The Director of Gulf Studies Programme at Qatar University, Dr Abdullah Baabood. Abdul Basit
By Azmat Haroon
Doha: Many academics from the Gulf prefer to toe the line of their governments on crucial socio-political issues to avoid controversies. Because of the cultural baggage, rooted in religion, some scholars are not keen on conducting scientific studies, argues Dr Abdullah Baabood, Director of Gulf Studies Programme (GSP).
“They (academics) are not critical and try to take the middle ground. They are very thoughtful about what they say and some of them just follow the official line of their governments,” Dr Baabood told The Peninsula.
A strong push from governments for religious studies as well as its demand from people in the region, had affected independent non-religious researches.
With an understanding that the GCC countries are, in fact, under-studied, the Gulf Studies Programme was established at Qatar University in 2011.
To promote research on the issues of the Gulf, GSP plans to establish a new research centre, apart from launching a magazine based on the format of the foreign policy magazine.
“We need to re-balance the situation, and I think the focus for religious research is changing already with countries like Qatar funding all kinds of research. Even in UAE, the teaching of religion has undergone major changes,” Dr Baabood said, adding that although religion would always be important for most of the people in the Gulf, it was necessary to encourage independent studies in socio-political sciences.
He said Gulf scholars were celebrated in many circles as they were very few in numbers.
The multidisciplinary Masters in Gulf Studies Programme encourages students and faculty members to conduct research on the political and economic issues of the Gulf, to issues related to history, international relations, media environment, literature and culture.
Dr Baabood himself is studying the prospect of a GCC Union, an idea that was expounded by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia, at the 2011 GCC summit in Riyadh.
The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) was established in 1981 and comprises Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. Dr Baabood said that the word ‘union’ is misunderstood by many GCC leaders who consider guarding state sovereignty a top priority.
“To begin with, the concept of a union was not explained well to the GCC states. It was announced at the GCC summit without a prelude and even after that, it was not promoted.”
Asked if the events in Bahrain prompted Saudi Arabia to reconsider the idea of integration, Dr Baabood said: “The events in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia loomed large in terms of how the idea (of a union) was conceived and other countries in the region thinking about it as another way for Saudis and Bahrainis to overcome their problems. That went into the calculations and perhaps that is why the idea did not progress.”
The six-member GCC countries today face common challenges, which include issues of security, employment, limitations of economy because of its size, as well as environmental issues such as water and food security.
Dr Baabood believes that before moving forward towards a deeper integration, it is necessary to resolve the outstanding issues in the Gulf.
“The challenges put together are too much for one small country to handle on its own. It requires cooperation to overcome them, which is why I believe that the GCC can benefit from a deeper, stronger cooperation, although the modalities of how it can work needs to be looked at,” Dr Baabood said.
The Peninsula
