Is Qatar the Most Terrible State in the Middle East? Or Is Iran Worse?

There are Some Really Horrible Rulers over There Oppressing Their People. They Need to Die One Way or Another to Free The Humans Trapped in Their States.

Dec 20, 2022

aerial photography of concrete buildings

This post is the thirteenth in an ongoing series on antisemitism and culture. See the previous installments here:

These writings are part of my ongoing effort to overcome my PTSD by forcing myself to try to write and publish something every day commenting on and analyzing current cultural affairs and their impacts on politics, faith, and, well, everything. “Politics is downstream from culture,” the late Andrew Breitbart popularized among conservative bloggers while he was alive. I’d go a step further: Everything is downstream from culture. The cultures you embrace determine who you are and who you become. You become what you worship.

So yesterday in a piece responding to the news of further evidence of the KGB’s role in the murder of our president John Fitzgerald Kennedy, I expressed a few “controversial” or radical opinions to which some may take offense and horror: that Russia as a whole was a “shithole country,” it has had a crappy culture for centuries inspiring its people to drink themselves to death, and that its criminal-murderer leader should be assassinated by an intelligence agency to bring an end to the Ukraine war and liberation to the Russian people.

It should perhaps come as little surprise that I take a similar attitude toward a couple of the regimes running territory in the Middle East. Some of these so-called states desperately need revolutions to overthrow their tyrannical rulers. While human rights problems abound throughout the region, and as a rule I oppose the very concepts of monarchies and non-democratically elected authoritarian rulers, in my years spent writing and researching significantly about Middle Eastern states there are two countries in particular which seem to come up especially frequently and cause the most trouble.

Qatar and Iran are the most dangerous to global peace and greater stability in the region.

Seeing all the World Cup news the past few weeks has been so supremely frustrating. It’s like watching people go play cards at the house of the neighborhood klansman who everyone knows beats his gay son. Over a million people flocked to Qatar to celebrate the sport of soccer, all the while ignoring the horrific human rights abuses that built those stadiums and the slavery which has sustained the Qatari Islamist monarchy.

Why is Qatar so wretched? They are the financial backers of the Muslim Brotherhood and its terrorist wing Hamas, two entities which wage war against the Jewish state and inspire radical Islamic terrorism around the globe, especially through their state propaganda organ Al Jazeera. They have blood on their hands and deserve to be overthrown.

red white and green flag — Photo by sina drakhshani on Unsplash

I suppose doing an analysis in objective terms the Islamic Republic of Iran, the regime currently oppressing the Persian people, is perhaps worse. Iran is a much bigger and wealthier state. It has 83 million people whereas Qatar only has 2 million. The Iranian economy is $231.5 billion GDP, whereas Qatar is $179.6 billion GDP. So in terms of wealth and bodies available to wage war against free societies, Iran is worse. They are also perhaps a greater objective threat to peace given their pursuit of nuclear weapons and more open calls to destroy Israel. And, of course, they’re ranked as the top funder of terrorism in the world.

All the other states in the Middle East have their problems too - including Israel. I may defend the Jewish state’s existence with some fanaticism but I’ve watched it closely enough to see the huge internal problems which challenge it too. There are just over 9 million people there and the diversity of cultures within it leads to some incredible political conflicts and internal struggles. The country’s demographics tell the story:

I may write about Israel a lot and write about politics too much but I try and steer clear of Israeli politics. Oh man, what a train wreck. I thought our form of government over here in America was frustrating enough but Israelis with their *shudder* parliamentary system *shudder* have it even worse. With almost 12% Haredi population and about 21% Arab population that means that there are Israeli politicians both who are ultra-Orthodox (and thus now frightening many liberal Jews in America) and others who are Arabs in Islamist parties which don’t recognize Israel’s right to exist and are allied with its enemies. I won’t even get into it any further now, you get the picture. Politics isn’t just terrible here in America, it’s largely terrible wherever you look.

Among the other countries in the Middle East which have their problems, let me also single out for a few insults: Saudi Arabia and Turkey. They’re also both annoying in some ways but have gotten a little less horrible over the years.

Photo by Abdulrhman Alkhnaifer on Unsplash

Saudi Arabia is still an authoritarian state governed by an absolute monarchy sitting on over a trillion dollars and brutalizing its people with Sharia law. (Seriously: what the fuck is the matter with a 21st century state which executes witches?) But at least their new millennial leader Mohammed bin-Salman seems to be moving more toward modernity and I wouldn’t be surprised if he eventually establishes relations with Israel.

(BTW, MBS: I’ll defend you on the Khashoggi killing - that seemed at least somewhat justified to me given him being a Muslim Brotherhood mouthpiece - but please, please get more competent assassins in the future for your wet work. You really need to make such deaths look more like a suicide or accident so as not to get the global media blasting you. We get it - like all states you’re going to use espionage to assassinate those who seriously threaten your existence. And while you’re at it, you should assess if you really want to be king or if it might not just be safer to sometime down the line relinquish your crown and fully transition your country into a democratic state. As long as you’re the top dog someone is going to want to put you down.)

red flag on top of brown concrete building during daytime — Photo by Meg Jerrard on Unsplash

Turkey has also been a problem the last 20 years but seems to be getting a little better. Its authoritarian ruler Tayyip Erdogan used to be much more Islamist and anti-Israel than he seems to be lately. I still wouldn’t feel safe enough to visit Turkey but maybe they’ll be better in the future.

Most of the other Middle Eastern states I haven’t developed very vocal opinions or strong feelings either way, with the exception of the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain to which I say: thank you for signing the Abraham Accords and setting a great example to your Muslim and Arab brothers by making peace with Israel, however your monarchical system of government is still unacceptable. You all need to reform too into democratic-republican systems. As long as you refuse to do so you will remain in danger of your people some day rising up and violently overthrowing you. Our system of government in the United States may be terrible and irritating but yours is far worse. Beware. And join the 21st century now.