Former Qatar national team player Khalid Salman told a German journalist that being gay is “haram” or forbidden in Arabic and that he has a problem with children seeing gays. Excerpts of the television interview were shown on Monday on the ZDF Heute Journal news program. The full interview, which is part of a documentary, will be shown on ZDF on Tuesday. Germany’s interior minister condemned Salman’s remarks. “Of course, comments like that are terrible, and that’s why we’re working to hopefully improve things in Qatar,” Nancy Feiser said Tuesday. British Foreign Secretary James Cleverley faced criticism in October after he told gay football fans going to the World Cup in Qatar that they should show some “compromise” and “respect the host nation”. The comments were quickly dismissed by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s office, with a senior official in the opposition Labor Party calling them “shockingly tone-deaf”. About 1.2 million international visitors are expected in Qatar for the tournament, which has faced criticism and skepticism since the gas-rich emirate was chosen to host by FIFA in December 2010. Concerns about LGBTQ tourists attending the World Cup Cup have also been expressed for a long time.
Gays ‘will have to accept our rules’
In the interview, Salman also said that homosexuality “is a spiritual defect.” “During the World Cup, a lot of things will come up here in the country. Let’s talk about gays,” Salman said in English, which was simultaneously dubbed into German on the TV segment. “The most important thing is that everyone will accept that they are coming here. But they will have to accept our rules.” The interview was interrupted by a World Cup organizing committee media official after Salman expressed his views on gays, ZDF reported. Faeser, who is also in charge of sports, said when she visited Qatar a week ago, the country’s prime minister had given her a “security guarantee” for fans “regardless of where they come from, who they love and what they believe in”. . Fazer said that this attitude has not been changed by the prime minister, who is also Qatar’s interior minister. He plans to follow up with a trip to Germany’s World Cup opener against Japan. Last month, Germany’s ambassador to Qatar was summoned by the government there after Feser appeared to criticize the country’s human rights record. Watch the new CBC Sports Soccer North broadcast every week on the CBC Gem channel and the CBC Sports YouTube channel. Hosted by Andi Petrillo, Soccer North brings Canadians closer to the most interesting soccer headlines happening on and off the field.
