If the Qatar World Cup proved anything, it’s that sports and politics are inseparable Siamese twins joined at the hip.

Politics popped up at every twist of the World Cup’s road, whether related to the right of freedom of expression of players, sports commentators and fans; anti-government protests in Iran; anti-Israeli sentiment among Qataris and Arabs; a backlash against Western, particularly German, critics of Qatar; or ultra-conservative religious rejection of soccer as a sport.

Qatari efforts to stage manage the intrusion of regional politics ranged from picking and choosing which protests fit its foreign policy agenda to seeking to ensure, where possible, that events elsewhere in the region would not overshadow or inflame passions during the World Cup.

Palestine is a case in point.

Amid escalating violence between Israelis and Palestinians, Mohammad al-Emadi, the Qatari official handling Hamas, the Islamist group that controls the Gaza Strip, travelled to the region to ensure that it and Islamic Jihad, another Gaza-based organization, would not respond with rockets to Israeli use of lethal force against Palestinian militants on the West Bank.

Qatar feared that a response to last week’s killing of an Islamic Jihad commander on the West Bank and near-nightly Israeli raids could spark a renewed Israeli intervention in Gaza, already crippled by a 15-year-long Israeli-Egyptian blockade.

The Qatari pressure puts in a different perspective the Gulf state’s endorsement of expressions of support for the Palestinians during the World Cup in the form of pro-Palestinian flags and T-shirts and a refusal by Qatari and Arab fans to engage with Israeli reporters covering the tournament.

Despite refusing to follow in the footsteps of the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan in recognizing Israel without a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Qatar has a long-standing working relationship with the Jewish state that serves the interests of both countries.

The Gulf state, often at Israel’s request, has pumped millions of dollars into paying government salaries in Gaza, providing aid to thousands of families affected by past wars, and funding fuel for the Strip’s power plant as well as infrastructure projects.

Moreover, Qatar became the first Gulf state to put money into Israel when it funded in 2006 a six-million-dollar stadium in the predominantly Israeli Palestinian town of Sakhnin, an investment long before the UAE-led Arab recognition of the Jewish state 14 years later.

Sakhnin and the Doha Stadium are home to Bnei Sakhnin, Israel’s most successful Israeli-Palestinian club.

As a result, allowing expressions of pro-Palestinian sentiment during the World Cup served multiple Qatari purposes.

It gave a release valve to Qataris, a minority in their own country, who were concerned about the impact on their society of the government’s live-and-let-live approach towards soccer fans with very different cultural values visiting their country during the World Cup.

Preventing fans from taking pro-LGBT paraphernalia such as One Love and rainbow-coloured armbands and shirts into stadiums served a similar purpose.

It also allowed Qataris to vent their frustration at perceived double standards in European and American criticism of Qatar’s rejection of LGBT rights, particularly after the German team’s hands-over-mouth gesture in protest against FIFA’s denial of their right to wear pro-LGBT armbands.

In one instance, Qataris wore pro-Palestinian armbands of their own to a match as a protest against the donning of a pro-LGBT One Love band by German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, who attended the game.

Expressions of pro-Palestinian, anti-Israeli sentiment also suggested that Qatar’s refusal to recognise Israel was more in line with Arab public opinion than efforts to project the UAE-led recognition of the Jewish state as genuinely popular and indicative of a drop in support for the Palestinian cause.

If anything, recent polls show that public support for establishing diplomatic relations with Israel had fallen across the Arab and Muslim world, including in countries that normalized their ties to the Jewish state.

In Bahrain, 20 per cent of the population supports the accords, compared with 45 per cent in 2020, according to a Washington Institute for Near East Policy poll in July. Support in Saudi Arabia fell from 41 to 19 per cent. Even in the UAE, where normalisation had the greatest impact, support dropped to 25 per cent this year from 47 per cent in 2020.

For Qatari World Cup managers, Palestine was low-hanging fruit. Protest against the government in Tehran was a far trickier challenge.

A regional behemoth, Iran is a partner as well as a potential threat with which Qatar shares the world’s largest offshore gas field.

Maintaining relations with Iran has allowed Qatar, at times, to be a background mediator with the United States on issues like the moribund talks to revive the 2015 Iranian nuclear agreement.

Qatar feared that allowing stadiums to become venues of confrontation between opponents and supporters of the Iranian government could have persuaded Iran to rank the Gulf state, alongside Saudi Arabia, Israel, and the United States, as an instigator of sustained anti-government protests in which security forces have killed hundreds.

