The clumsy journalism around the WC has done nothing except rally Muslim support for Qatar, bring Muslims together and worsen the anti-Western sentiment. I have not seen Muslims sentiment this united in a long time. The enemy: Western decadence and a war to impose immorality.

A lot of Muslim liberals were trying so hard for so long to reduce the narrative of a civilisational clash amongst Muslims. It’s not really us vs the West, they don’t hate us etc.. This just destroyed all of that work.

The average Muslim today is shocked by the amount of hatred the West has for Arabs and Muslims. The narrative that Russia could host the WC without being scrutinised this harshly is potent. That the US could invade Iraq, that the West was built by slavery, etc.. is so potent.

Virtue signalling is the worst of all tolls the West could use because it’s the surest way to lose the people while making the least moral difference. All while the West sells arms to Saudi, Western corps go build Qatar and Dubai, the West takes advantage of cheap labour.

The blatant lying by The Guardian about the number of deaths was also disastrous and contributed to a narrative of conspiracy.

On the positive side: I sense a new narrative gaining ground amongst Muslims: you could annoy the West a lot more by building nations, by competing in their world, their world of capitalism, sports, consumption etc.. a lot more than through ideological extremism.

Another reason why virtue signalling can be so clumsy: to a religious Muslim there was no better sign that the West is wrong than when Germany virtue signals and then loses to Japan. It’s almost like God’s swift revenge. Very clumsy.