In 11 years’ time, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will host the FIFA Men’s World Cup in 2034. If that happens a long time ago, believe how long that time will seem to the innocent Saudis imprisoned lately for their words, and who will do it. Most likely, they will remain behind bars long after the victor has been crowned.
Take the case of Salma al-Shehab, a mother and student at the University of Leeds who was sentenced to more than three decades in prison for using social media to “cause public unrest and destabilize civil and national security. “She had retweeted messages calling for the release of political criminals, as well as women’s rights activists. Shortly after her sentencing, another Saudi woman, Nourah bint Saeed al-Qahtani, was sentenced to forty-five years in prison for “the network to tear apart [Saudi Arabia’s] social fabric. “
Even after criminal sentences end, punishments can continue in the form of bans designed to trap dissidents within the country and separate them from their dissidents. Activist and blogger Raif Badawi, for example, was sentenced to ten years of criminal and public flogging in Saudi Arabia. Arabia for “insulting Islam” in its defense of secularism and freedom of expression. Now that he is no longer a criminal, he faces an equally long ban that separates him from his wife and his three children, who fled to Canada years ago, thousands of miles away.
There is also the case of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who is not languishing in prison because Saudi government agents chose to murder him with bloodless blood in 2018.
But if Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Saudi Arabia’s leaders are successful in their efforts, the public debate will focus not on jailed or killed dissidents, but on the good fortunes of the FIFA World Cup and the country’s greater role in world sport. This was the case last year, when the World Cup in Qatar and the Beijing Olympics offered a golden opportunity for both countries to silence dissent on the floor and divert the global debate from their appalling human rights records.
This is a terrible outcome for relaxed discourse and government reform, but we don’t want to wait until 2034 to see how it plays out. This is already underway in Saudi Arabia, with the voluntary participation of industries far from the country.
Just a few months ago, the PGA Tour announced a stunning reversal of its public and spiteful feud with LIV Golf, a competing professional golf league funded through Saudi Arabia. The PGA Tour would no longer continue its legal and public war against LIV and its sponsor, the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund. Instead, PGA announced, a merger would put the excursion in the hands of the country whose human rights record it has so vehemently criticized.
There are serious moral doubts about the appropriateness of doing business with governments or state-linked agencies when they are guilty of or related to widespread human rights violations. But it’s not just about the concessions companies make to seize opportunities within authoritarian states. It’s also about how those corporations can scale globally, affecting not only their habit in countries like Saudi Arabia, but also in individual countries. And what you read, hear and see.
Consider the speech restrictions that PGA golfers will now face as a result of the merger. It’s unclear exactly what regulations they’ll have to follow, however, the leaked edition of a deal between soccer superstar Lionel Messi and Saudi Arabia’s tourism government suggests a more likely ban solution: the country’s complaint. Messi’s contract forbade him from delivering any speech that could “tarnish” the country.
The result of the PGA-LIV merger could well be that top athletes from around the world who will compete at the highest level of golf will now not be able to talk about government funding. It’s a loss for them, for their enthusiasts all over the world. and for freedom of expression, and they are probably precisely the end results that Saudi officials want.
While gambling remains a primary goal of the kingdom, its influence extends to other sectors. Media outlet Vice has been accused of blocking and cutting off reports that could disappoint the government after striking a deal to identify a joint venture with the Saudi government. Far from Saudi Arabia, the data you read and the media you consume can be repackaged and revised based on the reputation of the Saudi government.
More worryingly, the Saudi Ministry of Education hopes to trap foreign universities into opening secondary campuses within its borders, a lucrative opportunity that will be hard for universities to ignore. In recent decades, U. S. universities have embarked headlong on similarly dubious projects in Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and China, with the predictable result of alleged violations of educational freedom and censorship in countries with few protections opposing such incursions.
These systems run the risk of being censored only in their operations in those countries, but also in the decision-making of universities in the United States. After all, who needs to disappoint a business partner?
As the 2034 World Cup approaches, freedom of speech and Saudi dissidents will likely suffer once the country’s global ambitions return. But the rest of the world could also see its effects beyond its borders.
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