My first impressions

It is been almost two months since we came to Doha, but it feels that we have stayed here for a long time. Our memories of living in Florida are slowly vanishing that shows that Qatar officially became a new home for my family.

Doha is an impressive place.  The scope of development is enormous here. Perfect roads, new buildings along with numerous construction sites all over the city speak for themselves. In my opinion, the successful development of Qatar depends not only on the resources it has such as gas and oil, but also on the political wisdom of its leaders. They actively invest in education; especially in research by creating different programs such as Qatar Foundation that attracts scientist from all over the world that hopefully will benefit successful development of the Qatari society. The government also provides legal grounds for labor immigrants to come and built this country.

Despite the rapid modernization Qatar is still remaining relatively conservative although it is also changing and not in a good direction. Western frivolous style of life and consumerism are imposed on you especially in such places as shopping malls. I still remember my first impression about Doha as a place that has too many stores and boutiques that invite you to come and spend your money.  At one point I started feeling seek from the number of such places. Alhamdulillah, now we just ignore them.

Going back to my point about conservatism. I find that Qatar still is a good place to raise your family.  Majority of people still adhere to Islamic values and norms.  You can find beautiful masjids (that are not empty) almost everywhere.  Many of those mosques provide Quran classes for children. There is also a wonderful Islamic Cultural Center that is known for its unique architecture.

http://www.fanar.gov.qa/(X(1)S(p242g2y5ntwjtd55oejtjiq4))/Index.aspx?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1

This center provides various activities for Muslims as well as non-Muslims. It also gives Friday hutbas in English language. Qatary people in general are very calm and serious, in some cases even reserved. Their children are also well behaved and calm, at least on public (compare to untamed kids in the US). I still impressed by scenes when kids calmly walk behind parents or sit in strollers without running and jumping around.

Most of the people still dress very decently. Local women wear beautiful abayas and nikabs. Men wear white thobes and white cloth on their head (ghutra) which is  supported by a black ring (ogaal).  At the same time there are people who do not cover or wear reveling clothing, especially some foreigners (surprisingly nobody says anything to them). Actulally, it is a whole topic about how and what people wear in Doha which I will try to address in a separate post, insha-Allah.

            Hopefully, development and modernization will not change this country the way it did in many other places in the Middle East and Qatar will preserve its family oriented Muslim nature (free from consumerism and western individualism).