Qatar World Cup - Why Rangers Fans should be leading the call for Scotland to Boycott

Qatar hosting the World Cup is a chance for us (Rangers fans) to be on the side of right (again) and also, as a happy corollary, to show up the SFA, certain sections of the Tartan Army, the SNP, the current Scottish government, Show Racism the Red Card, the Labour Party and the Socialist Worker as phoneys, frauds, hypocrites and keyboard self proclaimed liberals in name only.

I don’t have a problem with bribery and corruption, because they are all at it. I don’t think the tiny size of a country and/or the insane climate (of up to 50 celcius in summer) should automatically rule a country out – yes, each one makes it exponentially harder to establish a valid case for hosting the WC and indeed if you have both it makes it all but impossible, but I say let them submit a proposal and – as a believer in human ingenuity and overcoming the odds – maybe they can come up with something that will make it work.

Forget all that though, the reasons why Qatar should not be allowed to host the World Cup and given that this now seems unavoidable, the reasons Scotland must not participate in the qualifiers, are set out below. Any nation that participates in the tournament is not only condoning and legitimizing the regime that governs Qatar, they are supporting and promoting the following values of the state of Qatar. And these are just some of the greatest hits.

In Qatar, they have the death penalty for being gay – that in itself should be enough to rule out Qatar as a World Cup host. They have the death penalty for apostasy, any Muslim who wants to exercise simple freedom of thought and conscience is to be killed by the state.

Qatar is a brutal dictatorship (is there another kind?), there is no democracy and no rule of law. People can be, and are, arrested by the state and held without charge, without limit of time. This is tyranny. There is no freedom of religion, Christians and other minorities are greatly oppressed and suppressed.

There is no free press and no free speech – basic rights that we in Scotland take for granted. Women who are raped are arrested for sex outside marriage and if Western, forced to take an immediate blood test to establish blood/alcohol levels. And this is Western women, imagine the plight of the thousands of Filipino housemaids who are brutalized on a daily basis and for whom no one speaks, who are too terrified to go to the authorities (who would do nothing anyway).

But perhaps most appalling of all, and given the strong field this is quite an accolade; there are absolutely no worker rights. Literally tens of thousands will be killed or maimed in constructing the monstrosities required for this tournament, and ancillary structures (hotels, roads, fan parks etc). Workers get paid around GBP250 per month. There is no minimum wage, no right to unionise, no right to assemble. Workers die in countless ways, some just drop dead in heat of the summer. They land in Qatar, herded from villages in India, have their passports taken from them and are put to work – their treatment would make Ramises blush.

I believe Scotland should not participate in this tournament out of moral principal and I’d like to see Rangers fans lead the campaign to convince Scotland not to take part. The values of Qatar are contrary to the values of the Rangers support (which includes equality for LGBT people and women and strong worker rights and protections) and as such we believe Scotland should not be participating in this tournament.

Let’s be on the side of right, again and let’s show up the phoneys for what they are. This is a win-win for Rangers. We get to take the moral high ground and ram it to some of our enemies for their crass hypocrisy.

Letters to MPs and all sorts will be sent, I’ll keep you posted on replies.
Why is this on FF?
 
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