In a shocking revelation, “between 400 and 500” migrant workers died in Qatar’s attempt to ready itself to host the World Cup tournament, a top Qatari official, Hassan al-Thawadi, recently said.

As might be expected, this assertion has “threatened to reinvigorate criticism by human rights groups over the toll of hosting the Middle East’s first World Cup for the migrant labor that built over $200 billion worth of stadiums, metro lines and new infrastructure needed for the tournament…. Activists have called on Doha to do more, particularly when it comes to ensuring workers receive their salaries on time and are protected from abusive employers.”

On being asked if the sacrifice of so many lives was not “a price too big to pay” just to host the World Cup, al-Thawadi responded with a line that has become very familiar since the advent of COVID-19: “One death is a death too many, plain and simple.”

But is that truly the case — especially when one closely considers the facts?

‘A Price Too Big to Pay’? Consider the Facts

First of all, it must be remembered that Qatar is an obscenely wealthy nation that regularly ranks within the top five richest countries in the world. It could have easily provided a virtually hazard-free work environment for its employees.

On the other hand, most of its menial workers are neither Qatari nor Arab, but migrants from the Third World who tend to be non-Muslim.

Based on these two facts, the obvious question — at least for those aware of the inner workings of Islam — poses itself: Is Qatar’s blasé acceptance of, if not outright indifference to, so many foreign deaths rooted in Islam’s position that infidel lives are nothing for Muslims to concern themselves about? Islamic teaching is, after all, very clear that the lives of non-Muslims —“ infidels” — are far less valuable than the lives of Muslims.

As Islam’s prophet, Muhammad, once decreed: “Let no Muslim be killed on account of an infidel” [or kafir, “non-Muslim”; recorded in Sahih Bukhari and other canonical collections]. The Koran itself — which likens non-Muslims to cattle, apes, swine, dogs, in short, “the worst of creatures” — presents the lowliest of Muslims, “even slaves,” as far superior to any non-Muslim (see Koran 2:221, 2:65, 5:60, 7:176, 8:55).

Nor are these hate-filled and demeaning teachings limited to “radical Islam” or ISIS discourse. They are mainstream. Thus, a number of Muslim scholars and institutes once argued that a convicted Muslim murderer should not be executed because his murdered victim, an American, was an infidel, and therefore their lives could not be treated as equal. In an Arabic language statement titled, “Let no Muslim be killed on account of an infidel,” the Legitimate League of Scholars and Preachers in Sudan (an influential body of Muslim clerics) began by asserting that “Allah has honored human beings over creation and multiplied the Muslim’s honor over the infidel’s, because Islam elevates and nothing is elevated above it. The value of the blood of Muslims is equal, or should be, but not so the value of the blood of others” [emphasis added].

Similarly, during a sermon, Egyptian cleric Samir Hashish explained:

The prophet said, ‘Let no Muslim be killed on account of an infidel.’ Why? Because their blood is not equal. The blood of the Muslim is superior. Call it racism or whatever you want, but of course the blood of the Muslim is superior. This is not open to debate. [All translations my own.]

Qatar — An Enlightened Muslim Nation?

Even if this is Islam’s position, surely Qatar is one of the more “progressive” Muslim nations not to take such “radical” teachings to heart?

In reality, and despite the fact that Qatar’s (well paid) Western lackeys are committed to presenting it as an enlightened Muslim nation — hence why it was granted the right to host the World Cup — it appears to be no less “radical” than its “Wahhabi” neighbor, Saudi Arabia.

As one example, Qatar’s Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs funds the popular website Islamweb.net, which calls on all Muslims who migrate to or are already living in the West, to feel nothing but “enmity and hatred” for their non-Muslim hosts (even while receiving benefits from the infidels).

This, too, is not a “radical” teaching; it’s a standard and mainstream position within Islam, which Qatari children are indoctrinated in from youth. A 2022 study found that Qatari textbooks and curriculum stressed the importance of never befriending — but rather always hating — Jews, Christians, and all non-Muslims, whom the pedagogical materials collectively referred to as “infidels” (or kuffar, Islam’s natural born enemies).

As such, and rather unsurprisingly, Qatar is also notorious for persecuting its Christian migrant workers. In fact, according to the most recent World Watch List, 2022, which ranks the 50 worst nations that persecute Christians, Qatar has gone from being the 29th worst persecutor of Christians to the 18th. In that wealthy nation, “violence against Christians rose sharply” and “many churches were forced to stay closed after COVID-19 restrictions…. [C]onverts from Islam especially face physical, psychological and (for women) sexual violence.”

Obscene Wealth Can Secure a Pristine Image

So why were you unaware of all this about Qatar — this nation which was “awarded” with the right to host arguably the world’s most prestigious athletic event? Because if Qatar’s obscene wealth is not used to ensure safe working conditions for its lowly, infidel, migrant workers, it is certainly directed to improving its image around the world — not least by “gifting” more than $3 billion to America’s Ivy League universities, all chief purveyors of the “Islam means peace” mantra.

After all, and as the former prime minister of Britain — a nation that warned its citizens not to dress as Saint George during the World Cup, lest it offend Muslims — Tony Blair explained: “Do not criticise Qatar too much over World Cup as they give us money.”

At any rate, from here, it should become clear why 400-500 migrants needlessly died in one of the world’s wealthiest nations without it batting an eye: their lives — like the lives of all lowly infidels — were simply not worth the effort.

Raymond Ibrahim, author of Defenders of the West: The Christian Heroes Who Stood Against Islam and Sword and Scimitar is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, a Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle East Forum, and a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Gatestone Institute.