The World Cup in Qatar From the Discourse of Identity to the Discourse of Rationality: Towards Restoring the Pride of Man
Prepared by the researcher :Dr. Damouche Ouhiba, Mohamed Bougherra University, Boumerdes (Algeria)
Democratic Arab Center
Journal of Afro-Asian Studies : Seventeenth Issue – May 2023
A Periodical International Journal published by the “Democratic Arab Center” Germany – Berlin
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Abstract
This communication deals with Qatar’s organization of the world cup 2022, from the discourse of identity to the discourse of rationality; towards restoring the pride of Man. The question is: how to form an identity discourse that reflects Arab nationalism and the values of Islamic religion within a rational framework? World cup organization and its relation to identity and rationality discourse shows controversy with regards western conception of human rights values. The controversy is due to the different phases of the concept. This unexpected debate and also misconceived ideas requiring planned action and response . Qatar had provided measures to keep pace with the biased critics. The facts fits two alternative scenarios; either to restore methods make necessary a further kind of analysis. One specifically related to identity discourse of the west.If the debate over Qatar organization of the world cup turns out to be a political discourse, then the disappearance of rational discourse is a possibility. This leads to different challenges; people in the west can only be informed with political biased media, not with objective reports, it becomes series of fake news, blurred images and even false judgments.
Through the analysis of levels of discourses used by Qatar, our views about its consequences on Arab as well as on the global world lead to rational solution concerning the combination of different parts or qualities of both discourses in which the component elements are smartly joined. And Although those discourses required to be replacement measures in western Europe foreign policy are diminished, Qatar fulfilled the required purpose towards restoring the pride of human being and enhancing the civilizational dialogue.
The world cup 2022: the identity discourse.
1-Introduction:
The debate which occurred before and during the world cup over the validity and capability of Qatar’s organization for the competition has a flavor of a political discourse. The discourse is supposed to bring together the eastern and western civilizations. Convoys from all over the world traversed thousands of miles to converge in Qatar. Almost one million and a half football fans converged on the capital Doha and the neighboring cities. Hence, various cultures converged as Qatar organized the world cup.
A good point to begin with is Qatar’s own constructions and achievements with its distinguished features of the FIFA world cup opening ceremony. The beginning of debate is represented in the scene that shows a dialogue between an American actor and a Qatarian disabled man, as the belief in thebiased views which are considered to be objective without any firm evidence. It began with’ o mankind! We created you from a single pair of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that you may know each other. »(Quran, 49,Alhujurat, verse 13)
Qatarshows great interest in theorganization of the world cup in its different perspectives. In addition,she presents the analogy between the workings of nature and those of human civilizations to seeing the organization as the opportunity to deal with new perspective, where the scope for any change is always limited by political realities. So it is important that this game is scoped correctly by seeing the scenes in the opening ceremony replacing the stereotypes pictures of the Arabs as being merely followers and lack of innovations and potentials with Qatar contribution to fortify itself esteem against criticisms. Because there have always been those who objected to rationality, they have been considered as those opposed to every advanceand values came from the other. The process of work from the hour of announcing its victory in organizing the world cup to arrive to the completion, great steps has been taken. Qatar introduces two forms; identity and rationality discourse. The benefits of rationality is that it gives proofs cannot otherwise be denied.
2-The Identity discourse.
The period of uncertainty and confusion in which Arabs’ sense of identity becomes insecure, typically due to a possible disappearance of their values in a future globalized society leads to an identity crisis. In this context the identity discourse is relating to a nation; its values is a characteristic of a whole Arab nations. The debate over identity was not based on reason and logic nor was in accordance with ethics and morals; a lack of a rational explanation of identity seems obvious.Among the goals of identity discourse is to preserve the identity features that distinguish us from others, and preserving what shared with humanity. Accordingly, the collision that occurs between goals and means makes everyone who deals with the obstacles and accusations astonished.
The European secularism which is supposed to be based on freedom, equality, justice and solidarity(Barron, 2004: 31) seeks to reconstruct a human identity overcomes religion, language, race, gender and geography where the world will be the country for the modern man with a global identity. The project for a globalized society is by generalizing a specific pattern on global level in which society is secular and carries the values of citizenship based on freedom, justice and human rights principles.(Boyer, 1997:04)
Yet, this project encountered opposition due to the fears of the extinction of many cultural patterns with their lofty values. This made humanity flounders in uncertainty and ambiguity surrounds the role and position of man in it. The western, European and American pattern threatens the demise of Arab and Muslim values and culture as a result of the unannounced apprehension about the possible role could be played by Arabs.
