Talk:Qatar

Absolute or Constitutional?

Is Qatar actually a absolute or constitutional monarchy? In the infobox says it is a constitutional monarchy, but in Politics of Qatar page says it is a absolute monarchy. 20:50, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

Religion

Serious discrepancy : it is said in this article at one point that 10% of Qataris are Shias and in another section that a fifth are... I am no expert on Qatar so maybe someone who is could look into that. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 121.210.89.238 (talk) 07:19, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

Pollution

There is no mention of the high rate of carbon emissions per capita. Qatar has ranked no.1 as the worst polluter of carbon dioxide per capita for some fifteen years. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions_per_capita

I agree. CO2 emissions per capita are almost double those of the next country in the list (http://cait.wri.org/cait.php?page=yearly). Which section should it go in? -- Graham king 3 (talk) 02:53, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Added an Environmental Issues section with both of these references -- Graham king 3 (talk) 06:07, 26 November 2009 (UTC)

American Base

could someone add something about the American Base in qatar?--Arabian soul 07:14, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

I agree, this article is sorely lacking on its information concerning the US military presence in Qatar. The only mention of it is, "Qatar served as the headquarters and one of the main launching sites of the US invasion of Iraq [3] in 2003." Certainly Al Udeid Airbase, serving as the site of the Combined Air Operations Center (CAOC), deserves some mention. But then again, those articles are sorely lacking as well. -- Pepsi2786 (talk) 03:59, 29 November 2007 (UTC)

Population Error?

I noticed that the 2004 census puts Qatar's population at 1 344 269, while the attached external link totals each municipality population, with a total of only 744 029. Is this a descrepancy in statistics, or did Qatar actually shrink by 500 000 people in two years?

Answer: That is the total population EXCLUDING expats. (not true)

http://www.qsa.gov.qa/eng/PopulationStructure.htm Current population. I've heard that the Current Qatari population is some where around 300 000.

the 1st information about Qatar having more than 1 000 000 poeple in the year 2004 is 100% wrong , actually the esti. population is around 880 000 (in the year 2006) with less than 25% of those are Qataris ( locals ) . —Preceding unsigned comment added by Psychiatrist (talk • contribs) 19:07, 4 September 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, I think that means that Qatar doesn't want to become like Bahrain, a weekend place for Saudis to go and do things that aren't legal in Saudi. It sees like an unverifiable sentence though, so much of it could be lopped off. --Matt 15:26, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

Pronunciation

I am editing the pronounciation paragraph so that it is actually helpful to those of us who aren't linguistics professors --68.185.172.206

I agree that the paragraph about the pronunciation is dense. However, "it's COT-ter like welcome back Kotter" is not an encyclopediadic comment. Plus, I've never heard anyone say it like that - I've heard Cutter, Katar, and the proper pronunciation. --Matt 16:49, 29 March 2006 (UTC)

My source is the audio file available at the Merriam Webster online entry for Qatar. --68.185.172.206

I've never heard anyone pronounce it like that. m-w is definitely weird on this one. --Matt 06:18, 30 March 2006 (UTC)

I've only heard 'cutter' from servicepeople coming back from there after a few months deployment. And then I spoke to a recent returnee who called it 'kay TAR' and chastised those who called it 'cutter'. I came to wikipedia for an answer and got IPA crap so I went to m-w and got what I thought was to be the best answer. I know my addition is nothing special, but I think it works until the world makes a decision (which could be sooner rather than later-- remember 'EE rahq' versus 'eye RACK'?)

I know Qataris who say "kuh-TAR" (what I wrote earlier as 'katar') when speaking English. The Arabic doesn't have a direct English transliteration - so it doesn't have an easy answer, and the IPA will be the 'most correct' way to specify how it sounds. --Matt 00:08, 31 March 2006 (UTC)

Well guys... Everybody in Qatar have different accents. Qatar is a multicultural country with so many expats. there are so many pronounciations for that...But i pronounce it as Katar These pronounciations are based on how ive heard them British- Kah-tahr Indian - Kahtr Filipino - Katar - insanedrivers

I'm a Qatari national, I can tell you it's closer to Katr. (with a hard R), however Ka-tar, is the official english way of pronouncing it. :) Hope I helped. -Khalifa

How is IPA "crap"? It is the basis for pronunciation and the only way to help people pronounce a word correctly. If we say things like "pronounce it like the 'a' in bath" then that's just stupid because the letter is pronounced differently in different countries and regions. If you're struggling with the IPA symbols then learn them - they may help you when you come to learning a language in the future. 213.230.130.56 (talk) 22:31, 16 March 2008 (UTC)

• Re: stress. In the UK we used to pronounce it Katar. Now adverts for their airline... say Katar. The para on pronunciation should mention this dual stress and the changing situation. Malick78 (talk) 08:49, 21 August 2008 (UTC)

