DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 10 September) – It was a lazy Doha afternoon yesterday (September 9). Many Qatari families had retreated into their homes for their customary siesta, curtains drawn, the desert heat pressing down outside.
In that very hour of stillness, the skies roared with fire. The unconditionally US-backed Zionist entity launched aerial bombardments across Doha, targeting residential buildings that housed senior H*mas negotiators. Ironically, these were men engaged in hammering out a ceasefire agreement, an attempt to stop the genocide still raging in Gaza.
Doha, with its polished skyscrapers and its desert wealth, is not just a stage for FIFA games and international conferences.
It is also home to Al Udeid Air Base, the largest US air base in the region and Washington’s most prized footprint on the Arabian Peninsula. Qatar is among America’s closest allies in the Persian Gulf, with unofficial trade relations with Tel Aviv that go as far back as 1996. Since October 2023, it has carried the delicate, exhausting task of mediator, brokering brief pauses in the carnage and exchanges of prisoners of war.
And yet, on this particular afternoon, Qatar’s US-controlled air defense system was, quite literally, sleeping. Not a missile was intercepted. Not a siren was heard. Doha bled in silence. Symbolically, this aerial attack happened on the culmination of the Islamic Unity Week (Rabi‘ al-Awwal 12–17), a period meant to bridge sectarian divides and affirm Muslim solidarity. The irony was as sharp as the shrapnel raining down: while Muslims were commemorating unity, bombs were tearing through the very soil of a Muslim capital.
Contrast this with the scene of June 23, when Iran launched missiles at the very same Al Udeid Air Base in retaliation for US strikes on its nuclear facilities. Then, the system was wide awake—alert, primed, intercepting with robotic precision. The message was clear: the friend may strike, and the shield will slumber; the foe may strike, and the shield will spring alive.
Political scientists often speak of alliances in realist terms—power balances, material interests, military bases. But social constructivism reminds us that identities and perceptions shape who is “friend” and who is “foe.”
What do these contrasting episodes tell us about the shifting sands of perception?
A foe can be defined into being, no matter how much it tries to extend a hand. A friend can be pardoned for its blows, so long as the narrative is scripted in Washington.
For years, Qatar has invested in the image of the trusted mediator—the Arab host with open doors, fluent in both the dialect of Washington and the dialect of the Palestinian resistance. Yet this bombing laid bare a painful paradox: the very soil of Qatar is both the mediator’s table and the aggressor’s runway.
How long can such a double identity hold before it tears itself apart?
The Qur’an warns us of misplaced trust:
“O you who believe, do not take your protectors from those who take your religion in ridicule and amusement.” (Q. 5:57)
It also cautions us against illusions of permanence in worldly alliances:
“Those who take disbelievers as allies instead of believers—do they seek with them honor? But indeed, all honor belongs to Allah.” (Q. 4:139)
The sleeping air defense system is more than a technical failure. It is a metaphor of misplaced reliance, trusting in structures that may awaken for one master but doze off for another.
Let me ask you:
If you were in Doha that afternoon, awakened from your nap by the tremors of bombardment, would you still view the US as your steadfast protector? Or would you begin to question whether the distinction between friend and foe has been socially constructed, drawn in Washington’s ink, not Doha’s?
Will this episode mark a turning point in how Qatar, and perhaps the wider Muslim world, perceives its entanglement with Washington? Will the word friend continue to be whispered with loyalty, or will it begin to taste like ash in the mouth?
History tells us that such moments of betrayal often spark new narratives. A society that once relied on imported shields may begin to forge its own. A community that once mediated others’ wars may reconsider who mediates its own survival.
Social constructivism reminds us: identities are not fixed; they are negotiated, contested, redefined. Today’s ally may be tomorrow’s adversary. Today’s narrative of protection may become tomorrow’s tale of abandonment.
When the Zionist bombs fell on Doha, the friend was asleep, the foe was awake, and the mediator was bleeding.
And so, the Qur’an whispers again into our restless hearts:
“Do not incline toward those who do wrong, lest the Fire touch you.” (Q. 11:113)
Perhaps this moment, painful as it is, can ignite a long-overdue awakening, not of air defense systems, but of hearts and minds, to redefine who truly deserves the name friend.
#Politics #InternationalRelations #WestAsia #Qatar #IRTheory #SocialConstructivism #Constructivism
[MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. Mansoor L. Limba, PhD in International Relations and Shari‘ah Counselor-at-Law (SCL), is a publisher-writer, university professor, vlogger, chess trainer, and translator (from Persian into English and Filipino) with tens of written and translation works to his credit on such subjects as international politics, history, political philosophy, intra-faith and interfaith relations, cultural heritage, Islamic finance, jurisprudence (fiqh), theology (‘ilm al-kalam), Qur’anic sciences and exegesis (tafsir), hadith, ethics, and mysticism. He can be reached at mlimba@diplomats.com and www.youtube.com/@WayfaringWithMansoor, and his books can be purchased at www.elzistyle.com and www.amazon.com/author/mansoorlimba.]
