Qataris arrested for criticizing Shura Council election law via Social Media

The arrest of Qatari citizens for expressing their opinion on social media has sparked controversy in Qatar after they criticized the new Shura Council election law that prevents them from exercising their political rights to run in elections.

Several Twitter users also called for their release. According to Twitter, the citizens arrested by the Qatari authorities belong to the Al Murra tribe.

The news of their arrest came to light when tweeters released the hashtag #Al_Murra_is_Qatar_before_the_government spreading through the Doha media, prompting the Qatari Ministry of the Interior to justify the issue on its official account in a statement: The competent authorities of the Ministry of the Interior have referred a number (7) to the Public Prosecution after they used social media to spread false news and stir up racial and tribal strife.”

Commenting on the Ministry’s statement, Rashid Ben Salem Ben Qutayfa Al Marri said: “I swear by God if you put all the tribe in jail we won’t stop.”

The Al-Murra tribe, one of the largest in Qatar, has been in a state of crisis. The Al-Ghafran tribe, one of the Al-Murra tribes, has accused the Qatari regime of violating their rights and of practicing forms of persecution against them, such as the withdrawal of nationality, the denial of the right to work, and now preventing them from participating in the elections.

The Qatari regime’s struggle with the Al-Murra tribe and its insistence on excluding them in Qatar started when the Al Murra tribe refused to accept the coup of Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the former Emir of Qatar, against his father in 1996. This led the regime to retaliate against the tribe by assaulting them and withdrawing their nationalities, according to statements made by tribal leaders.

Abdallah al-Marri rejected what happened and excluded their tribe. Another said they do not need to participate in the Shura Council while they are protesting in their country.

A Qatari tweeter named Fares Qatar commented that the Qatari regime granted major privileges to naturalized Iranians in Doha and granted them great political and social rights, while tribesmen were denied them, saying: « If the third or sixth grandparent or I did not know his number, God forgive him, he had Qatari nationality or not, some people their first grandfather is buried in Iran, and now he has the right to appoint and vote.

The other accused the Qatari regime of facilitating the candidacy of its men and supporters by calling them “thieves”.

The Shura Council elections came about 17 years after Qatari authorities ignored the implementation of the constitution, which was voted on by Qataris in 2003. It came into effect in April 2014, and stipulates that the Shura Council shall be formed by election instead of appointment. With the announcement of the Shura Council election law by the Emir of Qatar, Qatari media have been widely critical of the law for entrenching racism and discrimination among the sects of the one people.