The recent passing of Qatar’s former ruler, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, has predictably triggered an avalanche of sanitized hagiography across Western capitals. Eulogists have rushed to celebrate the Father Emir as a visionary modernizer who transformed a desolate Gulf peninsula into an economic powerhouse. They point to the Doha skyline, the 2022 World Cup, and a staggering expansion of national wealth as proof of benign brilliance.