. Suggesting that the Assad regime was so desperate for a victory in a bid to shore up its tarnished image, Lebanon accused Syria in November of fielding six players in an Under-19 Asian Football Championship qualifier whose ages had been falsified to qualify them for the team. The incident came two months after world soccer body FIFA barred Syria from competing for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil after the country’s national team fielded an unnamed ineligible player in a qualifying match against Tajikistan.

Syria, despite beating Lebanon 2:0 in this week’s Asia Cup qualifier, attacked Lebanon for its lack of hospitality and for having caused eight Syrian players to have food poisoning.

"We were treated with intentional carelessness by our hosts. There is no excuse for it, and brotherly countries should not be dealt in that way," Syrian Football Association executive Bahaa al-Omary told the BBC.

The Syrian defeat of Lebanon put paid to a rare moment of Lebanese unit sparked in a country where almost every facet of life is defined by its sectarian fault lines by the Lebanese team’s defeat in December of South Korea in a 2014 World Cup qualifier. The estimated 60,000 fans in Beirut’s Cite Sportive stadium shifted from sectarian chants to egging on their team with roars of “Minshan Allah, Libnan yallah” – “For God’s Sake, Lebanon Come On” – as soon as the Lebanese scored their first goal.

The fan support boosted Lebanese soccer, devastated by a ban on fans attending league matches in the wake of Mr. Hariri’s killing that was only lifted in October. As a result, Lebanon’s domestic league has all but collapsed and the national team drained of potential talent

“Politics came into football and destroyed it,” said Rahif Alameh, secretary-general of the Lebanese Football Association, who dates the “death of football” to 2001, the year when the government intervened in a murky match-fixing scandal rather than the 2005 ban on fans. That was when Lebanon’s political-religious leaders began treating the association as a pie to be carved up, just as they share power among Muslim and Christian communities.

Mr. Hariri, for example, sponsored several clubs and bought Nejmeh soccer club, Lebanon’s most popular team, which was largely cross-sectarian, but had always attracted much Shiite support. Mr. Hariri initially ventured into sports as a moneymaking venture, but later turned his teams into vehicles for consolidating his Sunni Muslim support.

Similarly, virtually every Lebanese soccer club is identified in sectarian and political terms — Maronite Christian, Sunni, Shiite, Druze or Armenian with certain political factions — even if the team’s players are religiously mixed.

“Football had just (become an extension) of politics. Everything in Lebanon is politicized, the air we breathe is politicized,” The Associated Press quoted Mr. Alameh as saying.

James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and the author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer.

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Debate questions emir’s powers to shape Qatar’s positioning as a sports hub and sponsor of revolts


Testing the emir's powers: Sheikh Hamad holds the World Cup
By James M. Dorsey
Qatar’s debate about allowing alcohol and the sale of pork amounts to far more than a discussion about adherence to the energy-rich Gulf state’s constitution and laws; it is a debate about the powers of the country’s ruler and its national identity.
The outcome of the debate will not only determine the future of Qatar’s effort to become a global sports hub – a key pillar of the national identity Emir Hamad Bin Khalifa al-Thani is seeking to shape – but also its positioning as a forward-looking sponsor of change in a region stretching from the Atlantic coast of Africa to the Gulf that is wracked by anti-government protests and convoluted transitions to more open societies.
It is a debate that is being closely monitored by critics of world soccer body FIFA’s decision to award Qatar the hosting of the 2022 World Cup; a wide-range of sports officials and athletes who anticipate a Qatari bid for the 2020 Olympic Games and the 2019 World Athletics Championships; and policy makers and pundits across the globe.
Caught on camera by CBS News in April of last year, US President Barak Obama described Sheikh Hamad as “a big booster of democracy all throughout the Middle East,” but noted that “he himself is not reforming significantly.” Mr. Obama suggested that Qataris with a per capita annual income of $145,000 felt little urge to rock the boat. Emir Hamad has since Mr. Obama’s quip announced elections next year for a royal advisory body. Qatar’s debate on moral mores nontheless appears to contradict Mr. Obama’s assessment.
The debate attracted international attention following last month’s unexplained banning of alcohol in restaurants on Qatar’s man-made island, The Pearl, which says it aims to “redefine an entire nation” and is popular with Qatar's growing expatriate community, as well as online calls by Qatari nationals for a boycott of state-owned Qatar Airways because of its serving on-board of alcohol and recent introduction of the sale of pork in a shop it owns in the capital Doha.
The debate about the country’s national identity is particularly sensitive given that Qatari nationals account for approximately only one quarter to one third of the country’s 1.7 million inhabitants with foreign labour and expatriates forming a majority at a time that the relationship between rulers, governments and the public across the Middle East and North Africa is being redefined.
“Our goal is to create a dialogue that resonates with and talks to the youth. This is an opportunity to inspire and engage young people…. Sports are at the heart of Qatar’s development… Sports like education and arts are part of our national identity,” Noora Al Mannai, CEO of Qatar’s bid to win the right to host the 2020 Olympic Games, told a recent brainstorm in Qatar designed to define the role of government, NGOs and business in sports.
 Ms. Al Mannai said “empowering young people” was one reason for the bid alongside Qatar’s efforts to mediate conflicts and reduce regional obesity and diabetes levels.  
The ban of alcohol on The Pearl extends beyond public venues to the kitchen, where one resident, Jenifer Fenton, writing on Arab News Blog, said it could also not be used for cooking. Restaurateurs and residents have yet to receive a justification for the ban. The ban does not affect major hotels in Doha that are allowed to sell alcohol to non-Muslims or the Qatar Airways shop that sells alcohol and pork to licensed foreign nationals for private consumption.
Speculation about the reasoning includes the ruler and the government wanting to project a more pious image in advance of the country’s first election of a royal advisory body to rumours of a financial dispute between the government and the resort’s developers.
Qatar has long sought to differentiate its interpretation of the teachings of the 18th century puritan warrior priest, Mohammed Abdul Wahhab, from that of strict Saudi Arabia where in contrast to Qatar women are severely restricted and Islamic law is rigorously applied to all not just Muslims and Saudi nationals.
The debate is likely to engender empathy in the Gulf and elsewhere in the Middle East and North Africa as Islamist forces emerge as winners from the popular revolts sweeping the region.
Nonetheless, it has sparked concern among secularists in Tunisia where the Islamist Ennahada party won the first elections following last year’s overthrow of President Zine el Abedine Ben Ali that the country may focus more on relations with the Gulf than on its traditional ties to Europe. Ennahada officials were quick to assert during Sheikh Hamad’s recent visit to Tunisia to mark the first anniversary of the toppling of Mr. Ben Ali that the country would not jeopardize its relations with Europe but was basing its foreign policy on achieving the revolution’s goals.
Qatari critics of alcohol argue that the emir’s tolerance violates the country’s constitutions and laws which do not grant the emir the prerogative to allow its sale or consumption. In doing so, the critics are implicitly sparking a rare debate about the powers of the ruler.
Hassan Al Sayed, a professor of constitutional law and former dean of the College of Law at Qatar University, says according to Ms. Fenton, that there is no Qatari law that allows for the sale of alcohol and that in fact several laws, including the constitution, criminalize it. Even “if there is any decision coming for example from the Emir or any department here (legalizing alcohol)… no in fact, this is not okay and this is against the law,” Ms. Fenton quotes Mr. Al Sayed as saying.
Mr. Al Sayed says that for Qatar to legally allow the sale and consumption of alcohol it must change its constitution, which in article 1 stipulates that “Islam is the State’s religion and the Islamic Sharia is the main source of its legislations.” Mr. Al Sayed argues that the legal ban applies also to free zones the government said it would create for fans attending the 2022 World Cup.
A majority of Qataris is likely to oppose constitutional reform out of fear that the country would lose its Islamic identity, a key element in the national identity it is trying to shape.
Restaurant executives are optimistic that the ban will be lifted and that Qatar is not on the verge of declaring itself dry. The recent resignation of Khalil Sholy, the managing director of United Development Company (UDC), the developer of The Pearl, has fuelled hopes of a resolution.
That however could take several months. UDC said in a statement posted on the Qatar Exchange that Mr. Sholy will retain his powers as managing director and president for three months “to assist the person who will be elected by the board of directors to fill the position.”
James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and the author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer.