Thus, the problem is how to formulate an identity discourse that reflects Arab nationalism and the values of Islamic religion within the framework of rationality? World cup organization and its relation to identity discourse showscontroversy with regards western conception of human rights values. The fact for restoring an identity discourse based on the binary opposition ‘We & the Other’ leads to comparison and confrontation that allows the dominance of the ego over the other, as an intersubjective existence (Levinas, 1989:65). Or to restore a rational discourse based on reason which enables balancing between the boundaries of the self and the boundaries of the other to create an intra-space that allows cooperation and coexistence. The values of difference perpetuate the path of tolerance between communities and seek to consolidate coexistence on earth without wars. Its origin is based on pluralism and ethics. The truth is that the human existence is an existence with the other and for the other (Sartre, 1953: 83).The other and we do not form a parallel entity except through a serious and objective dialogue, and it is only through knowing the language and the culture of the other. Thus, without mutual cultural knowledge, no equal constructive dialogue can be achieved.
This means that aspiration for a better society and life requires thought to achieve in the future. And there is no congruence or harmony with the different visions, ideas and opinions argued by some western media who are strengthened by their loyalty to their country ideology or to their personal interests which hindered them from showing the truths (Nietzsche, 1989: 447; 35), as this is guaranteed by freedom of expression which cannot be separated from western ideology in the European ego centralism (Foucault, 1970:19). But the congruence between the idea and the method of realizing the idea is what is required, that is, between the means and the goal, it must be characterized by rationality.
The civilizational dialogue then must use a discourse which is both moral and rational. Neither of these characteristics belongs to western identity discourse towards Qatar world cup 2022. The traditional discourse of identity was thus accentuated by the traditional ideological views. The terms such as ; religion, freedom, equality, justice, human rights, prosperity, creativity and happiness are features that may be said to be connected with the traditional discourse derived from European colonial past and history.
The first phase of identity discourse is consisted of the permanent features of one’s own identity that couldn’t be changed whatever the circumstances, such as being Arab in a geographical unity.
The second phase of identity discourse is more a subjective view of man and his environment. It is the result of an ideological philosophy, rather than a rational one. Qatar gives a rational overview of man; thisvision is also the basis for moral discourse in which the pride of man is restored.
As Qatar relates identity to rationality, it ends all problems related to ethnicity .In this sense of identity includes traditions and valuesof the Arab cultural heritage which correspond to given values. The generalization of the western model of society over the other societies is anidentity problem, it needs a resolution of the of the traditions that correspond to values concerning human rights. This ends either in obtaining a discourse that corresponds to the declaration of human rights principles for restoring globalized identity , or if not ,it ends in analyzing the original declaration in other way .This is what Qatar intends to deliver in her rational identity.
As a conclusion to this part, the discourse of colonial identity must be reviewed; and this was one more reason for welcoming the new rational discourse which promised a better way of addressing the other.
3-The rationality discourse.
The literary and philosophical schools in Europe, after renaissance, worked to move towards secularism. The European view of religion changed and the gap between them deepened overwhelmed by the scientific and technical progress.(Godechot,1970 : 356) This liberation, which based on the sanctity f freedom as the basis for all development, prosperity and creativity, might be an irrational if what is associated with takes religion’s place.( Andre Natal, les libre penseurs, 1995 :141) New idols ; money and desire emerged. Then, freedom turned into a new authority that determines and evaluates everything. Freedom has now assumed the religion’s mantel. If it should only cares about tolerance as the essence of its principles, it would not turn into irrational discourse that might lead to a racist ideology.
The irrational discourse delivered by some philosophical trends in the west is that some media employs it in an ambiguous and restricted way since the use of rational discourse is usually headed towards small and selected category of people. With ambiguity, so who uses it exclusively could be designated towards small and selected category of people. Yet, the use of the rational discourse is limited in the dealing with Qatar file.So, to what extent is the return to it an urgent necessity in the civilizational dialogue?
Rational discourse needs objective views. Positions are to must be presented in a way opposed to to those delivered by some of the western media, and for the sake of clarity and objectivity rereading European ‘rational’ is required for the above purpose. The same requirement is to be requested for rationalizing the identity discourse. Moreover, this previous mentioned requirement is sustained by the true understanding of the rational adaptation of the notion ‘prideof man’.