As a result, Qatar sought to prevent anti-government banners, T-shirts, and pre-revolution flags from entering stadia. The problem resolved itself when Iran was knocked out of the World Cup in the group stage.

Yet, the larger issue remains. The Qatar World Cup demonstrates that FIFA’s insistence that sports and politics can be separated amounts to a political fantasy.

More concerning than that, it enables FIFA and autocratic World Cup hosts like Qatar to decide what are convenient and inconvenient expressions of politics. That hardly makes for a level playing field, the starting point for any sport.

Thank you to all who have demonstrated their appreciation for my column by becoming paid subscribers. This allows me to ensure that it continues to have maximum impact. Maintaining free distributions means that news website, blogs, and newsletters across the globe can republish it. I launched my column, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer, 12 years ago. To borrow a phrase from an early proprietor of The Observer, it offers readers, listeners, and viewers ‘the scoop of interpretation.’ If you are able and willing to support the column, please become a paid subscriber by clicking on Substack on the subscription button and choosing one of the subscription options.

Dr. James M. Dorsey is an award-winning journalist and scholar, an Adjunct Senior Fellow at Nanyang Technological University’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, and the author of the syndicated column and blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer.

Sadia N Qazi

Cinema industry is a powerful tool to define and manipulate the collective conscious of a society. And the movie industry as massive as Bollywoodis sure to behold its reach to the nook and expanse of its society. Indian film industry has always been biased in portrayal of Muslims. Its movies often stereotype Muslims as extremists and terrorists reining the underworld mafia. It has stooped to a new abyss of darkness with its recent release of a right wing propaganda movie ‘The Kashmir Files’.

Itwas recently showcased at International Film Festival held in Goa wherean Israeli filmmakerwas also among the jury. In an interview he slammed the exhibit of the movie quoting that he “knows how to recognise propaganda disguised as a movie.” He asserted that the movie was pushed into the prestigious festival owing to the political pressure. Israeli filmmaker’s criticism of the movie as ‘vulgar’ and ‘propaganda’ ignited a row and many notables were not happy at such statement. He said many from within Bollywood came up to him to take back his remarks, but he refused.

Since its release the movie is causing quite turmoil in the already stirringIslamophobic India. The movie’s phenomenal success is not for the right reasons. Since its show-time, the internet is breaking with the post movie reactions and extremist incantations. The aftermath ofHindi-language drama filmbased on fictional storyline narrating an exodus of Kashmiri pundits from IIOJ&K has sparked the already existing religious polarization in Indian society. The story of 1990s exodus of pundits is only a distortion of historical facts and nothing else.

The movie is written and directed by Vivek Agnihotri starring veteran actorsMithun Chakraborty, Anupam Kher, Darshan Kumar and Pallavi Joshi.The few minutes into the movie and we see Muslims lusting after Hindu women, Muslim kids flaunting Kalashnikovs and insulting Hindu deities, and a Muslim betraying his Hindu friend to support terrorism. There is a scene where an alleged Muslim militant tells a Kashmiri Hindu who wore apparel portraying a Hindu godthat only those who will chant “Allah o Akbar” will be allowed to stay in Indian Occupied Kashmir. The reaction of which in audience was the chants of “Jai Shri Ram”. Even the Muslim children of Kashmir are depicted as brutal and inhumane. The movie is graphical in terms of violence with scenes of Muslims in skullcaps brutally murdering Hindus.

The movie is rated as 18+ due to violence but nowhereis mentioned that it is some sort of documentary. Despite being a fiction, the movie is being perceived and propagated as factual historic account of the exodus; itincites violence against Muslims in general and Kashmiris in particular. The movie was banned in Singapore by their censor board citing that the film’s provoking and one-sided portrayal of Muslims has a potential of disrupting social cohesion and religious harmony.

Historically, in 1990, a large gathering for independence movement was called in Srinagar by Hurriyat leadership. To crush themovement for independence, Governor Jagmohan Malhotra was sent with full authority. He gave bigblow to the movement. Within two months of his appointment he was removed due to atrocities he unleashed against Kashmiri Muslims which was coveredby international media. India had no choice but to oust him. During this period a number of Hindu minority people living in the valley fledaway. During this conflict, 30 to 80 were reportedly killed.So the Kashmir Files movie depicts historically inaccurate and incorrect facts. The movie presents only one sided story with evil motive of sabotaging the freedom movement.

