By Claudia Otto, Inke Kappeler and Radina Gigova, CNN
Qatar’s ambassador to the World Cup and former footballer Khalid Salman, homosexuality is “a pity in the mind”, in an interview with German broadcaster ZDF on Monday.
The interview, filmed in Doha less than two weeks before the tournament began, was immediately interrupted by an official from the World Cup organizing committee.
During the interview, Salman discussed the factor of illegal homosexuality in Qatar.
Salman told ZDF that being gay is “haram,” which is forbidden under Islamic law. “It’s a pain in the mind,” Salman said.
As many other people are expected to travel to Qatar for the World Cup, “let’s talk about homosexuals,” Salman said.
“The most important thing is for everyone to come here. But they will have to make do with our rules,” he said, adding that he feared young people would be informed of “something that is not good. “
Salman, Qatari footballer in the 1980s and 1990s.
He competed at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles and decided to be one of the ambassadors of the tournament’s host country.
Qatar will host the 2022 FIFA World Cup from November 20 to December 18.
His comments drew strong complaints from human rights activist Rasha Younes, senior LGBT rights researcher at Human Rights Watch, who called Salman’s comments “harmful and unacceptable. “
“The Qatari government’s failure to counter this fake news has a significant impact on the lives of Qatari residents #LGBT,” he said on Twitter.
This comes as the awarding of the football tournament to Qatar has been heavily criticized due to the human rights scenario in the Gulf state and the remedy of foreign workers.
Earlier this month, soccer’s world governing body, FIFA, suggested nations participating in the 2022 World Cup participate in football when the tournament begins.
FIFA showed CNN that a letter signed by FIFA President Gianni Infantino and Secretary General of the Governance Framework Fatma Samoura sent to 32 countries participating in the global centerpiece on Thursday, but did not disclose its contents.
“If Gianni Infantino needs the world to ‘focus on football’, there is an undeniable solution: FIFA can nevertheless start addressing serious human rights issues rather than ignoring them,” said Steve Cockburn, Amnesty International’s Head of Economic and Social Affairs. Social justice.
“A first step would be to publicly dedicate themselves to creating a fund to compensate migrant staff before the tournament starts so that LGBT people are not discriminated against or harassed. It’s unbelievable that they haven’t done it yet. “
“Gianni Infantino is right to say that ‘football does not exist in a vacuum’. Hundreds of thousands of employees have been abused to make this tournament imaginable and their rights cannot be forgotten or denied.
“They deserve justice and compensation, empty words and time is running out. “
El-CNN-Wire™
CNN’s Sammy Mngqosini contributed to this report.
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