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Troubled Beitar Jerusalem eyes IPO as police investigate IFA on match-fixing charges


Beitar fans display the log of  assassinated extreme right Rabbi Meir Kahane's Jewish Defense League 

By James M. Dorsey

Troubled Israeli first league team Beitar Jerusalem, notorious for the racism and militant nationalism of its supporters, is hoping to escape its dire financial straits by going to market with an Initial Public Offering (IPO).

Beitar, the storied bad boy of Israeli soccer, has started the process of raising money from investors, according to Israeli daily Ha’aretz by entering into negotiations with potential underwriters led by Migdal Capital Markets, part of Israel’s largest insurance group in the lead.

A successful IPO would not only boost Beitar’s fortunes but also those of Israeli soccer. Beitar is seeking to go public at a difficult time for the club as well as for Israeli soccer.

While Beitar is appealing an Israeli Football Association (IFA) decision to dock it two points after fans shouted racist slurs against a Nigerian-born international striker Toto Tamez during a match against Hapoel Tel Aviv and defending itself after refusing to hire an Israeli Palestinian player on racial grounds, the IFA itself is under investigation for match fixing.

IFA Chairman Avi Luzon was this week the latest Israeli soccer official to be questioned for eight hours by police as part of an on-going match-fixing probe involving fraud, breach of trust and abuse of power.

Police are seeking to establish whether referees were assigned to certain matches so as to influence their results.

"At the end of this investigation, I can promise that Israeli soccer is clean, as is the chairman of the IFA. I can say with all certainty that no referee fixed any match,” Mr. Luzon was quoted by Army Radio as saying.

Mr. Luzon, a 56-year old member of European soccer body UEFA’s executive committee, is among scores of Israeli soccer officials, players and referees to have already been interrogated by police.

Beitar, he winner of Israel’s Premier League and cup championships in 2008, is seeking to raise $25 million with its IPO to compensate for the fact that its owner, Russian billionaire Arcadi Gaydamak, has been unable to live up to his financial obligations. Mr. Gaydamak’s shares were impounded following a devastating result in a Jerusalem mayoral election and a series of financial scandals that persuaded him to leave Israel.

Mr. Gaydamak’s 2006 acquisition of Beitar was likened at the time to Roman Abramovich’s purchase of English giants Chelsea in 2004.

Hopes last year that Beitar would solve its financial problems and shed its racist image were dashed when the sale of the club to two American Jewish businessmen, one of whom is associated with Israel’s peace camp, fell through. The businessmen had vowed to change the behaviour of Beitar fans.

Beitar has the worst disciplinary record in Israel’s Premier League. Since 2005 it has faced more than 20 hearings and has received various punishments, including point deductions, fines and matches behind closed doors because of its fans’ racist behaviour.

Beitar’s matches often resemble a Middle Eastern battlefield. It’s mostly Sephardic fans of Middle Eastern and North African origin, revel in their status as the bad boys of Israeli soccer. Their dislike of Ashkenazi Jews of East European extraction rivals their disdain for Palestinians.

Supported by Israeli right wing leaders such as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Beitar traces its roots to a revanchist Zionist youth movement. Its founding players actively resisted the pre-state British mandate authorities.

Beitar is Israel’s only leading club never to have signed an Israeli Arab player because of fan pressure.

Beitar fans shocked Israelis when they refused to observe a moment of silence for assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who initiated the first peace negotiations with the Palestinians.

Its racist outbursts have prompted the Israeli Football Association to become the Middle East’s only soccer institution to launch a campaign against racism and discrimination.

The move to take Beitar public on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange was initiated by Beitar’s general manager and former goalkeeper, Yitzhak Kornfein. Mr. Kornfein believes that the IPO will position Beitar as a profitable business.

Beitar backed out of an earlier attempt in 2000 to go public after then owner and businessman Gad Zeevi concluded that an IPO would not make the club commercially viable.

James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and the author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer.

