Racist French cartoon of Qatari footballers deflects attention from human rights violations at FIFA World Cup

Instead of collectively holding Qatar accountable for the gross human rights violations that have mired its handling of the FIFA World Cup, a section of French cartoonists are busy doing what they do best–alienating Muslims

The Arabic world on Twitter and Muslims at large were understandably annoyed when they came across a cartoon published by the controversial French newspaper Le Canard enchainé in its October issue. In a special edition on the role of Qatar in hosting the FIFA World Cup, the publication chose to make harmful stereotypes as the face of what could be an important issue. 

The cartoon is as clichéd as it gets—seven bearded Muslim men, all haggard and unkempt, are chasing a football. On their jerseys is the word ‘Qatar’. All are seemingly terrorists; carrying machetes, guns and rocket launchers, some of them laden with explosives and others have balaclavas covering their faces. Not surprisingly, no one has bothered to read this special issue on Qatar’s controversial role in hosting the World Cup. Instead, the newspaper’s issue should be brimming with original reporting on the country’s human rights violations, anti-gay laws (with Qatar’s World Cup ambassador labelling homosexuality “damage in the mind” and “spiritual harm”), the death of South Asian workers in the ‘Aspire Zone’ of the stadiums, the state-sponsored cover-ups that followed, and everything in between.

Now with barely a week left for the tournament to begin, the focus seems to be unnecessary cartoons that serve no purpose, are tasteless in their approach, and in many ways undermine the genuine criticism that Qatar perhaps deserves. There can’t be two opinions about the human rights violations in Qatar leading up to the World Cup, we can all agree on it. According to Amnesty’s report titled ‘Qatar World Cup Of Shame’, the facts are numbing. Delayed salaries, workers not allowed to leave the stadium come what may because their residence permits have not been renewed, housed in cramped staff quarters with most men sleeping on bunk beds in rooms for eight or more people. The average monthly salary of a worker is just about US$220, that’s barely Rs 17,000. The annual revenue of FIFA in 2014 was more than two billion dollars. 

Only last year, The Guardian reported that more than 6,500 migrant workers have died in Qatar since the World Cup was awarded to the country. Not surprisingly, most of these workers are from countries in the Indian subcontinent. In fact, The Guardian clarified that this number is an underestimate. Also, migrant workers from India, across religious lines, lead the list of fatalities. In fact, a 2021 report in The Guardian pointed out that 2,711 Indian migrant workers have died in Qatar in the last 10 years.  And at least 37 migrant worker deaths are directly linked to the construction of World Cup stadiums, of which, 34 have been classified as ‘non-work related’, the same report pointed out. 

In this context, what role does a French cartoon play? Is it really effective in bringing out the atrocities of these numbers? Not really. Instead, it marginalises and even demonises those very workers who need any help they can get to highlight their plight. One can argue that the caricature has no limits and that it must be left to the artist to make sense of the chaos of the world. 

However, such an approach must also stand the test of whether the objective is being achieved. In this case, it has clearly and manifestly failed. What could have been an intelligent, factual dissection of Qatar’s horrendous record with migrants, has now stooped to the debate of whether all Muslims are terrorists. This flows from the same flawed logic of demonising Asians, and people from the northeast of India when Covid hit. It serves no purpose but accentuates hate crimes, adolescent fistfights and petty arguments that go in circles. 

We owe a serious level of debate and accountability to the scores of migrant workers and their families who still await justice. We owe it to them to not reduce their trauma to clichéd cartoons and reckless memes. And these cartoons are certainly not helping us fight the good fight.

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