It is notable that despite the reservations and criticism of the few circles from within country, the screening of the movie was elaborated from 600 to 3000 screens. The government gave a tax relief to the movie so that people can buy the movie tickets at cheaper rates. From government offices special relief and time offs are granted to watch the movie. The movie is being aggressively advertised and pushed on social media as well. It is heavily campaigned by the Hindu nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who hailed it recommending people to watch it. He appreciated the team of ‘The Kashmir Files’ and said more films like this need to be made to tell the ‘truth’.

Made on a budget of approximately $2m, as of 28 April 2022, the film has grossed more than $39m in India and $5.6m overseas that accumulates to a worldwide gross collection of $45m. These financials are the highest for any Bollywood movie. The movie incited a rage across India. Audiences coming out of the theatres were filled with anger against the Muslims believing what they saw on screen was the actual account of history. Social media was flooded with videos and posts of the hate speech against Muslims and the resolve to avenge the so-called genocide by the Muslims. They were fuelled with hate speech by the Hindutva goons while watching the movie in the cinemas by raising slogans promoting mortal violence against Indian Muslims in general and Kashmiri Muslims in particular. Only recently in Ahmedabad, Gujarat a fanatic group of RSS stopped a mere passerby Muslim Muhammad Adnan and forcibly showed him the movie on their mobile while beating him and torturing him. They called out that all Muslims are responsible for what happened with the Hindu Pundits in 1990s and they are to be made accountable and punished for the deeds. The Muslims are pestered and victimized all over India for being responsible for the massacre that never happened.

For some time, India has been making movies, distorting the factual history, and re-writing their own fictional version of history to malign the Muslims with their character assassination.With the historical revisionism and appalling storytelling,India engulfed in the hatred against the Muslims already surpassed the genocide echelons has descent further into the darkness of racism and violence. A projecting surge in the islamophobic hatred incidents across the Indian states and the aggressive violence against the Muslims is an alarming humanitarian predicament. The circumstances in Kashmir are no different and since the revoke of article 370 in 2019, the valley has been turned into a prison with above the charts atrocious human rights violations. Playing by the hybrid warfare the objective of the movie is to sabotage the freedom movement for the right of self-determination in IIOJK screeningthem as blood thirty fanatics and propagate the Hindutva agenda of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh(RSS) across India.

Distorting facts and authenticating lies

Seyed Mohammed Ali Hosseini

During the few last months, some materials are published by different news agencies including Western Persian-language media, and they are published in the mainstream or social media, which raise unfair and unrealistic allegations against the Islamic Republic of Iran. Here effort is made to scrutinize into some different aspects of these allegations, facts about the internal events in Iran and the real reasons behind attributing such allegations to Iran.

Western countries, by supporting and equipping hostile groups and enemies of the I.R. Iran, arming and providing facilities, ammunitions, intelligence feeding and financial supports for them, try to induce disorder and mutiny in Iran. Thus their media produce fake, false and unreal content in the TV channels and newspapers. The antagonistic content published in the media, financed and supported by them, engage various issues, including nuclear energy, human rights, military, security etc.

This is while these groups and the media act comprehensively against a country that is a member state of the international community and therefore threaten the peace and security as well as the sovereignty and national security of a country that is a member state of the United Nations. These groups and media have continuously encouraged unrest and disorder in Iran and have gone as far as teaching civilians how to make incendiary weapons such as Molotov cocktails, hand grenades etc.

They even tell their pawns through their news line in the cable TVs to seize and disarm Iran’s military and security institutions and even ask people to infringe the state buildings or ask the states to suspend or withdraw diplomatic relations with Iran.

Despite the politicized, fallacious and unreliable allegations by these media, the true reality is something else practically. During the last decades, the people of Iran have endured the cruellest international sanctions and the secondary sanctions imposed by America just because they want to enjoy their inalienable right for peaceful atomic energy.

 Despite complying with its international obligations; Iran has faced the maximum pressure campaign imposed by the previous American president. Shortly after, Major General Qasem Soleimani, Iran’s senior military commanders and the hero of the fight against terrorism and extremism was assassinated during an official mission to a foreign country. Then, the pandemics of Corona Virus plagued and swept the region and the world. In this situation, more than 150,000 Iranian citizens died as a result of the lack of vaccine export to Iran at the proper time due to the sanctions and the obstacles posed by west. However, a little later, Iran managed to produce the first Corona Vaccine in the Islamic world and could not only overcome the mortality rate, but to export vaccine and the other medical equipment to the other countries by relying on the domestic science.