Friday, January 13, 2012

كرة القدم: ساحة معركة في العالم العربيّ (JMD in Le Monde Diplomatique (Arabic)


عالم العربي > كانون الأوّل/يناير > 2012

خاص النشرة العربيّة

جيمس م. دورسي

كرة القدم: ساحة معركة في العالم العربيّ

العلاقة بين الانتفاضات العربيّة وكرة القدم
تذكّر مشاهد الاحتجاجات التي تعيشها انتفاضات العالم العربيّ، من مصر إلى سوريا، بتلك لمشجّعي فرق كرة القدم أثناء المباريات الحامية. كانت الملاعب تضجّ بالأهازيج، والأغاني الجماعيّة، والألعاب النارية، ولكن أيضاً بالمعارك بين فرق المشجّعين ومع الشرطة. كرة القدم لعبة تستخدمها السلطة بامتياز، لكنّها أيضاً كانت معسكر التدريب للاحتجاج ضدّها، ولكسر الخوف، وللانخراط في معارك انتقلت من الملاعب إلى الساحات العامّة، بحثاً عن الحريّة والكرامة.
لكثيرٍ من العقود الثلاثة الماضية، شكّلت لعبة كرة القدم ساحة المعركة الرئيسيّة الوحيدة التي تنافست مع الدين الإسلاميّ في خلق مساحةٍ عامّة بديلة في رقعة الأرض التي تمتدّ من المحيط إلى الخليج. وبعيداً عن أضواء وسائل الإعلام الدوليّة، قدمت كرة القدم مساحة للإفراج عن الغضب المكبوت والإحباط والنضالات السياسيّة ومن أجل المساواة بين الجنسين وللحقوق الاقتصادية والاجتماعيّة والعرقية والوطنيّة. وفي الوقت الذي اندلعت فيه الانتفاضة العربيّة في كانون الأوّل/ديسمبر 2010، ظهرت كرة القدم كمؤّسسة رئيسيّة غير دينيّة وغير حكوميّة قادرة على تنظيم مواجهة ناجحة بين الأنظمة القمعيّة الأمنية والإسلاميين المتشدّدين.
وعلى نحوٍ متزايدٍ في العقدين الماضيين، أضحت كرة القدم لعبةً عالية المخاطر، وحلبة لمباراة قط وفأر سياسيّة بين الجماهير والحكام المستبدّين من أجل السيطرة على الملعب، وكي توازن استخدام الجهاديين لكرة القدم كأداة للتجنيد والتواصل. هكذا راهن جميع المشاركين في اللعبة على حقيقة أنّ كرة القدم فقط يمكنها التقاط المشاعر العميقة الجذور، والعاطفة والالتزام التي حرّكها الإسلام السياسيّ بين غالبية السكان في العالم العربيّ.
نتيجة ذلك، برزت كرة القدم كأوّل ضحيّة عندما عمّت الاحتجاجات الشوارع. إذ أنّ تعليق مباريات الدوري كان واحدة من الخطوات الأولى التي اتّخذها القادة المحاصرون عندما اندلعت الاحتجاجات الواسعة المناهضة للسلطة. حيث أنّهم يعرفون أنّ ملعب كرة القدم هو نقطة محتملة لتجمّع المعارضين.
تعليق سوريا مباريات كرة القدم للمحترفين إلى أجلٍ غير مسمّى أوائل عام 2011 قبل حملة القمع العنيفة دفع بالاحتجاجات المناهضة للحكومة مرّةً أخرى نحو المسجد. ومع تعذّر وصول الجماهير إلى ملاعب كرة القدم وتحوّلها إلى مراكز للاحتجاز ونقطة لانطلاق القمع لقوّات الأمن، انطلقت الاحتجاجات في كثيرٍ من الأحيان من المسجد، المكان الوحيد المتبقّي حيث يستطيع الناس التجمّع بأعدادٍ كبيرة.
كذلك جاء تعليق ألعاب كرة القدم للمحترفين عندما اندلعت الاحتجاجات بدايةً في تونس ومصر والجزائر وخلال فترة وجيزة في إيران في شباط/فبراير ليظهر تحوّل احتجاجات الناشطين المسّيسين، والمشجّعين المتطرّفين لكرة القدم في كثير من الأحيان، من الملعب إلى الساحة العامّة. وهذا ما لعب دوراً فريداُ في كثيرٍ من الأحيان في مساعدة المتظاهرين الذين يسعون إلى التخلّص من نير الحكم الأمنيّ، وسوء الإدارة الاقتصادية والفساد ولكسر حاجز الخوف الذي أقامه المستبدّون الجدد في نظامهم الأبويّ الذي أخضعهم للسكوت والهمود حتّى ذلك الحين.
الأبويّة السلطويّة الجديدة هي ما يجعل من الديكتاتوريات العربية مختلفة عن غيرها من الدكتاتوريات في أجزاءٍ أخرى من العالم. إذ ليست الأنظمة الديكتاتورية مفروضة ببساطة من فوق على مجتمعات تلهث من أجل الحرية. وفي حين تفتقر الأنظمة الاستبداديّة العربيّة إلى الدعم الشعبي والمصداقية، إلاّ أنّ ردّ فعلها القمعيّ يخلق حواجز خوف معمّمة ومتكرّرة على كلّ طبقة تقريباً من المجتمع. هكذا تساهم مقاومة المجتمع الداخليّة للتغيير والتخوّف منه في استمرار هذه الأنظمة الاستبدادية.
في كتابٍ [1] مثير للجدل، نشر في العام 1992، والذي لا يزال محظوراً في العديد من الدول العربية، قال المؤرخ الأمريكي-الفلسطيني هشام شرابي أنّ المجتمعات العربي مبنيّة حول هيمنة "من الأب (البطريرك)، الذي يشكّل النقطة المركزيّة التي من حولها يتمّ تنظيم الوطن والأسرة الطبيعية. وبالتالي توجد فقط علاقة عاموديّة بين الحاكم والمحكوم، وبين الأب والطفل: في كلٍّ من هذه العلاقات إرادة الأب هي الإرادة المطلقة، حيث يتوسّط هو في المجتمع والأسرة على حدٍّ سواء، من خلال توافقٍ قسريّ مبنيّ على أساس الطقوس والإكراه". وبعبارةٍ أخرى، لزّمت الأنظمة العربية القمع بحيث يشارك المجتمع، والمضطهدون، في قمع ذاتهم وحرمان نفسهم من الحقوق. والسلطة هي في الواقع أب جميع الآباء في أعلى الهرم. وعلى حدّ قول الصحافي المصري خالد دياب، إنّ مشكلة مصر ليست مجرّد رئيسٍ كهلٍ وعاجزٍ عن عرض نفسه بعد ما يقرب من ثلاثين عاماً في السلطة، ولكنّ الحقيقة أنّ "مصر لديها مليون (رئيس حسني) مبارك" [2].
نتيجةً لذلك، القيم الأبوية التي تهيمن على كرة القدم، بالإضافة إلى شعبيّتها، قد جعلت منها لعبةً مثاليّة للبطاركة الجدد. قيمهم هي قيم كرة القدم: تأكيد تفوّق الرجل في معظم جوانب الحياة، والسيطرة أو استغلال شهوة الإناث، والاعتقاد في ربٍّ المذكّر.
وعندما اخترقوا حواجز الخوف للأبويّة الجديدة، وسّع النشطاء من مشجّعي كرة القدم تقليد الارتباط الوثيق بين كرة القدم والسياسة في منطقة الشرق الأوسط وشمال إفريقيا؛ وهذا واضحٌ حتّى اليوم في عمان وطهران والرياض والقاهرة، موطن أعنف مواجهات في العالم على أراضي الملاعب. ولا تقتصر المعركة على أرض الملعب فقط على المستقبل السياسيّ والاقتصادي للمنطقة. بل هي معركة تحديات التحيّز ضد المرأة في تأكيد حقوقها ضد احتمالات القيود القانونية، والضغط الاجتماعي واللباس الديني. كما أنّها معركة الجهود التي يبذلها المتطلّعون إلى دولة مستقلّة بهم - من الفلسطينيين والأكراد - أو لتأكيد هويّة أقليّات مثل البربر في الجزائر والآذريين الإيرانيين والفلسطينيين في إسرائيل.

