@ olive I agree with all you have said, the article does seem inherently biased and focused on displaying the irony of the situation of Qataris, as if all of them are filthy rich and showered with opportunities, but still are disgruntled employees.
@Hamada I really don't like discussing the religion angle because there are so many different views/interpretations it is impossible to come to a uniform standard on what is acceptable. This is the case with most monarchial regimes that enmesh religion with politics, for example in Saudi women can't drive, the same was true in Qatar before '97, in Dubai you get a few months in jail for blasphemy, in Qatar several years and so on.
So what is the 'correct' version of Islamic law? Within any country people following a particular scholars belief will tell you that his interpretation is the correct one. The population ascribes to the rules and interpretations of a particular scholar/school of thought and use that as a form of spiritual guidance. However, the danger of this is people will accept anything these men say blindly, and never question the validity of their statements because of of their status in the field of Islamic studies, and it is usually futile trying to debate or discuss a point with someone who has already picked a certain ideology and embraced it as the one and only truth.
The danger of this is that it is unrealistic to expect scholars to paint a complete picture of what is affecting a local population, because this would be achieved by criticizing not only external sources of their issues, but also local ones, thus requiring one to address the incompetence/misconduct of a ruling regime. We all know what happens when they do that, so in my opinion, most of these scholars opinions on politics/development usually reflect the views of the ruling regime where they reside, the only thing they can all agree on is that certain non-Muslim countries are the enemy, and responsible for all Arab/Muslim misery. So once again this to limits the possibility for the people to find an alternative viewpoint to the ones forced upon them since birth.
A lot would strongly disagree with what I am saying, but this is my view based on what I have observed and experienced.
@ olive I agree with all you have said, the article does seem inherently biased and focused on displaying the irony of the situation of Qataris, as if all of them are filthy rich and showered with opportunities, but still are disgruntled employees.
@Hamada I really don't like discussing the religion angle because there are so many different views/interpretations it is impossible to come to a uniform standard on what is acceptable. This is the case with most monarchial regimes that enmesh religion with politics, for example in Saudi women can't drive, the same was true in Qatar before '97, in Dubai you get a few months in jail for blasphemy, in Qatar several years and so on.
So what is the 'correct' version of Islamic law? Within any country people following a particular scholars belief will tell you that his interpretation is the correct one. The population ascribes to the rules and interpretations of a particular scholar/school of thought and use that as a form of spiritual guidance. However, the danger of this is people will accept anything these men say blindly, and never question the validity of their statements because of of their status in the field of Islamic studies, and it is usually futile trying to debate or discuss a point with someone who has already picked a certain ideology and embraced it as the one and only truth.
The danger of this is that it is unrealistic to expect scholars to paint a complete picture of what is affecting a local population, because this would be achieved by criticizing not only external sources of their issues, but also local ones, thus requiring one to address the incompetence/misconduct of a ruling regime. We all know what happens when they do that, so in my opinion, most of these scholars opinions on politics/development usually reflect the views of the ruling regime where they reside, the only thing they can all agree on is that certain non-Muslim countries are the enemy, and responsible for all Arab/Muslim misery. So once again this to limits the possibility for the people to find an alternative viewpoint to the ones forced upon them since birth.
A lot would strongly disagree with what I am saying, but this is my view based on what I have observed and experienced.