After the Corona pandemics and at a time when the world was heading to recover itself from the shocks caused by this ominous virus, and to revive their economy and social resources, the lamentable death of an Iranian woman caused some agitation and created some controversy against Iran.

In this atmosphere, some of the western countries along with their supported media, contrary to all the principles and rules of the international law, have called for turmoil against a United Nations state member, and asked protesters to resort to the aggressive measures, destroy urban infrastructures and public and private properties, and in a word to turn to hooliganism in order to achieve their goals. At the same time, tens of Iranian law enforcement forces were killed due to the assault and battery exerted by the rioters or by cold weapons or direct gunfire in the streets. According to the law, this people were performing their legal duties to establish order.

Smuggling of weapons and ammunition from outside the borders into Iran, destruction of the public property, disruption of the democratic order and public order, arson, vandalism, threat, intimidation, assault and battery, assassination, terror and lynching are only parts of the destructive and illegal actions done by this so-called freedom fighters and defenders of the women’s rights. Most of the weapons used by them are foreign and unknown in Iran, thus exported from outside the country. Just like enemy soldiers, their task is to disrupt order and security.

During the investigations, some detained rioters have admitted connection with the intelligence services of the foreign countries. In one of the cases, the ISIS terrorist group attacked a religious site and martyred dozens of women, men and children praying in Shahcheragh Shrine of Shiraz. Still, the propaganda machinery against Iran acted so brazenly that even when the ISIS officially accepted the responsibility of the terrorist attack in its media, the hostile groups and their media distorted the reality to insinuate its audience that it is carried out by the forces affiliated with the government.

Westerners and their biased media have launched their propaganda machinery to promote violence, aggression and terrorism in Iran. Therefore, by settling in the countries that claim democracy and respect for the rights of nations, openly and blatantly act against the territorial integrity, sovereignty, national unity, stability and the national security of a member state of the United Nation. This is while the international community, international organizations and even some supporting states, stay silent before this inequity and breach of the international law. Even some countries, including the USA and its allies, openly support them and finance them. The thirst for power in these hostile, rioter groups is to such that they do not hesitate to take any brutal, violent and deadly action to build a case against Iran in order to divert public opinion and influence the feelings of the masses.

Announcing grandiloquent and deceptive slogans such as seeking freedom and defending women’s rights is not only a lie, but also a cover for creating disorder and damage to the democratic structures, spreading hatred, creating ethnic conflict and sectarian war in Iran. With a brief look at the functional and organizational history of each of the active groups in the recent riots, the veracity of this claims and the falsity of their allegations will be determined. The documents and evidence of the contemporary history in the last few decades evidently testifies their brutality, selfishness, divisiveness and the morbid desire for the power.

 For example, in the past, and during the Iran-Iraq war, in alignment with the Iraqi Ba’ath regime and using borrowed weapons, the hypocrite group of MOK attacked the border cities of Iran and massacred thousands of women, children and unarmed civilians. Presently once again, this group activates its death squads against the people of Iran in two phases including field operations in the Iranian cities, and then the psychological warfare operations in the cyberspace through spreading lies, slander and libel and fabricating criminal cases against government and publishing unrealistic contents in their media in order to reverse the facts about Iran.

During the last decades, hostility, terror and killing of the civilians have been the common pain of the two great nations of Iran and Pakistan. The two countries have suffered from this blights and families have lost their loved ones as well. Therefore, the honourable people of Pakistan understand this pain as the two countries have sacrificed many precious martyrs for the cause of security, stability and peace.

To conclude, it is worth mentioning that the two friendly, brotherly and neighbouring countries of Iran and Pakistan have always supported each other in the hard times throughout the history and are proud of their cultural, linguistic, ethnic and religious links and commonalities. It should be remembered, and of course, a brief look at the region confirms it, that the security, stability, sustainable development, integrity and constancy of the geopolitical and geostrategic position of the region and its party states, comprise a comprehensive and monolithic entity. Therefore, the security and stability in one area can contribute to the security and stability of the other areas in the region. Strengthening the geo-economy of the region, boosting the economic and commercial prosperity, connecting the border crossings gates, expanding the transportation corridors, guaranteeing safe and current flow of energy and finally maintaining the security of the infrastructures in the region, all and all, require security, stability and continuity of the geographical borders, territorial integrity of the countries of the region, internal security and political stability throughout the region.

The Writer is the Ambassador of Iran to Pakistan