{"id":1278,"date":"2011-01-03T10:46:36","date_gmt":"2011-01-03T07:46:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hassanaljefairi.com\/main\/?p=1278"},"modified":"2011-01-03T11:29:54","modified_gmt":"2011-01-03T08:29:54","slug":"the-qatari-patriot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/hassanaljefairi.com\/main\/2011\/01\/03\/the-qatari-patriot\/","title":{"rendered":"The Qatari patriot"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Salman Al-Khanji <\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u00a0He sits every day at a different coffee shop in Doha. Stacks of the daily newspapers lay on the table waiting to be unfolded, marked, highlighted and cut up.\u00a0 On the corner of the table are two sets of eyeglasses. Sipping espresso with three sweet and low, he quickly reads the newspaper to find the stories of the day. This is a story of a man who loves his country and it\u2019s people. He is open minded and committed to helping the community. He is a businessman, a writer, a social environmental and a human rights activist. You will find him \u201cthe soldier\u201d at any seminar, event and or social gatherings in Doha.\u00a0 He is everywhere you turn.\u00a0 He is Hassan Ibrahim Almulla Al Jefairi.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Al Jefairi was born in Brahat Al Jefairi, an area in the heart of Doha, al Musherib. He comes from a middle-class conservative family with strong values. His ancestors were seamen and sea traders.\u00a0 His great grandfather was a famous naval captain named Ibrahim who commanded the\u00a0 \u201cMaqdim\u201d. His grandfathers and father were the most influential men in his life. They had very strong personalities that came from their experience of the environment, which they lived in at that time.\u00a0 At their time, they owned a shop, which was the center of political discussion. People from all around the area would sit freely expressing their political views with members of the Al Thani family and other locals.\u00a0 This was an important factor in Al Jefairi\u2019s life, which shaped his personality and left an imprint.\u00a0 He describes himself as \u201cHassan Al Jefairi, the voice of democracy and the oxygen of freedom in Qatar.\u201d\u00a0 He is passionate about his work as a writer and activist.\u00a0 He is referred by some ex-pats as \u201c the nightmare\u201d because once you give him the microphone; he does not stop voicing his opinion. Despite this, Al Jefairi continues daily to advocates hot topics such as fighting for quality education and hiring qualified experienced native English speaker to teach in Qatari independent schools. He speaks about the domestic workers that are often subjected to abuse that in some cases amounts to slavery. \u201cThe labour law is not protecting them,\u201d Al Jefairi says. Dan Hague, an American audiovisual expert and friend of Al Jefairi says, \u201cAt times it is a thankless position\u201d fighting for human right. \u201cQuite so fearless\u201d it takes courage and persistence \u201c He went on to say \u201cI never found anyone with that kind of courage to talk about those kind of issues.\u201d Dan Hague met Al Jefairi through his son Fahed who was a student at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar studying\u00a0 business administration.\u00a0 Fahed was an active intelligent student in the community. <\/p>\n

He was always asked to be the spokes person at youth seminars in Qatar and abroad.\u00a0 Al Jefairi fight to advocate and voice his opinion became stronger when his son \u201cFahed\u201d died in a car accident in 2005. This was the saddest day of Al Jefairi\u2019s life when he received the news on the phone. According to Al Jefairi, he learned that his son was invited to a youth conference in Bahrain through a youth club, which taught radical and extreme ideas.\u00a0 The death of his son changed the course of his life. It gave him the strength and courage to stand up and speak against what he saw as wrong. He wanted to improve the quality of life for the betterment of the Qatari people.<\/p>\n