I am currently living in Qatar and I heard that it sounds like Qotr. I agree with the previous post, though. Qatar is a multicultural country with the number of expats are more than the locals, so its actual pronunciation might alter from one people to the other. Kangxi Emperor (talk) 13:17, 1 December 2009 (UTC)

Removed qatarliving.com

Reason: It is a rant blog. It's not directly directed to the topic Qatar.

hmm. it's one of the few blogs actually written by qataris.

they are not all qataris. And yes, it is a rant blog in my opinion. - Kei

Wahhabism?ً

Qatar explicitly uses Wahhabi law as the basis of its government

Could somebody post an evidence for this? I'm from Qatar (see my ip) and I'm not aware of such a thing like that.

Ive heard it from a friend about the wahhabism but i dunno what does that mean... Im an expat student in qatar btw. - insanedrivers

How to add a "section"?

I want to add a section titled "criticism", and put in some info about the use of foreign workers and their lack of rights in Qatar. An example being a Qatari man gettign caught with a Filippina woman, and he is allowed to go free but she spends two years in jail before being deported. How would I go about doing this? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 153.26.176.34 (talk) 16:45, 6 December 2006 (UTC).

Well, you would put in something like:==Criticism== Qatar does x, y, and z. I'd put it after Education, and make sure to cite your sources. Look at the page source on the main article, and click the edit tab. Look at the surrounding sections and you should get an idea of how to format things. Feel free to ask questions on here or my talk page, and if I notice any formatting errors I'll try and clean them up. --Matt 16:52, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

Lol... Is there something wrong with Filipinas going out with a Qatari? whats the point of her being deported and jailed... Did they banned the Qataris from marying Filipinas? you really should protest this

I think the crime is fornication (so-called 'inappropriate relations'), rather than dating the wrong nationality. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 82.148.97.69 (talk) 17:44, 11 January 2007 (UTC).

I am afraid this is not the right place to discuss about this matter. This page is strictly for talks on how to improve the article. Please kindly go to the community portal to discuss about this matter instead. Regards Kangxi Emperor (talk) 13:25, 1 December 2009 (UTC)

Proposed WikiProject

In my ongoing efforts to try to include every country on the planet included in the scope of a WikiProject, I have proposed a new project on Western Asia at Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Proposals#Western Asia whose scope would include Qatar. Any interested parties are more than welcome to add their names there, so we can see if there is enough interest to start such a project. Thank you for your attention. Badbilltucker 16:49, 20 December 2006 (UTC)

See [1].martianlostinspace 14:24, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

Country of Qatar blocked from editing Wikipedia

Is this at all true? I had found this at some news site called slashdot. --69.67.229.90 04:49, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

Not anymore. There was some minor confusion and everything has been fixed. Thanks Naconkantari 04:50, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

they'll no doubt re-block anonymous posting soon - already there's been some vandalism from the qatar IP address 82.148.97.69 11:47, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

See BBC: [2]. Apparently they can't block individual users, because all of Qatar uses only one IP address.martianlostinspace 14:23, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

All traffic from Qatar is routed through a single IP address? Really? How Bizarre. Jooler 22:19, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

Qatar uses a proxy to filter its internet, and that IP is the proxy's IP. So any internet access in Qatar is routed through that IP. thats why our internet's so damn slow! —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 82.148.97.69 (talk) 19:58, 3 January 2007 (UTC).

• This is a mainstream newspaper article from Australia about the same issue. But it was sourced from Associated Press so it's probably the same as the BBC one...Garrie 23:23, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

ISP & Blocking

It seems that someones added a section about Q-Tel blocking websites... it is untrue that they block sites that are against the interests of Qatar, only pornography is blocked - all political websites & blogs can be accessed easily. Shouldn't this be changed? --Amjra 15:22, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, I'd say that's appropriate to change then. I wouldn't be against leaving the blocking detail in the Qtel article either. --Matt 17:43, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

Coat of Arms?

What happened to the coat of arms image? --Amjra 19:54, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

Looks like it was deleted due to unknown copyright status... --Matt 20:12, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

To my knowledge it looks like it was changed, cause I remember that the Coat of Arms used to say "Qatar" in english and as of now it says (hope guess right) "Qatar" in Arabic. It's been awhile since I visited this page so maybe I am wrong. Tazz 07:44, 1 March 2007 (UTC)

QatarLiving.com

Qatarliving.com is not an appropriate external link due to number 10: "Links to social networking sites (such as MySpace), discussion forums or USENET". Yes, qatarliving.com is a useful discussion forum, but it is a discussion forum and doesn't add much useful information for people browsing the article. --Matt 20:50, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

Of course, the link I provided was "links to normally be avoided" - I'm open to discussion of a compelling reason why qatarliving.com is important enough to be an external link. --Matt 20:54, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

The site is not just a "discussion forum"- it has a forum component to it. It also has has maps, classifieds adverts and news articles.