تسجيل أهداف سياسيّة

في كثيرٍ من الأحيان، تحمل ملاعب كرة القدم في الشرق الأوسط وشمال إفريقيا ندوب المعارك التي تخاض على الأرض، وتذكّر بالوحشية التي يستخدمها الحكّام المستبدين هناك لقمع التعبير والاحتجاج. وإذ سعى الحكام المستبدون للسيطرة على الملعب كجزءٍ من ارتباطهم بكرة القدم وفي محاولة للاستفادة من العاطفة العميقة التي تثيرها هذه اللعبة، فإنّ المشجّعين قد عقدوا العزم على هزيمة محاولاتهم من خلال المحافظة عليها كساحة معركة.
هكذا بالإضافة إلى تلميع صورتهم الملطخّة، سمحت لعبة كرة القدم للحكّام المستبدّين بصرف الانتباه عن السخط المتزايد والسياسات التي لا تحظى بشعبية. بالتالي إنّ تماهي كلّ من رؤساء مصر وإيران واليمن - حسني مبارك ومحمود أحمدي نجاد وعبد الله علي صالح - فضلاً عن نجل الزعيم الليبي السابق، الساعدي بن القذافي، مع فرق بلادهم الوطنية قد حوّل نجاحات وإخفاقات فرقهم الرياضيّة إلى مقاييس تظهر مستوى أداء أنظمتهم. ويتمّ نقل اللاعبين والمدرّبين إلى خط النار كلّما فشلت فرقهم في الارتقاء إلى مستوى التوقّعات السياسية لرؤسائهم، أو أعضاء اسر القادة المستبدين وأعوانهم.
فنحو مئة وخمسون من الرياضيين والمسؤولين التنفيذيّين في الرياضة الذين شاركوا في الاحتجاجات المناهضة للحكومة في البحرين للمطالبة بقدرٍ أكبر من الحريّة السياسية، ووضع حدٍّ للتمييز ضد المسلمين الشيعة، وللمطالبة بالمزيد من الفرص الاقتصادية في أوائل عام 2011 قد تمّ إمّا اعتقالهم أو صرفوا من وظائفهم. وكانوا من بين آلاف المعتقلين في حملة الحكومة الأخيرة التي خلّفت نحو 30 قتيلاً. بينهم كان هناك ثلاثة أعضاء من الفريق الوطني لكرة القدم، بما في ذلك علاء ومحمد حبيل.
وإذا كان لأيّة مجموعة في الشرق الأوسط وشمال إفريقيا أن تؤكّد مفهوم شرابي للنظام الأبويّ الجديد، فهم لاعبو كرة القدم المحترفين والمسؤولين الرياضيين، باستثناء أولئك الموجودين في البحرين الذين يدفعهم النضال ضدّ التمييز المقام بحقّهم بوصفهم أعضاء في الأغلبية الشيعيّة المسلمة، وحارس المرمى السوريّ الذي يتزّعم الاحتجاجات في مدينة حمص المحاصرة [3]. أمّا في مصر وتونس فقد بقي لاعبو كرة القدم على الحياد خلال الأحداث الجسام في بلدانهم، في حين أنّ بعض مسؤولي كرة القدم البارزين، ولا سيّما في مصر والبحرين، أعلنوا تأييدهم للزعيم الاستبدادي المحاصر. كما استغرق الأمر أربعة أشهر من الاحتجاجات الجماهيريّة، التي تحوّلت فيما بعد إلى حربٍ أهلية، كي تقوم مجموعة من لاعبي ليبيا بالانضمام إلى قوّات الثوار ضد القذافي. في الوقت نفسه، نعت قائد سابق للفريق الرياضيّ الثوار المتمرّدين ضد القذافي بالجرذان والكلاب.
والاتجاه للسيطرة على كرة القدم يفسّر أيضاً الدعم الحكومي والمشاركة الواسعة في اللعبة في الشرق الأوسط ودول شمال إفريقيا. ففي عالم كرة القدم المجنون في مصر، ما يقارب نصف الفرق الـ16 في الدوري المصري الممتاز يملكها الجيش والشرطة والوزارات الحكومية أو السلطات المحلية. كما شيّدت شركات المقاولات العسكرية 22 ملعباً من ملاعب كرة القدم في مصر. وبالمثل، سيطر الحرس الثوري الإيراني في السنوات الأخيرة على أبرز فرق كرة القدم. وفي الخليج، هناك جمعيات ومجالس لأندية لكرة القدم يتمّ ملؤها من العائلة المالكة. ويملك الجيش السوري والشرطة ويشغّلان اثنتين من أهم فرق البلاد. بحيث كان فريق الجيش لزمنٍ طويل مرادفاً تقريباً للمنتخب الوطني.

