'Human rights defenders' not welcome at world cup

The wide attention the 2022 Qatar World Cup has been attracting from the world after its opening goes against some Western media outlets' intentions.

Cable News Network and The Washington Post continuously raised questions about Qatar's so-called labor issues, and the British Broadcasting Corporation and some other media focused on what they alleged were corruption and the underhand dealings of Qatar in winning the bidding and preparations for the event.

These supposedly objective and neutral Western media organizations, ignoring Qatar's efforts to host the World Cup and the uplifting power of football in the face of global turmoil, have poured cold water on the fire of sports unity and barricaded the bridge of connection built by football. By politicizing the most popular sport on Earth, they stand in opposition to all peace-loving people around the world.

The Western media similarly sought to smear the Sochi and Beijing winter Olympics, behind which was their deep-rooted ideological bias and racial discrimination against the non-Western world.

If these media really care about human rights in developing countries, why do they keep their habitual silence about the United States and the United Kingdom constantly stirring up wars in the Middle East and Afghanistan and creating huge humanitarian disasters?

Take Iraq as an example. From 2003 to 2021, the war the US and its allies started in the country killed an estimated 209,000 civilians and made 9.2 million Iraqis refugees. A tube of washing powder was what the US provided the United Nations as evidence of the "weapons of mass destruction" it claimed the country was developing.

The Qatar World Cup has shown the world a real and colorful Arab world free from the bias of Western reporting, injecting fresh and positive energy into today's uncertain world.

After Iran's 0-1 defeat to the US in the group stage, the world saw that some US players took the initiative to comfort the Iranian players. In Idlib, Syria, people gathered in cafes to watch the World Cup, whistling and hugging each other when a goal was scored. It was a rare cheer for the people of this wartorn land. The World Cup brings people together.

The Qatar World Cup does not welcome "Western human rights defenders", who have brought disgrace on their own heads by attempting to take the tournament as an opportunity to smear Qatar.