Independence question

Hey everybody, I'm in a knot here. Here it says that Qatar gained independence from the Bahrain. Here it says that Qatar gained independence from the United Kingdom. I googled it, and it says here that they signed a protection treaty with the UK after Ottoman rule. I'll do more research but still....

---Qatar did NOT get independence from Bahrain. It was part of Saudi Arabia and was given sovereignty by the United Kingdom which signed an agreement with the ruling family.

When was it part of Saudi Arabia? It was dominated by Bahrain in the early nineteenth century, and Bahrain regarded it as their possession.

no man recently the goverment of qatar said that we gained independance from the ottman empire which was on 18, December, 1878

GDP

According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28nominal%29_per_capita Qatar is #3 in the world for its GDP. According to this article however it is ranked #7. Any reason why it isn't updated? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.179.63.4 (talk) 01:54, 13 November 2007 (UTC)

|cabrón unit|talk|conts| 19:24, 13 July 2007 (UTC)

Between the three sources for that GDP information, namely the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the Central Intelligence Agency, there is considerable variation. The IMF and WB have quite a few blank entries, only the CIA has estimates for every country. The CIA ranks Qatar number two at $141,733 (2008 est.), right behind Liechenstein at $145,734 (2007). The IMF and WB don't even have numbers for Liechenstein, WB has no ranking for Qatar, and IMF puts Luxembourg and Norway ahead of Qatar. The CIA has Luxembourg trailing a distant third at $118,538 (2008 est.) and Norway yet further behind in position four at $103,586 (2008 est.). Given the variability along with the incompleteness of some of the sources, "number 7" seems too precise, "ranks in the top three countries" would be more reflective of the available precision. --Vaughan Pratt (talk) 20:19, 30 April 2009 (UTC)

Whether it's number 2, 3, or 7, it should be at least consistent throughout the article. The infobox tells Qatar is number 3 (international monetary fund), the first paragraph says it's second (cia factbook). Personally, I think it is not actually important whether it is second or third by GDP per capita, the importance is that it is a very rich country. Ben ^T/_C 20:46, 18 July 2009 (UTC)

Qatari law

I think the claim that Qatar is '..the first country in the Persian Gulf where women gained the right to vote.' is not completely true. Women's suffrage was introduced in Qatar in 1999, whereas the women of Iran gained this right already in 1962 (and kept it after the 1979 Islamic revolution). 84.85.155.51 (talk) 18:11, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

Origin of name

The name "Qatar" may derive from the same Arabic root as qatura which means "to exude." The word Qatura traces to the Arabic qatran meaning "tar" or "resin", which relates to the country's rich resources in petroleum and natural gas. [2]

This seems unlikely to me, given that the discovery of oil in Qatar is so recent. What do others think? 80.175.102.226 (talk) 18:24, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

Motor Sports

Something should probably be written (and I may take a stab at it) about the world class racetrack at Losail. It hosts both MotoGP and World Superbike classes, yet remains sparsely unattended. These are races that draw a massive worldwide TV audience (second only the Football and F1) so it seems to be part of the master plan to move the economy away from primarily oil-based long term. Caferace (talk) 07:12, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

They are getting a hydroplane race too: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/othersports/2008625349_hydros14.html —Preceding unsigned comment added by 63.64.30.2 (talk) 21:15, 4 February 2009 (UTC)

United States Ambassador to Qatar

Why does this redirect here? It shouldn't, there is a current abassador (look under United States-Qatar relations. The same user (Special:User:Ccson/Contributions) made other redirects like this. If I had time I would clean this up myself but im to busy IRL. What should be done then? RoyalMate1 02:28, 19 October 2008 (UTC)

Never mind, didnt realize this was a way to say this article needs to be created. My bad. RoyalMate1 02:33, 19 October 2008 (UTC)

Discuss Revision

This quote was removed from the article today:

Clans such as the Al Khalifa and the Al Saud (which would later ascend thrones of Bahrain and Saudi Arabia respectively) swept through the Arabian peninsula and camped on the coasts within small fishing and pearling villages.