الملعب هو مدرسة الاحتجاج

شكّلت ملاعب كرة القدم في مختلف أنحاء المنطقة ما يعادل مدرسة التدريب العسكريّة للاحتجاج، حيث يحوّلها المشجّعون من الجزائر إلى إيران، هؤلاء الذين يقاومون محاولات المستبدّين للسيطرة السياسية على كرة القدم، إلى أماكن للتعبير عن الغضب. هكذا كانت المعارك الأسبوعية في الملاعب المصرية بين قوّات الأمن ومجموعات المشجّعين المنافسة تدريباً لانصار كرة القدم في القاهرة للمواجهات التي وقعت في أوائل عام 2011 في ميدان التحرير، والتي أجبرت الرئيس المصري حسني مبارك على التخلّي من السلطة. وبالمثل، فإنّ الاحتجاجات المناهضة للحكومة في ملاعب كرة القدم قد سبقت المظاهرات الحاشدة التي اندلعت في تونس في كانون الأول/ديسمبر 2010.
هكذا حوّلت هذه الاشتباكات الأسبوعية الأنصار المتطرّفين العنيدين إلى قوّة يحسب لها حساب. ممّا سمح لهم في لحظة حاسمة في التاريخ المصري، أن يكونوا في طليعة انتفاضة الشعب وأن يشعروا بالاستقواء نتيجة انتصاراتهم الكبرى الأولى، بعد أن امتدّت المعركة من داخل الملعب إلى شوارع تونس وميدان التحرير في القاهرة، حيث وضعوا جانباً العداء العميق الجذور بين مؤيّدي نادي الأهلي ومنافسه اللدود الزمالك. واستبدل عمق العداء بين الناديين بكراهية شديدة لنظام مبارك. في حين كان من النادر أن تقنعهم ظروفٌ أخرى على وضع خلافاتهم جانباً، على الأقل مؤقتاً، والوقوف كتفاً إلى كتف في مواجهة الموالين لمبارك.
وقد كان للجمع بين مهارات المجموعتين، مقروناً بها تجربتهما في خوض المعارك في الشوارع، أثراً واضحاً في تنظيم الخدمات الاجتماعية وتقسيم العمل الذي تمّ اعتماده في ميدان التحرير، حيث خيّم عشرات الآلاف لمدّة 18 يوماً حتّى لم يعد لمبارك أيّ خيارٍ آخر سوى التنحّي في 11 شباط/فبراير. وعلى الطريقة التي تنظّم فيها البلديات الخدمات العامّة، قام المتظاهرون بمهامٍّ مماثلة مثل جمع القمامة، وارتدوا شريطاً لاصقاً يشير إلى دورهم، كصحافيين أو مسعفين، على سبيل المثال.
المجموعات المتطرّفة - وهي غالباً مؤلّفة من فوضويّين يعارضون النظم الهرمية للحكم - انضمّت إلى الذين يقومون بدوريات في محيط مربّع الميدان ويراقبون الداخلين إليه؛ وتمركز شبابها في الخطوط الأمامية خلال الاشتباكات مع قوّات الأمن والمؤيدين للحكومة. وقد ساعدت خبرتها على السيطرة على الميدان حين استعمل الموالون للرئيس القوّة المفرطة لإخراجهم من الساحة. حيث كان بينها رماة الحجارة، والمتخصّصون في قلب وإحراق السيارات لأغراض دفاعية، وطواقم التموين الذين يغذوّن بالحجارة كلّ أنحاء الساحة.
هكذا مكّنت خبرة أنصار كرة القدم في معارك الشوارع من مساعدة المتظاهرين في كسر حواجز الخوف التي كانت تمنعهم في السابق من مواجهة. "كنّا في الخطّ الأمامي. وعندما هاجمت الشرطة شجعنا الناس. قلنا لهم لا تهربوا أو تخافوا. وبدأنا بإطلاق القنابل الحارقة. تحلّى الناس بالشجاعة وانضمّوا إلينا، وهم يعرفون أنّنا اختبرنا الظلم، وفي الواقع نحبّ أن نحارب الشيطان"، هكذا روى الأمور محمد حسن، ذو العشرين عاماً، وطالب علوم الحاسوب وهو يتحدّث بنعومة، في حين يطمح لأن يكون مصوّراً. وهو في الحقيقة زعيم مجموعة الأنصار المتطرّفين لفريق الزمالك.
قاد المسيرة من حيّ شبرا بالقاهرة، محمد شاكر، وهو رجلٌ صغير القامة، حتّى وصل الحشد إلى 10000 شخص. عبروا سبع حواجز أمنية، ليصلوا إلى ميدان التحرير يوم 25 كانون الثاني/يناير، وهو اليوم الأول للاحتجاجات. كانوا يحضّر لهذا اليوم، هو ورفاقه، منذ أربع سنوات. ويشحذون مهاراتهم القتالية في معاركٍ مع الشرطة التابعة لمبارك، وضدّ منافسيهم من الفرق الأخرى. سعت مجموعة تضمّ محمّد في إحدى اللحظات لاختراق حواجز الشرطة للوصول إلى مكانٍ قريبٍ من مبنى البرلمان. وها هو يروي: "عندما أرى قوّات الأمن، أصبح مجنوناً .سوف أقتلهم أو أموت. انتمائي إلى مجموعة المشجّعين قد قتل فيَّ الخوف. وتعلّمت معنى الأخوة، وحصلت على شجاعة الملعب". ثمّ أشار إلى وجود ندبة على الجانب الأيسر من جبهته، من حجرٍ ألقي عليه من قبل الشرطة التي أجهضت في وقتٍ مبكِّر محاولة المشجّعين اختراق البرلمان. ولكن عندما تدفّق الدم إلى أسفل وجهه، سمع الجدران الداخلية للخوف تنهار، في وقت ارتفعت الصيحات من الحشود وراءه: "إنّهم إخواننا. يمكننا أن نفعل هذا".
