Qatar - Its got more than Al-Jazeera going for it you know!

Assalaamu Alaykum brothers and sisters,

Time for another country profile, for a look at a particular country that people seem to be making Hijrah towards and what are the positives and negatives and this time we will be looking at the tiny gulf nation of Qatar.

As always these are my own impressions, from my own research and others are advised to look into matters themselves and if people feel I am wrong in some matter then correct me.

As as before, I will be listing matters which are important factors for me and my family when we make our Hijrah, others might have completely different ideas on what is important to them.

1. How easy is it to practice the deen, and to what level, how practicing are the people there.

Adhaan five times a day, easy to pray salaah in many masaajid and men and women both cover properly so on a surface level very easy to practice but…

The King has absolute power and would certainly not take kindly people speaking against him or his government or his policies so a need to be very careful on what is said and to whom.

Saying that, others who have been forced out of other lands have settled in Qatar which is conservative, but not like Saudi, liberal but not like Dubai, these include Yvonne Ridley, Yusuf al-Qadawi, Billal Phillips and Sheikh Al-Albani for a time after he was told to leave Saudi for refusing to kiss Saudi Royal butt.

Al-Jazeera also seems to get away with saying an awful lot that wouldn’t be able to be said in other gulf Arab countries and that is the national tv network owned by the government.

There aer also good Da’wah opportunities with a large expatriate work force. They have the Fanar Islamic cultural centre which is specifically designed and built to give Da'wah to non-Muslims and teach non-Muslims the basics of the Deen.

2. Whether Autopsy is allowed or not, what are the circumstances Autopsies are carries out.

Autopsy only allowed with the express permission of the family.

3.How easy is to move to that land and how easy or difficult is it to acquire citizenship.

Easy to move here IF you have work, have recently started allowing foreigners to acquire property and settle but only with residency, next to impossible to get citizenship, requires 25 years residency and good reputation and considered an asset to Qatar, those these rules have been bent for foreign athletes who play for Qatari sports teams.

4. What are the employment prospects for someone who is a non-native language speaker and doesn’t have a degree.

The language of business is English, so good prospects, but on the down side this is the richest country in the world so they demand degrees and diplomas sometimes even for little office jobs that anyone with GCSE’s would do in the UK!


They do pay brothers and sisters who are native English speakers to go work in their Masaajid and Da'wah centres to talk to the non-Muslims, visit them in hospitals so a potential career path there - imagine getting paid to do what you love anyway?

5. What are the medical facilities like for both residents and citizens.

Medical facilities are excellent and free for citizens and heavily subsidised for residents. This is important as it means we don't have to worry about falling ill and blowing all our savings on operations etc.

6.What are the other benefits like for both residents and citizens.

Good other benefits but only for citizens, nothing else for residents.

7.What is the general culture like there?


Traditional Arab culture, but government trying to modernise and the large youth are often more interested in racing their cars and throwing their mobile numbers at girls in the mall.

This aspect is disappointing and because the place is so small and urbanised, there is no real alternative culture out of the cities. But like everywhere else in the Ummah, the Islamic revival is pushing back.


8. What is the environment like, i.e what is the sea level rise with global warming going to do the coast line, what other natural resources are present in the case of the oil crash.

Environmentally very vulnerable to the crash, massively over populated considering its natural limit without oil and will become an island with sea level rises cutting it of from Saudi.

Getting stuck here is worse than being stuck in the UK in many ways, before oil only about 20-30,000 people lived in the region that became Qatar, living off fishing, and looking for pearls but with oil it is supporting 1 Million people if you include all the migrants.

9. General stability. How stable is the nation, are civil wars or state-v-state wars likely in the future.

Extremely stable, people happy with the regime or content enough anyway, no border disputes.

Conclusion

So there is my impressions of Qatar, looks good for the first stop on a Two step Hijrah plan, somewhere to earn lots of money then go off and buy land elsewhere.

But not somewhere you would want to move to with your family for good, even if they would let you (which they wouldn't).

Inshallah, brothers and sisters have found this useful, feedback would also be helpful to me to let me know if I can improve things on here.

Assalaamu Alaykum,
Abu Abdillah