As far as rationality is concerned, the form and content of judgments as the motto associated with the ideological affiliation of the western media is inadequate to the needs of rational discourse. The content of the media discoursedelivered speech and messages lacking objectivity required for the expression of the rational kind of reasoning employed in their freedom of expression principle. In the declaration of human rights which was enacted at the beginning of the twentieth century in France (Godchot, 1789; 356), freedom is reconstructed in order to express its arguments with the human happiness, and set the balance between rights and duties. Hence, the wellbeing, the prosperity and creativity of man is targeted. If we try to use those rules of the principle of freedom enacted in their documents of the declaration of human rights, consistency, harmony and fair judgments would be questionable. To the same level those considerations applies to the problem of ethics. Moreover, the employ of a rational discourse for addressing the other produces a psychological benefit in freeing the understanding from emotion and fiction.
Within the use of a Rational discourse thecontent and form offered in political and media speech could be clarified. When one is familiar with human rights declarations and western civilizational history, however, a historical based arguments could be extracted which make it easier to uncover any inconsistency or contradiction of the western discourse. This familiarity leads to represent views in historical and rational ways, though this oftenhappens, but ability to accept the resultsby those biased media be unsuccessful.
The objectivity is the most neededsince some western views are associated with an ideological affiliation; the second reason is peculiar to western own use of the human rights principles as part of the method of civilizational dialogue. The justification of the use of a rational discourse is based on its objectivity, clarity, and ability to reveal the true image of Arab and Islamic civilization’s values. Part of Qatar’s accomplishments, is to what extent her rational discourse can be achieved.
Rationality requires that each delivered message about the opponent must be supported by evidence; this means, each news whoever must correspond to a real event. The so called‘human rights violation’ yet, lacks evidence.However the universal importance of the role of Arab identity and of moral values of Arab and Islamic civilization has not changed and has remained an important component part of Qatar world cup delivered message.
Rational identity discourse and hence some moral convictions. The human rights principles could be analyzed out of ethical values, gives the impression to seize the relation of identity to rationality and about the objective of what human being should be. The first form of contradiction arose when we asked about this assumed global man, is he living freedom for freedom? If this freedom is a sanctity then man is diverted towards worshiping freedom, and this a contradiction in the secular sense. Man is again stacked to new idols; freedom, money and desire. And if the freedom is not for itself, then it belongs to the set of principles which also includes justice, equality, and brotherhood. It should set limits so must not overcome by man. My freedom ends when the other’s begins. If this is not the case it becomes also a contradiction.
This rationality enables us to set objective views in political matters from rational point of view based on firm data to sustain Qatar position. Therefore, the ordering of technological advance and moral beliefs which results from rationality is one of degrees of credibility of Qatar dealing with the issue, and the rationalization of technological advance blended with a rationalization of the major ethical matters from where a better views to restore the pride of man will be achieved.
The process of making this important discourse of rationality is due to the period of uncertainty and confusion in which Arabs’ sense of identity becomes insecure, typically due to a possible disappearance of their values in a future globalized society. A new rational method for discourse directed towards the west is recommendable; Qatar claims to obtain for the well being of man an advance equivalent to that of technology. Qatar rational method’ has two levels to be reached: to find out facts, or to illustrate and clarify, which is a process for civilizational dialogue uncovering the truth and convince the world that the main task of the dialogue is to protect the common sense and pride of man.
Qatar’s plan is partly manipulated by the need to review the traditional discourse of the west and their validity. These claims can be due ethically if they are rationally established. Such illustrations are much more interested with how rational judgments relate to historical data, and also with the justification of our conception of our identity.
If this discourse achieves the above requirements, we may call it a rational discourse; the further requirements for it relate to the degree of its persuasion. The seeking for a position of man which gives certain successive advance of man is a persistent objective for the discourse regardless of achieving these results. The distinguishing characteristics of Qatar’s discourse is that it gives man great importance. A clarification of the meaning of man changes to be a common sense basic judgment sustained by ethical values, and these common sense and ethical values will be real attributes of human kind.
4- Restoring the pride of Man.
Did the European secularism achieve man’s dream in happiness, or has deviated from its principles and strayed from the path in reaching its goals? Some of so-called human rights organizations unleashed their freedom by demanding every thing comes to their mind abandoning the restrictions of morals as obstacles to the realization of their desires, not only deviate from human instinct, but also from animal instinct.
Qatar rational contribution had an important application under the title of restoring the pride of man. In world cup 2022 Qatar uses a rational discourse by replacing biased ideas and opposing views as irrational judgments with tolerance towards the cultural and intellectual diversity, so she excludes the need for imitating western model and fulfills the requirement of human dignity that inevitably leads to the acceptance of the other. What is expected from Qatar is that it shows the Arab Islamic project with a human perspective will inevitably work to restore Man pride by returning him to his human nature.
