MIGHT soccer fans yet cheer a Wahhabi state? Qatar, the World Cup’s hosts in 2022, adheres to the same puritanical creed as its overbearing neighbour, Saudi Arabia. But nightclubs on hotel rooftops loom above the national mosque of Ibn Abdel Wahhab, the 18th century zealot who gave Wahhabism its name. Bars advertise happy hours on its beaches and a state-owned distribution centre supplies not just liquor but pork.
Like the Al Sauds, Qatar’s ruling clan, Al Thani, originates from the peninsula’s Nejd interior, whence the Wahhabis sprung. Qatar once offered a refuge for Wahhabi preachers whom even Saudi Arabia considered extreme, and Osama bin Laden is said to have stopped by. But with the dawn of a new millennium Qatar has entered a different league. Women drive and there are no religious police forcing businesses to shut during prayer times.
The emirate has opened branches of American universities and a “Church City”—unthinkable in Saudi Arabia—where priests count their congregations of migrant workers in thousands. And unlike Saudi literalism, Qatar’s serene Museum of Islamic Art portrays Islam in all its manifold forms:...Continue reading
Source: Middle East and Africa http://ift.tt/285S1V5
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