Yesterday, as Argentina captain Lionel Messi walked up to the podium to lift the World Cup trophy, Qatar's emir Tamim bin Hamad dressed him in the royal gold-adorned bisht, the formal dress in most Gulf countries, and gifted it to him. The Guardian, BBC host and ex-footballer Gary Lineker, and the Mirror, among others, criticized the gesture:
Mixed reaction as Lionel Messi draped in Arab cloak before lifting World Cup
For context, Gary Lineker defended the decision to host the World Cup in Russia just four years ago:
Gary Lineker on World Cup hosts Russia: the UK has no right to judge whether they deserve the tournament | Radio Times
The gifting of the royal dress to a guest is seen in Arab culture as one of the utmost displays of respect possible. It's like having someone in your home and giving them the thing you value most. Yes, Qatar is a country with major human rights issues, but the way in which multiple Western media outlets have been essentially nitpicking the smallest details and singling out the country for criticism, as Gary Lineker has done despite previously defending Russia's hosting of the tournament, has been as eye-opening as it has been unfortunate.
It wasn't even a year ago that multiple Western media outlets also demonstrated stark double standards in their coverage of the Ukraine war, with comments such as "this not Afghanistan or Iraq. This is a relatively civilized, relatively European country" from a CBS News correspondent. And he was far from the only one: between the coverage of the war, some Western powers' responses to it in contrast to their response to their own wars in the Middle East, and the markedly different reception of refugees based on where they come from, the coverage and response to the Ukraine War have also been sobering.
Many of these comments have not come from some far-right demagogues or religious extremists; they have been coming from all directions along the political spectrum, including from some supposedly liberal voices. It is one thing to criticize Qatar for its awful human rights record, but it is quite another to have a seemingly different set of standards for other countries with similar or even larger-scale abuses when they're not Arab. It is one thing to welcome Ukrainian refugees and point out how atrocious the Russian invasion has been, but it is quite another to minimize similar humanitarian crises elsewhere in the process.
As someone who has been seeking to immigrate for over a decade, I know that the human rights situation in practically the entire Arab world is overwhelmingly unsuitable for me. But this year has made me wonder just how much I would fit in elsewhere if I immigrated to a Western country.
Mixed reaction as Lionel Messi draped in Arab cloak before lifting World Cup
For context, Gary Lineker defended the decision to host the World Cup in Russia just four years ago:
Gary Lineker on World Cup hosts Russia: the UK has no right to judge whether they deserve the tournament | Radio Times
The gifting of the royal dress to a guest is seen in Arab culture as one of the utmost displays of respect possible. It's like having someone in your home and giving them the thing you value most. Yes, Qatar is a country with major human rights issues, but the way in which multiple Western media outlets have been essentially nitpicking the smallest details and singling out the country for criticism, as Gary Lineker has done despite previously defending Russia's hosting of the tournament, has been as eye-opening as it has been unfortunate.
It wasn't even a year ago that multiple Western media outlets also demonstrated stark double standards in their coverage of the Ukraine war, with comments such as "this not Afghanistan or Iraq. This is a relatively civilized, relatively European country" from a CBS News correspondent. And he was far from the only one: between the coverage of the war, some Western powers' responses to it in contrast to their response to their own wars in the Middle East, and the markedly different reception of refugees based on where they come from, the coverage and response to the Ukraine War have also been sobering.
Many of these comments have not come from some far-right demagogues or religious extremists; they have been coming from all directions along the political spectrum, including from some supposedly liberal voices. It is one thing to criticize Qatar for its awful human rights record, but it is quite another to have a seemingly different set of standards for other countries with similar or even larger-scale abuses when they're not Arab. It is one thing to welcome Ukrainian refugees and point out how atrocious the Russian invasion has been, but it is quite another to minimize similar humanitarian crises elsewhere in the process.
As someone who has been seeking to immigrate for over a decade, I know that the human rights situation in practically the entire Arab world is overwhelmingly unsuitable for me. But this year has made me wonder just how much I would fit in elsewhere if I immigrated to a Western country.