هكذا انتقل الصراع الدائر في الشرق الأوسط وشمال إفريقيا من الملاعب إلى الساحات العامّة، وفي بعض الحالات إلى الغرف التي امتلأت بدخان المساومات السياسية. وقد خوّلت مساهمة مشجّعي كرة القدم في إسقاط قادة كلّ من مصر وتونس هؤلاء في أن يلعبوا دوراً في ضمان أنّ الحكومات الانتقالية ستلبّي مطالب المحتجّين، وفي التأثير على اللعبة السياسية برمّتها. هم بالفعل من أعطى إشارة اقتحام السفارة الإسرائيلية في القاهرة في أيلول/سبتمبر 2011، وأجبروا حكومتهم للاستماع إلى الرأي العام عندما يتعلّق الأمر بإسرائيل. كانت الرسالة موجّهة إلى القادة العسكريين الحاكمين، بقدر ما كانت موجهة إلى إسرائيل ذاتها، وعكست القلق المتزايد من قبل قطاعات عديدة من المصريين من أن يقوم الجيش بالحدّ من الحريات التي بذل الكثير لتحقيقها، أو بتأمين دور متميز له في السلطة التي ستنبثق عن الانتخابات البرلمانية والرئاسية. ثمّ أخذ هذا القلق طريقه إلى الشوارع مجدّداً حول ميدان التحرير في تشرين الثاني/نوفمبر وكانون الاول/ديسمبر، حين قام المحتجون، وفي مقدمّتهم المشجّعون المتطرّفون، بخوض معارك شرسة مع القوى الأمنية والجيش خلّفت 55 قتيلاً على الأقل.
بالنسبة إلى المحتجّين والمشجّعين المتطرّفين، هزيمة الشرطة هي بمثابة هزيمة نظام مبارك؛ ولكنّها في الواقع كانت هزيمة ما وصفته سلوى إسماعيل [4] بأنّه "الخوف وثقافة الخوف التي انشأتها الرقابة المستمرّة، والتجسّس، والإذلال وسوء المعاملة". "وما كان يقوم به المحتجّون والمشجّعون المتطرّفون في ميدان التحرير وقبله في الملاعب هو رفض الخوف وثقافة الخوف"، كما قال المؤرّخ في جامعة لندن للاقتصاد والعلوم السياسية جون كالكرفت.
أتت الأمور أيضاً تعلّماً للدروس - سواء في الصراع الذي أدّى إلى سقوط حسني مبارك، أو في الفترة الانتقالية ما بعد مبارك - من إخفاقات ثوّار آخرين، مثل الشاعر السوري البارز أدونيس الذي اشتهر في ذروة فترة القومية العربية. حيث كتب أدونيس ما يلي: "نحن نعلم أن إضفاء الطابع المؤسّساتي على عصرٍ جديد يتطلّب منذ البداية قطيعة تامّة مع الماضي. كما نعلم أيضاً أن نقطة انطلاق هذه القطيعة هو النقد، نقد كلّ ما هو موروث، ومنتشر ومعمّم" [5]. وبروحٍ غريزية من أدونيس وغيره، كان المشجّعون المتطرّفون، إلى جانب مجموعات شبابية أخرى، مصمّمون في الأشهر التي سبقت الانتخابات في مرحلة ما بعد مبارك على إحباط محاولات الجيش لتسلّم الحكم على مبدأ: الإمبراطور مات، فليعش الامبراطور".
وفيما كان خطّ المواجهة في "معركة (وزارة) الداخلية" أو ما يطلق عليها "معركة محمّد محمود" يقترب في بعض الأحيان من الوزارة أو يبتعد عنها، كانت الدراجات النارية الصينيّة الصنع تقوم بنقل الجرحى إلى أماكنٍ آمنة. كما كانت الألعاب النارية الملوّنة، الشماريخ، التي يستخدمها المشجّعون المتطرّفون خلال مباريات كرة القدم تضيء السماء في الليل، مستبدلةً أضواء الشوارع التي تمّ إطفاءها. كان كلّ ذلك بالنسبة إليهم جزءٌ من معركة "الكرامة" لإجبار العسكر على أخذ البلاد نحو الديمقراطية. وهكذا ارتبطت كرامتهم بقدرتهم على الوقوف في وجه" الداخلية"، وبإحساسهم أنّه لم يعد بالإمكان الإساءة إليهم من قبل قوّات الأمن دون عقاب، وبأنّه لم يعد هناك حاجة لدفع مبلغٍ ماليّ لكل رجل شرطة للبقاء بعيداً عن المشاكل.
وللسخرية، كان هناك شعورٌ مشتركٌ بين قوّات الأمن وهؤلاء المتطرفين: أنّه للمرّة الأولى منذ خمس سنوات من المعارك المتواصلة، قوّات وزارة الداخلية هي التي تقاتل من أجل البقاء بدلاً من مشجّعي كرة القدم. إذ ظلّت صورة الشرطة مشوّهة، كأداةٍ لنظام وحشيّ، دون تغيير بعد تسعة أشهر من سقوط مبارك، كما عزّز هذه الصورة رفض الجيش مساءلة ضبّاط الشرطة عن وحشيّتهم بالرغم من الضغوط التي مارسها الرأي العام، فضلاً عن مسؤولي الأمن الإصلاحيين.
هكذا لا تزال كرة القدم هي ساحة معركة ومرآة للديناميّة الاجتماعية والسياسية، ليس فقط في بلدان الشرق الأوسط وشمال إفريقيا التي لا يزال يحكمها القادة المستبدّون، بل أيضاً في البلدان التي أطاحت برؤسائها في سياق الثورات العربية. ومشجعو كرة القدم المتشدّدون لا يزالون في طليعة النضال لإجبار الحكومات الانتقالية في مصر على تأمين الحرية والكرامة تماشياً مع مطالب المحتجين. وملعب كرة القدم هو أيضاً أكثر من أيّ وقتٍ مضى مكانٌ أساسيّ في نضال الفلسطينيين لإقامة دولة فلسطينيّة خاصّة بهم. لكثير من العقود الماضية، كانت كرة القدم في هذه البلدان أكثر بكثير من مجرّد لعبة؛ إذ أنّ قوّتها وتأثيرها سيكفلان أنّ الرهان في الملعب سيكون أكبر بكثير من اللعبة ذاتها.

