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Qatar Case Study

Decent Essays

A country in disarray. A national crisis, within the nation of Qatar, which has implications and ramifications nationally, regionally, and worldwide. In the near future, this nation will host the World Cup, in 2022, where they have been under backlash and scrutiny over worker conditions and human rights, but there are a lot of problems that need to be dealt with at the current moment within the government and its own people. Qatar faces a new problem as nine countries surrounding Qatar have cut diplomatic ties, as reported by CNN. Countries involved with the cut include Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen, Mauritius, Mauritania, the Maldives and Libya. The ties include countries that have long lasting conflict …show more content…

All Qatari citizens must leave these countries, including foreign diplomats, airline flights have been canceled, and all citizens of the foreign countries are no longer allowed to travel to Qatar as well.
To begin, history has proven that the Middle East division between the Sunnis and Shias plays an important role in situations like these. Saudi Arabia, a heavy Sunni country, is a country that had cut ties with Qatar, one reason being the relationship between Qatar and Iran, a heavy Shia country (Abdo, Amos, Reza Gause, Hoffman, Husain, Nasir, et al. 2014). Both of these two countries are said to be rivals within the Middle East, and this crisis is a prime example that illustrates the impact of the differences of these two divisions, within a religion, have on diplomacy. To fully comprehend the animosity between the two rival states, one must learn and understand both the Sunni and Shia, and the long religious history behind it. All Muslims believe that there is one god, Allah, and the messenger of Allah is the prophet Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims come from who they each believe succeeded Muhammad; the Sunnis believe Abu Bakr was the successor, where Shia believe Ali, who was related to Muhammad, was the successor. Although the religion is the same, today both sides still disagree on teachings and practices. The Economist explains why there are tensions between Qatar and Saudi Arabia and why religion plays a part in the

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