Church City in Qatar

This Sunday, almost like every other Sunday evening, I drove all the way to the Mesaimeer area, in which the Church City or Church Complex is located. As usual, there was a huge traffic jam and there were too many policemen around who were trying to redirect the traffic in different directions and resolve the issue. The roads nearby are still under construction and this was causing a lot of trouble to church goers and more importantly, for the residents of the Barwa Housing Complex which is located nearby. While I was waiting for the traffic to clear, I just thought about how things were in the past and how things had changed over the last 5 years.

Inside the Catholic church in Qatar

Flashback to year 2000, and I remember going to small villas and houses for Church and Catechism classes. At that time, there wasn't a definite location set for the church and there wasn't a proper setup for conducting religious classes as well. To be honest, even talking about the Church or the idea of having a large space dedicated for practicing Christianity was doubtful. It was almost impossible to see a Christmas tree around in the malls or Santa Claus costumes for sale. Last winter, I remember the huge Christmas tree that was erected in the City Center mall and I saw so many Santa Claus costumes for sale at various malls. So how did this happen? I mean there was a drastic change and it happened sequentially.

Interaction between communities:
In the readings in the sociology class, we read about Grazian's theory of interaction. He mentions that culture is to some extent conditioned by interaction and the context that surrounds it. Over the last decade, there has been a strong influx of expatriates from various nations. A vast majority of the expatriate population in Qatar today comes from the South Asia, particularly the Philippines. Moreover, there are large Christian members from Western countries, some African nations and also from Southern India. It is perhaps the interaction between these cultures and the predominant Muslim culture in Qatar that led to a better understanding and the permission from the government to go ahead and build the Church.


Globalization:
With the entry of several global corporations into Qatar, there have been so many high level/executive level professionals entering into the country. A growing country like Qatar does need to keep up to the standards of other international countries in order to cater to international customers, corporations and clients. In fact, the organization of the Asian Games in Doha, 2006 perhaps triggered the need for the establishment of a church complex. While bidding to host key tournaments such as the World Cup, Olympics etc., these are some aspects that the judging committee would evaluate the country on. So there is definitely a capitalistic idea of growth behind it as well. Now that the FIFA World Cup 2022 has been awarded to Qatar, it's only fitting that the nation provides services for all the diverse communities in Qatar.


Communication:
After attending the church session (mass), I wandered into a nearby building in the complex. I noticed that there was an Arabic service going on at that time. It was really interesting to see a fairly large Arabic speaking community in the church. There are many Christians in the Arab countries such as Lebanon, Syria, Egypt etc. On the church website, one can find the timings of the various masses and the different languages they are being offered in.
http://www.rosarychurchqatar.com/mass.php?pg=timings

There are masses in English, Spanish, Arabic, French, Tamil, Tagalog, Sinhala, Malayalam etc. There are various subcultural groups that exist within this complex. The whole group of Christians in Qatar can be seen the complex and yet there are special areas in the complex assigned for each group. However, there are special occasions in which all communities get together to celebrate mass together. The picture below was taken on one such occasion where two Indian Catholics can be seen alongside Indonesian Catholic members.

        

During the church inauguration 

Dramaturgy:
The term is defined as a theory by which organizations or groups can be examined like plays or movies. In this case, the entire setting of the church before a service begins can be seen as the arena. The priest and the alter servers can be looked at as the stage. They play various roles during the service. Also, the religious members present in the church make up the audience of the 'drama'. Additionally, there is the church choir for the music aspect of it.


Below is a video taken during the occasion of "Holy Communion" which was a function common to all Catholics regardless of their language/ethnicity etc.

Within all these, I looked closely at the identities of the individuals present there. In my opinion, the members attending the regional language services were making a strong point about their identity; for instance, their identity as Arab Christians or Indian Christians. In the reading about the Identity Expression on Facebook earlier this week, we discussed that personal identity is different from group identity in the way that we define the features. A group/subcultural identity is formed and developed by the heads of groups or a group of accomplished members rather than by an individual.

The major change in Qatar took place during the last decade, in which the society and the government in general has become more tolerant and open towards different cultures and religions. This is a good sign, especially since a large proportion of the population is made up of expatriates. The government has thus far done a good job in catering to the needs of the expatriate community without harming the needs and preferences of the local population as well.

      

   

Khosh Kabab: Family meals-on-wheels!

Driving into the narrow inner roads behind the New World Center (also known as Souq Nabina) in Doha city, I am stuck midway between five SUV's that are parked right in the middle of the road. Upon inquiry, I figured out that it was something normal. They were having their dinner and they shouldn't drive while eating right? Although I was sort of frustrated at first, I decided to join the party. There was a young Nepali man who was hurtling between cars every now and then. He was taking the orders from the cars and all of this is happening midway through the street; and yet no one's honking and no one seems to be in a hurry.

Five minutes later, here I am, ordering a huge set of kababs from my car;  I'm now aware of the social norm in the situation and so I go with the flow. Welcome to Khosh Kabab, an Iranian kabab center that is located right in the middle of the city, in fact in a place where you wouldn't probably expect to have a great family dinner. But here's the point, they serve the tray of kababs to your car and so it's just so convenient and at the same time hot and fresh and to be honest, extremely delicious.

Truly amazing kofta !

    

I find this really interesting, especially since the communities around in the different cars are so diverse. Most cars I noticed belonged to Qatari families. It was a good chance for them to be together and enjoy a lavish meal in their SUV's. I noticed that almost all of the cars there were heavily tinted and so I could barely see anybody behind; not until the father opened the door by to throw something in the trash and the light shone on the family inside. It was wonderful to see an entire family of six, enjoying a great meal together. Having taken a few classes on sociology, I began to observe the people around closely and I saw a very common trend. Almost all the cars there stayed for a long time, completed their meals and then started to make a move. On average, each car hung around the area for at least half an hour. 

Another interesting observation was the communication between the customers and the waiter. Most often, the young Nepali waiter would converse using the little Arabic that he knew. In other cases, the customers would improvise with a little bit of Hindi or Urdu that they knew. It was interesting to see the intermingling of languages and culture, probably based on the large number of Urdu/Hindi/Persian speaking population in Qatar.

In conversation with the manager or mudeer of the restaurant, he informed me about their plans for expansion. He mentioned that the business was doing really well (pretty obvious) and that the goal for them was to have two new branches by the end of the year. This sort of resonates with the capitalistic idea that we discussed in the sociology class at NU-Q, where in the profits of the coming year has to be much larger than the profits of this year. 

In a country like Qatar, where the economy is booming, we can see a lot of international brands and this has had a huge impact on the lives of the people. Global franchises like McDonalds and KFC etc.are flourishing in Qatar with the globalization boom. An interesting point to note here is that the population of Qatar has the highest rate of obesity. 

The usual rush at fast food outlets

While it is normal to have quick, unhealthy drive-thru meals in the busy lives that we have today, it is worth checking out this kabab place which offers relatively healthier food and that too with the trays delivered to your car. How much better can it really get!