As a child growing up, he looked up to his father who taught him patient, bravery, and struggles of life\u2019s road. When he complained of the bounty he had, his father would remind him of the blessings. He learned to appreciate the basic necessity of food and water because it was rare in the past.\u00a0 Al Jefairi\u2019s father told him how hard life was in those days.\u00a0\u00a0 People would kill each other over fresh water that was found in an area near Ras Al Khaima.\u00a0 Al Jefairi talks much about Qatar\u2019s past history to many ex-patriots to clear misconceptions about Qatari culture and traditions.\u00a0 He explains that Qatar is not a new civilization but existed for hundreds of years. Qatar has always had an identity and culture.\u00a0 Listening to Al Jefairi talk about Qatar\u2019s past history, I see how proud he is to be a Qatari.\u00a0 He loves the Qatari people.\u00a0 He recalls his first day of school being dragged by one of his relative by his arm to the bus.\u00a0 Frighten, he cried because he thought school was a place were bad things were taught.\u00a0 Crying in a corner of the class room, the students began to sing “madrasatiy madrasatiy kall ma fiee ha Hassan \u201c my school my school everything is nice\u201d. He heard his name Hassan and thought they were singing about him.\u00a0 He stood up and said to the children and teacher\u00a0 \u201cya Hassan it means good\u201d \u201c I am Hassan\u201d \u201c My name is Hassan\u201d.\u00a0 \u201cThey all laughed at me, but I stopped crying and since then I loved the school\u201d This chorus made Al Jefairi like the school. He excelled in school and later in his youth became popular and the best tennis player and goalkeeper. <\/p>\n

Al Jefairis loves to write about birds because as a child the pigeons liked him and love to play with him in the hot afternoons. They would often fly over him and form shade to protect him from the sun light. \u201cPigeons symbolize peace\u201d, he said \u201cand I am a man of peace\u201d.<\/p>\n

He studied in the Arab University in Beirut in 1970, and was frustrated when he compared the open society with the conservative.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t have the freedom to express himself in the past. He became active when democracy came to Qatar in 1996. Qatari\u2019s were given the freedom of speech.\u00a0 This would be the beginning of Al Jefairi true struggle to fight for truth and the rights of Qatari\u2019s. While studying in the United Kingdom, he visited the courts, which helped him to learn how to speak in front of people.\u00a0 He took drama courses as well, which helped him stand in front of an audience. <\/p>\n

He is a funny man with a sense of humor.\u00a0 When he studied in the UK. He explained how he invited his friends over at the end of the month when he was completely broke without any money. He would serve them bread sandwiches. It consisted of a piece of bread on the top and the bottom with the middle piece of bread dabbed with a bit of water. He giggled and smiled shrugging his shoulder. \u201cThat\u2019s all I could afford to offer my friends\u201d. <\/p>\n

His favorite books are \u201cAround the world in 80 days\u201d and \u201cBlack beauty\u201d. Around the world in 80 days reminded him of himself, a man of adventures. <\/p>\n

When asked, where and when would want to live in at any time? He answered \u201cHasten\u2019s in the 1970\u2019s.\u201d Because he knew the people and they love him.\u00a0 Hague describes Al Jefairi as a friend who is there for you at a drop of a hat.\u00a0 He further added \u201cWhat more can you ask\u201d <\/p>\n

Al Jefairi believes he will never get older. He said, \u201cIf Al Jefairi is in ten events today, tomorrow you will see him in twenty.\u00a0 \u2018He will always be active until he dies\u201d, he added. He often speaks of himself in the second person. He continues to say he would like to be remembered as Hassan Al Jefairi, a brave Qatari activist who is fighting for equal opportunities, freedom of speech, empowering women, for a cleaner environment and reducing the gap between the rich and poor. He wants all Qatar Foundation students to remember him when they wake up in the morning and see the Qatari sunshine upon their faces. He goes further saying, you can find him every morning if you concentrate on the morning light, whether dead or alive because \u201cWhen I die my body will die but my soul \u201cHassan Al Jefairi spirit\u201d will never die\u201d.\u00a0 \u201cI am feeling younger everyday\u201d! I am Hassan Al Jefairi.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Salman Al-Khanji \u00a0He sits every day at a different coffee shop in Doha. Stacks of the daily newspapers lay on the table waiting to be unfolded, marked, highlighted and cut up.\u00a0 On the corner of the table are two sets of eyeglasses. Sipping espresso with three sweet and low, he quickly reads the newspaper […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/hassanaljefairi.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/hassanaljefairi.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/hassanaljefairi.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hassanaljefairi.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hassanaljefairi.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1278"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/hassanaljefairi.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1278\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1291,"href":"http:\/\/hassanaljefairi.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1278\/revisions\/1291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/hassanaljefairi.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hassanaljefairi.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hassanaljefairi.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}