* هو من كبار الزملاء في مدرسة س. راجاراتنام للدراسات الدوليّة في جامعة نانيانغ التكنولوجية في سنغافورة، وصاحب الموقع الالكتروني، The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer.
[1] Hisham Shirabi, Neopatriarchy: A Theory of Distorted Change in Arab Society, London, 1992.
[2] Brian Whitacker, What’s Really Wrong with the Middle East, London, 2009
[3] هو عبد الباسط ساروت: راجع http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2...
[4] Salwa Ismail, Political Life in Cairo’s New Quarters, Encountering the Everyday State, page 165, University of Minnesota Press, 2006
[5] Adonis, Manifesto of Modernity (or Modernism), Mawaqif No. 26, Beirut, 1980

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Saudi Arabia embraces Salafism: Countering the Arab uprising?



RSIS presents the following commentary Saudi Arabia embraces Salafism: Countering the Arab uprising? by James M. Dorsey. It is also available online at this link. (To print it, click on this link.). Kindly forward any comments or feedback to the Editor RSIS Commentaries, at  RSISPublication@ntu.edu.sg


No. 009/2012 dated 11 January 2012
Saudi Arabia embraces Salafism:
Countering the Arab uprising?
 By James M. Dorsey       
Synopsis
Saudi Arabia has openly embraced Salafism as its official ideology to shield itself and its fellow conservative Gulf monarchies from the wave of anti-government revolts sweeping the Middle East and North Africa. This counter-revolutionary strategy is a gamble with wider repercussions beyond the kingdom.                                                             
Commentary
SAUDI ARABIA has long been seen as the main backer of Salafis across the globe. It has always, however, shied away from officially endorsing the Muslim trend that until recently preached a politically quietist return to the way of life at the time of Islam’s first 7th century Caliphs.

If Saudi support and funding of Salafi communities in the past constituted a key but discreet element of its soft power strategy aimed at countering Iran’s perceived revolutionary Islamic appeal, today it serves to counter Islamist forces who trace their roots to the Muslim Brotherhood. It also seeks to curtail the revolutionary zeal of protesters that are clamouring for true democracy rather than cosmetic change. At the same time, it counters idiosyncratic foreign and domestic policies of forward-looking and long-time Saudi rival Qatar - the only other Arab-Muslim nation whose theological origins hark back to the Wahhabi founders of Saudi Arabia.

Qatar is home to Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi, an influential Egyptian Muslim brother, and one of the world’s most respected yet controversial Islamic thinkers critical of Saudi Arabia’s puritanic concepts. The Gulf state has further emerged as a champion of revolts in several Arab countries with Bahrain as the notable exception, a media powerhouse thanks to Al Jazeera, and a key US interlocutor in the region.

Turning on the Brotherhood
The change in Saudi tactics highlights the rupture in relations between the kingdom and the Brotherhood more than a decade ago when Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz denounced his erstwhile allies in the wake of the September 11, 2001 Al Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington.

Saudi Arabia welcomed the Muslim Brothers in the 1950s and 1960s as they fled a crackdown in Gamal Abdel Nasser’s Egypt. Many became teachers in their newly found refuge where their political interpretation of Islam cross-fertilised with the ideas of the 18th century cleric-warrior Mohammed Abdul Wahhab whose puritanic views shaped modern Saudi Arabia and inspired Salafism.

It took Prince Nayef, widely viewed as a hard line conservative, months to acknowledge in 2001 that 15 of the 19 perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks had hailed from Saudi Arabia. But once he did, he turned his wrath on the Brotherhood, which decades ago had abandoned violence except in the case of the Palestinian struggle against Israel, but has been the starting point of numerous first generation jihadists.

In an interview with a Kuwaiti newspaper, Prince Nayef charged at the time that the Brotherhood was responsible “for most of the problems in the Arab world” and had “done great damage to Saudi Arabia”. The prince acknowledged that whenever they got into difficulty or found their freedom restricted in their own countries, Brotherhood activists found refuge in Saudi Arabia, “which protected their lives” but said that they had “later turned against the kingdom”.

A full-fledged school of thought         
Ten years later, Crown Prince Nayef is leading the kingdom’s embrace of Salafism when it has discarded its  non-involvement in politics and has emerged in Egypt’s first post-revolt elections as the country’s second largest political force with a quarter of the votes. Egyptian state-controlled media, citing unnamed Justice Ministry sources, reported that Saudi Arabia had financed the Salafis to the tune of $63 million last year.

Last month Prince Nayef and the kingdom’s mufti and advisor on religious affairs, Sheikh Abdulaziz Al al-Shaikh, a descendant of Mohammed Abdul Wahhab, gave keynote speeches at a conference convened under the title, Salafism: Legal Path, National Demand. The conference constituted a rare occasion on which the kingdom acknowledged Salafism as a full-fledged school of thought within Sunni Islam, though Saudi political and religious discourse had often referred to al-salaf-al-saleh, Prophet Mohammed’s immediate successors who are revered for their piety.

“My brothers, you know that true Salafism is the path whose rules derive from the book of God and the path of the Prophet…This blessed state (Saudi Arabia) has been established along correct Salafi lines since its inception by Imam Mohammed bin Saud and his pact with Imam Mohammed ibn Abdul Wahhab. Saudi Arabia will continue on the upright Salafi path and not flinch from it or back down,” Prince Nayef told the conference participants.

In an apparent response to criticism of Wahhabi and Salafi discrimination of Shiite Muslims, intolerance towards non-Muslims and harsh restrictions of women’s rights, the prince described Salafism as “authentic and contemporary” and an ideology that promotes progress and “peaceful coexistence with others and respect for their rights”.

In a similar vein, Sheikh Abdulaziz said Salafism was “a comprehensive godly path based on moderation and the middle way; it is based on unitarianism and forsakes innovation, superstitions and erroneous things”.

A shot across the bow       
The kingdom’s embracing of Salafism follows the sentencing of Mokhtar al-Hashemi to 30 years in prison on charges of funding terrorism and plotting a coup in cooperation with Al Qaeda in seeking to create an Islamist political party in the kingdom based on Brotherhood thinking.

The question is not whether the Arab revolt will reach the kingdom but how it will progress in Saudi Arabia, which last year witnessed several protests in the predominantly Shiite, oil-rich Eastern Province. In fact in November 2010, a month before the eruption in Tunisia, it had been the scene of anti-corruption demonstrations. The vote for Salafists in Egypt was more a vote against established politics than opting for a Saudi-style system.

