• Home
• /
• Opinion

Terror links are harming Qatar

Qatar may be a small country, but wanted to become a regional behemoth in a hurry. It was rich but not powerful in the conventional sense

• Follow us on
• 
• 
• 

Published: Wed 7 Jun 2017, 10:31 PM

Last updated: Thu 8 Jun 2017, 12:34 AM

Terror organisations often begin as marginal freedom movements but soon grow into homegrown insurgencies. When outsiders get involved such insurgencies take a turn for the worse. The leaders of these movements get the recognition they seek, which takes it to the next phase and spawns what is known as terrorism. At the core, these are mercenary movements. Religion is the growth hormone, an easy resort for those pumped up by their excesses. Funds (from any source) sustain them, gives them the oxygen to keep fighting. What's dangerous is when there is a foreign hand. Many governments use insurgencies to promote warped policies to peddle influence in other countries because they lack the military might to do it themselves. It's a cloak-and-dagger game. All smiles on the outside, benevolent and charitable, yet driven by the quest for power.

Qatar may be a small country, but wanted to become a regional behemoth in a hurry. It was rich but not powerful in the conventional sense. What it had was money. This cash that flowed from natural gas was used to support all sorts of movements, some violent, others peaceful across the world. Unfortunately, Doha pushed the buttons too hard, or pushed the wrong buttons, shall we say, and is now paying the price for rushing into the power game when it wasn't up to it. The world's biggest natural gas exporter wanted to prove that it was more than an energy powerhouse, and decided to make friends with so called freedom fighters, who had metamorphosed into terror groups. It yearned to be taken seriously while presenting a peaceful facade to its neighbours. So, it invested in global companies to gain economic clout, and in Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood and Taleban, for strategic heft. Economic investments have paid off but its violent investments have not. How it divests its stake in terror is not the issue, but it must be done, pronto. Doha must realise that it cannot be a military player by using terror as a favoured weapon of the state. The country deserves credit for becoming an economic and energy powerhouse in such a short span of time. What it does not want to be is a global pariah, a rogue state.

• Qatar Crisis