Qatar believes in rationality and enlarges its use to society and climate change. This contribution is offered as the new rational outlook of the coexistence between humans. Raison and other concepts of ethics are to be employed by Qatar into identity rationalized discourse constructions. This avoid the need to postulate human rights principles of the west, freedom, equality, and justice as absolute truthsin order the conclusions of the discourse demonstration will be meaningful and then acceptable .
Through the world cup Qatar constructs the image of Arab identity as well as of Muslims in its universal perspective. Traditions and values of tolerance, generosity, modesty, coexistence and peace the constituents used, through rationality to explain how the Arab identity can be constructed as values in which the Arab and Muslim people ‘conducts and behaviors are the personification of those identity values. Qatar aims at excluding the idea of European ego centralism and replaced it by a centralism of multidimensional. Therefore this could be defined asan outlook consists of series of various judgments, connected with each other by rationality and sustained by ethical rules. This is clearly observed in the changing of the presupposed judgments about the stereotype image of the Arab as a mere imitator lacking potentials.
The ethical, aesthetic and human perspectives of Qatar World Cupis an important factor in liberating man from slavery to money, fame and instinct, which are components of human being that must be preserved within their natural borders. It was found that these perspectives have found their place in Qatar, with the reinforcement provided by these perspectives.
When Qatar organizes the world cup an additional improvements and reinforcement of the sophisticated and advanced construction permits her to reduce the supposed difference between the so called the industrialized north and the Arab world. The rules of development are erected by arranging the priorities which could be seen as the appearances of a civilization from various multidimensional perspectives. The rules of growth and advance arise from the arrangement of those appearances at specific period of time in one geographical spatial unity.
Qatar‘s suggested type for the development of the human being is the application of its own inherited civilized values, and principles. The debate presented by determining the kind of societywhich the globalized society is intended to achieve in a globalized society where some human rights movements, threatens the modern man in losing his humanity and pride. It is the society where the inconsistency between the principles of human rights erected by western constitutions and the actual perception of Freedom and equality as it exists in actual life is clearly visible. Qatar was also accused of disrespecting human rights by not allowing homosexuals to attend and even raising or wearing any badge defending them. In addition, banning alcohol in public places. The relation of man to his community might not be harmonious however, returning to common sense restore this harmony.
Qatar organizes and plans the competitionin this way will have the necessary elements required for debating the human pride issue and hence restoring it. This ends either in explicit or implicit requirements; The relation between the west and the east must be then symmetrical and mutual; if we live withthe other, and that other lives with us, then we must be equal. Events mustbe presented in an objective way.Qatar suggests some modifications happening at the place when an organizing event continues; any viewer will have altered assumptions about the event. The presence of these Arab societies with Qatar as the only representative in this ceremony made the viewer understands the coexistence between peoples and cultures is a sublime value that Qatar believes in, translated by opening the ceremony with Quranic verses.
When theclosing ceremony took place, billions of people witnessed what Qatar presented in an inspiring scene included elegant messages about the dialogue between those who thought that Qatar was small. Mouths gagged, tongues stuttered, and the scene transformed from a topic of criticism into a scene of pleasure. This pleasure and elation that overwhelmed the souls of many Arabs and friends achieved an essential perspective in human life, which is the aesthetic perspective. Where it had an impact in the souls much stronger and incomparable with the impression made by the previous world cups.Through the world cup, the Arab has become aware not only of the need to preserve his lofty values, but also the necessity of transmitting them to the world. As it contains spiritual dimension and elevate man to Excellency and enhance his pride within the framework of respecting the other and protecting his own identity.
Conclusion:
Through the analysis of levels of discourse used by Qatar , ours view about its consequences on Arab as well as on global world shows to what extent the combination of different qualities of both discourses are cleverlyunited. And although those discourses required to be a replacement measures in some western Europe foreign policy are diminished, Qatar fulfilled the required purpose; towards restoring the pride of Man and enhancing the civilizational dialogue.
Qatar’s framework of discourse has been given which permits the future elaboration of the civilizational dialogue. Qatartries to connect the rational interpretation of our identity tothe other’s identity. Her attempts were made in understanding these connections, the idea of civilizational dialogue, is used to help relate our own identity to the other identities in the scope of universal perspective. So the concept of’’ the universal perspective’’ leads to build a world more stable than the actual one within a complex bilateral, rather than an unilateral discourse.
After the world cup judgments become quite different from the previous ones. They are clearer, more objective, and less infected with media viewsredundancy. So, the embedded messages came through is seeking to liberate man from the domination of matter, technology and those new idols that replaced religion and the quantity that overwhelmed our relationship with each other and with the nature that surrounds us alike. If identity then is interpreted in a somewhat ethical sense it will be open to further formulations where the consideration of attempting to build a bridge between the world of technology and the world of man could be achieved.
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