Demonstrations last month by groups of activists not only in Shiite Qatif but also in the capital, Riyadh and the Wahhabi stronghold of Buraida, constitute a shot across the bow of the House of Saud. Saudi rulers, by embracing Salafism and adopting the ways and mores of the righteous Caliphs, hope to shield themselves from the regional and global uprising against repressive and failed regimes. It is a gamble whose outcome could have repercussions far beyond the kingdom.


James M. Dorsey is a Senior Fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University. He has been a journalist covering the Middle East for over 30 years.

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Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Alcohol ban raises specter of problems for Qatar’s hosting of 2022 World Cup


Banned from serving alcohol: Carluccio's on The Pearl (Source: alittleoryx.blogspot.com)


By James M. Dorsey

A ban on alcohol on Qatar’s man-made The Pearl Qatar island coupled with the naming of a large mosque after the founder of a puritan strand of Islam and online protests against various state-owned companies highlights domestic opposition to some of the Gulf state's more forward looking policies as well as freedoms for soccer fans it is expected to host during the 2022 World Cup.

Qatari officials have said that the 500,000 soccer fans expected to descend on their country during the World Cup will be allowed to consume alcohol in designated zones. Alcohol is currently served exclusively in hotels and sold in a Qatar Airways–owned shop only to expatriates who hold a license.

The banning of alcohol on the island, whose restaurants are popular with Qatar's growing expatriate community, was introduced in advance of the Al Kass International Cup, a ten-day Under-17 soccer tournament, involving top world clubs such as Paris Saint-Germain, Brazil's Vasco De Gama (Brazil), Juventus, Ajax, FC Barcelona, Japan's Kashima Antlers and Egypt's, Al Ahly. It also came as senior international figures gathered in Doha at Qatar's invitation to brainstorm over the role of sports in society and what governments, NGO's and the private sector should do to promote sports.

Business at restaurants on the Pearl has dropped as much as 50 percent as a result of the ban. “Obviously the business has dropped; by half… for some restaurants, probably even more,” said  Sumeet Jinghan, country manager of Foodmark, whose brands include Carluccio’s, The Meat Company and Mango Tree.

Mr. Jinghan said Foodmark had suspended plans to open two more restaurants and a club on the Pearl, home to an estimated 41,000 residents, until it became clear whether the ban was permanent or not.

The ban did not immediately affect the Al Kass tournament which attracted primarily only local spectators. The competition offers Aspire Qatar, the Gulf state's youth team, whose players include young Qataris as well as youths from Africa, Asia and Latin America selected in a yearly talent search from among some 500,000 aspiring soccer playing kids to compete against some of the world's best teams.

The tournament is one initiative in Qatar's emphasis on sports as a cornerstone of its foreign policy, development and effort to shape the energy-rich nation's national identity at a time that youth-driven popular revolts have toppled the leaders of Tunisia, Egypt and Libya and pushed embattled autocrats in Syria and Yemen to the brink. Qatar’s Al Jazeera television network has played an important role in the revolts with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad accusing it of instigating and encouraging the protests against his regime.

“Our goal is to create a dialogue that resonates with and talks to the youth. This is an opportunity to inspire and engage young people…. Sports are at the heart of Qatar’s development… Sports like education and arts are part of our national identity,” said Noora Al Mannai, CEO of Qatar’s bid to win the right to host the 2020 Olympic Games. Ms. Al Mannai said “empowering young people” was one reason for the bid alongside Qatar’s efforts to mediate conflicts and reduce regional obesity and diabetes levels.   

If sports are for Qatar’s leaders a key tool in forging national identity, banning alcohol is its equivalent for more conservative and nationalist forces in the Gulf state.

"I don't see a reason to have alcohol. It impacts very negatively on locals. Locals are not happy with it," The Wall Street Journal quoted Qatari writer Abdul Aziz Al Mahmoud as saying.

Conservative Qataris worry that an increasing number of their compatriots, often dressed in full-length robes, the Gulf's national dress, drink publicly in hotels and bars. "It is a taboo in Qatar to see somebody wearing the national dress and drinking," said Hassan Al Ibrahim, a Qatari commentator, according to the Journal.

Conservative fears in a nation where locals account for at best one third of the population were further inflamed when the Qatar Distribution Company, a Qatar Airways owned-retail shop, introduced pork alongside the alcohol it was already selling to expatriates. The introduction was one spark of an online call to boycott the airline.

Qatar’s The Peninsula daily reported that a group of some 500 Qataris had called for a boycott of the state-owned airline, a major tool in the positioning of the Gulf state as a global travel hub, in protest against its serving of alcohol on flights, high fares and failure to allocate more jobs to Qatari nationals. The protesters’ campaign featured the Qatar Airways logo with a no entry sign superimposed on it. It followed a similar protest in recent months decrying telecommunications services.

Qatar Airways has declined to comment on why its store had started to sell pork.

"I never thought the day would come that I have to ask the waiter in a restaurant in Qatar what kind of meat is in their burgers," said a Qatari on Twitter.

"Ppl don't get it. Its not about the pork—its about us feeling more & more like a minority—in our own country,” tweeted another Qatari.

The banning of alcohol as well as the shutting down of a weekly party on the Pearl, a development that bills itself as the Arab Riviera; the naming of a mosque in memory of Mohammed ibn Abd al-Wahhab, an 18th century warrior priest whose austere, puritan interpretation of Islam life shapes life in Saudi Arabia and inspires Qatari cultural traditions; and the online protests are likely issues that opponents of Qatar’s hosting of the World Cup will seize on in so far failed attempts to get the awarding by world soccer body FIFA reversed.

Al-Wahhab’s puritanism created the cradle of Salafism – an Islamic trend that propagates a return to the way of life at the time of Islam’s first 7th century caliphs and has emerged as a power political force in post-revolt Egypt. Saudi Arabia recently officially embraced Salafism as a key element in its soft power strategy aimed at countering Iran’s perceived revolutionary Islamic appeal as well as the wave of anti-government protests sweeping the Middle East and North Africa. The embrace also constitutes a response to Qatar’s idiosyncratic foreign and domestic policies.

That response is likely to sharpen the battle lines within Qatar as the Gulf state prepares to host perhaps not only one but two of the world’s biggest sporting events in the next decade.

James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and the author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer.