Fueling hatred among the people of the Gulf...is more dangerous than wars!

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A video clip from the Gulf Cup finals with the provocative title “Mutual Disrespect”! Another documents “conversations” between fans, posts and comments on Gulf accounts, some of which are well-known and some of which are fake and tendentious, competing to add fuel to the fire. Scenes are scattered, but they are worth a long pause.

What is happening in our Gulf space? We are not faced with a passing sporting dispute, nor a joke between the fans of two teams. What is dangerous is that the language of rivalry in some digital spaces has begun to go beyond sports to insult peoples, nations, and symbols, and to invoke history, geography, and genealogies, as if a football match had turned into an arena for settling scores that have nothing to do with sports.

What is most worrying is that the incitement does not always come from anonymous accounts. Sometimes we read and hear analysts, writers, media figures, university professors, and businessmen using antagonistic language that is not befitting their status or their responsibility towards their societies. Here comes the role of the inclusive national and Gulf media. When responsible discourse is absent, or deals with the phenomenon as merely a “passing event,” it leaves a void filled by accounts searching for views, fake platforms, and hate speech, and the young and emerging become Young people of both sexes are more likely to be affected by it.

We agree that these practices are not the basis of the relationship between the people of the Gulf, and it is not permissible to reduce people to them, but ignoring them is also a mistake... Wars destroy buildings and can be rebuilt, but when hatred settles in souls and is transmitted to generations, rebuilding trust becomes more difficult and longer, and I hope that the Council of Information Ministers (Gulf and Arab) will have its vision and plan of action to repel this disturbing danger.