Al Qaeda
and Woody in Qatar
On Saturday
March 19th 2005, while Rainham Cricket Club were holding their Race
Night, something sinister was about to unfold in Qatar where I work.
As I walked out of the Ramada Hotel, happy after watching video
coverage of a great game of rugby between Wales and Ireland, I heard
a massive explosion in the distance. I stopped and pondered for
a moment then continued my walk.
Two years ago
I spent three months painting the scenery for a production at the
Doha Players Theatre. Many expatriates participated in productions
there. For some it was their main pastime for others it was almost
their life. It was here that I met former Rainham cricketer Vaughan
Jenkins, the first time in thirty years. That same theatre was reduced
to ashes by a suicide bomber on March 19th, the first such attack
to be experienced in Qatar.
On Saturday
March 19th, expatriates began taking their seats for a production
of Twelfth Night. The theatre wasn’t full but there were enough
people in the audience to create an atmosphere. The lights went
down and an early start took place by request as Sunday is the first
working day of the week in the Gulf. Some members of the audience
felt it was a little boring, others tolerated it. Shakespeare has
a reputation of being performed well only by professionals and the
actors at this theatre were far from that.
The first act dragged a little according to Mary
Shadbolt, an English Language Instructor from Qatar Petroleum where
I work. Eventually the interval arrived, for some a relief to be
able to visit the cafeteria to drink tea, eat cake and socialize
with others. The time passed quickly and soon everyone was back
in their seats a little apprehensive about what was to follow.
Ten minutes
into the second act, theatre director John Adams heard some strange
sounds at the back of the stage in the cafeteria area. He went to
investigate. Suddenly there was a huge explosion - simultaneously,
brick and plaster whistled across the auditorium, the powerful shock
wave of the blast sent the electrics man hurtling from the theatre
electrics box into the auditorium, the actors were thrown down on
the stage and the lights went out. In total confusion the audience
rose from their seats or from the floor totally confused, many thought
it was a gas explosion. Smoke began creeping into the auditorium.
Somebody shouted "Where’s John?" referring to John
Adams the theatre director. Several people rushed to the cafeteria
area where they found him face down on the floor amongst a pile
of rubble, his face partly covered in blood. They desperately tried
to resuscitate him but it was no good, he was dead.
As flames began
to appear in the area and smoke made it impossible to hang around,
the three men dragged John Adams' body from the building. They passed
a dazed Mary Shadbolt on the way out. Traumatized, she watched as
a Qatari lady in a black abaya was carried past on a stretcher.
Within minutes everyone was out and all accounted for.
As the ambulances
and firemen arrived some people tried to leave the scene, albeit
in a state of shock and with their ears ringing from the sound of
the explosion. Robert Matthews, another familiar English Language
Instructor, unable to hear with one ear because of the explosion,
staggered to his new car that he had purchased only five days earlier
only to find it in flames and partly crushed from the force of the
blast. Glass from the windows of surrounding buildings littered
the streets and crunched under the feet of firemen desperate to
fight the fire that had taken hold in the theatre building. Police
and passers by filled the streets. The orange flames raged higher
and more vigorously as they raced through the entire theatre building
in minutes. The Doha Players Theatre was destroyed, a symbol of
British expatriate entertainment and enjoyment in Doha. The following
day only a pile of ash and rubble remained.
"Regardless
if Osama is killed or survives, the awakening has started, praise
be to God." (Osama Bin Laden videoed speech, broadcast
27 December 2001).
The following
day, news filtered through the mass media that the explosion was
the work of an Egyptian suicide bomber thought to have links with
Al Qaeda. The police had had a report from his wife that he had
been missing for 24 hours, so they checked the car number with his
name and found that they matched. The investigations began. The
suicide bomber was identified as Omar Ahmed Ali, a computer engineer
who worked at Qatar Petroleum, the same company as me - in fact,
in the building next to where I work. He was known as a quiet, intelligent
man who kept himself to himself, had a well paid job, a suitable
place to live and was married with a five month old son. He didn’t
appear to have any criminal or deviant background and his wife was
said to be totally shocked by what had happened. What made him do
such an awful thing that is totally against the principles of Islam?
The investigations and the search for accomplices continue.
Would Al Qaeda
strike again? Cold shivers were sent down the backs of almost every
British expatriate in Qatar. Had they finally infiltrated Qatar
after several of their leaders had been shot dead by security in
neighbouring Saudi Arabia? Doha based Al Jazeera Television remarkably
broadcast very little of the incident, perhaps on the orders of
the government to prevent any kind of panic amongst the expatriate
community. I quickly recalled the first violent incident in Qatar
in 2001 when a Qatari drove his Toyota Land Cruiser up to the entrance
of the American base, took out a Kalasnhikov rifle and began shooting
at the two American sentries. They shot him dead on the spot. The
Arab press tried to play it down by announcing that the man was
mentally retarded and didn’t really know what he was doing.
Two years ago the former Chechen leader was blown up with a car
bomb in the centre of Doha. Several Russians were arrested and discovered
to be secret service men working on behalf of the Russian government.
They were tried, found guilty of political assassination, imprisoned
then extradited to Russia.
Radical Islam finally appears to have surfaced in
Doha. Al-Ouda, the Saudi Al Qaeda leader announced only a week earlier
that Muslims in Qatar should attack westerners and western interests.
They have already made an impression. As I travelled to work the
day after the bombing helicopters flew overhead, police stood on
almost every street corner and barriers were rapidly appearing at
the head of the approach roads to the International hotels. Doha
may never be the same again.
David Wood 2005