It has no reference, so I haven't re-instated the claim. However, there was no discussion over why it was taken down and I wonder if anybody thinks it should be kept in the article. - Rdanneskjold (talk) 03:08, 13 November 2008 (UTC)

HRA

What is HRA? Lwoodyiii (talk)

IP Addresses

It's interesting to see which countries the anonymous edits are coming from... some of the content deletions are coming out of Qatat. -- BlindWanderer (talk) 20:25, 5 April 2009 (UTC)

Amir

in the introduction emir is spelled Amir which is wrong —Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.105.67.58 (talk) 02:03, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

Some people spell it as "Amir". Nevertheless "emir" is more common than "Amir". Kangxi Emperor 康熙帝 (talk) 11:33, 19 January 2010 (UTC)

Qatar was under Ottoman Rules

50 Why there is nothing about Ottoman Empire ?? Qatar was an Ottoman city for almost 50 years. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.175.60.73 (talk) 17:34, 28 March 2010 (UTC)

Qatari health

I found: Slackman, Michael. "Privilege Pulls Qatar Toward Unhealthy Choices." The New York Times. April 26, 2010. Retrieved on April 28, 2010. WhisperToMe (talk) 09:38, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

Audio Pronunciation of Country

An audio file of a native speaker pronouncing the countries name would be nice. Micro360 (talk) 03:32, 29 April 2010 (UTC)

Vandalism

Presumably this isn't true?

It is often believed that Qatar was the birthplace of cheese. In ancient times, nomadic hunters made cheese from the teats of their cows. They produced local cheeses which are still used today most famously, Al-Jizzab Cheddar (a hard cheese that was previously used to stone adulterers) and Al-Messi Brie in History, 2nd para

Can an expert on cheese please assess this and decide? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Tomopope (talk • contribs) 15:46, 16 July 2010 (UTC)

• I am an expert on cheese and can assure you this is entirely true. Snaisybelle (talk) 20:59, 28 September 2010 (UTC)

Actually, Qatar is also the birthplace of sun-dried tomatoes, which were used in ancient times to punish thieves and dishonest politicians. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.72.216.131 (talk) 16:50, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

Sport

Today it was announced that Qatar will be hosting the 2022 FIFA World Cup.[3] Alex (talk) 15:49, 2 December 2010 (UTC)

Yes and do to the fact that some people are not happy (jealouse fans), I suggest that the Qatar article be semi protected until further notice due to risk of vandalism Wifishark (talk) 11:03, 2 December 2010 (UTC5)

 Done semi for 6 hrs. we'll see what happens after that. Ronnotel (talk) 16:05, 2 December 2010 (UTC)

World Cup Announcement

How could it have been announced on December 10th 2010 if it's only December 2nd 2010? 98.135.60.0 (talk) 16:32, 2 December 2010 (UTC)

It was announced about an hour ago. On December 2. Obvious typo, should be fixed. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Baritone10 (talk • contribs) 16:37, 2 December 2010 (UTC)

 Done Ronnotel (talk) 16:54, 2 December 2010 (UTC)

Also on the page was a comment of the annoucement sugesting any of the other countries would be better than Qatar, and said Qatar, fuck me! anyone else see this before?

This was vandalism and was quickly reverted. The page has now been temporarily semi-protected to prevent this type of vandalism from unregistered users. Ronnotel (talk) 16:54, 2 December 2010 (UTC)

Edit request from 75.6.148.123, 2 December 2010

{{edit semi-protected}} Please change the date that Qatar won the 2022 World Cup Bid from December 10th 2010 to December 2nd 2010 because if you look at any news site or even the FIFA website you will see that it was announced on the 2nd.Thank You.

75.6.148.123 (talk) 17:01, 2 December 2010 (UTC)

 Done - I changed it in the lead section. Is there another incidence of this error? Ronnotel (talk) 17:31, 2 December 2010 (UTC)

Please correct a sentence that makes no sense!

In the section on sport a sentence reads:

"Club Dam is the only country club won the Asian Cup Winners only once in 1989 after winning golden goal for the Iraqi police team, which culminated in Qatar and the Gulf Cup champions twice, in 1992 and 2005 in the territory and to their constituencies."

This makes no sense and I cannot work out what it is even supposed to mean. Please correct it or remove it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mackemsteve (talk • contribs) 17:19, 2 December 2010 (UTC)  Done Ronnotel (talk) 17:32, 2 December 2010 (UTC)

Edit request from War59312, 2 December 2010

{{edit semi-protected}}

Reference Link 10 is bad (404 because the page was moved it seems).

The link http://www.fifa.com/newscentre/news/newsid=1344698.html should be changed to http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/russia2018/news/newsid=1344698/index.html .

War59312 (talk) 20:52, 2 December 2010 (UTC)

 Not done: Did you mean another article? Reference 10 in this article is OK. Frozen Windwant to be chilly? 23:35, 2 December 2010 (UTC)

Israeli Citizens

In a recent CNN article on Qatar winning the bid for the 2022 World Cup, it states that currently Israeli citizens are banned from entering the country. I think this is pretty important information and should be noted in the article. 1ragincajun (talk) 01:24, 3 December 2010 (UTC)