Journal of Islamic Thought and Civilization (May 2023)
Representing the Belief of Muslims: Role and Actions of Qatar to Encounter Islamophobia during 2022 World Cup
Abstract
Following the terrorist attacks of 9/11, Islam was presumed and identified as a religion of violence and terror. However, in the last decade, there have been counter efforts from different Muslim countries against this opinion. One of them is Qatar, an Arab-Muslim country that organized and hosted the 2022 World Cup. The current research describes Qatar's progress as the host for the 2022 World Cup, with the data collected using qualitative methods, sourced from interviews and observations, investigating Qatar's strategy for playing out, to deal with Muslims, and fighting Islamophobia. Interviews and print media investigations helped to understand the context of Islamophobia. Qatar's role captures how the anti-Islamophobia show is built by painting a positive image of Muslims and Islam and then portraying what Islam really is. An empirical study was also conducted to analyze media discourse in order to describe the global impact of anti-Islamophobia in Qatar's roles and actions. According to a psycho-sociological perspective through role theory, this research determines that Qatar represents the Muslim community to promote peaceful Islam. The results show that the noble human values in the Al-Qur'an-Hadith which have been misunderstood so far have led to the marginalization of Muslims. Therefore, Qatar has a mission to spread the values of truth against the stereotypes of the world community towards Muslims which are detrimental to their existence. Moreover, this research provides evidence of psycho-sociological phenomena in a broad context.
