Qatar’s senior security leader has caused uproar among equality groups after warning that rainbow flags could be taken off fans at the World Cup “for their own protection”.
Major General Abdulaziz Abdullah al-Ansari said that LGBTQ fans and couples would be welcomed and accepted in Qatar during the tournament in November and December, despite same-sex relationships remaining a criminal offence in the conservative Gulf nation.
Fifa has previously said that rainbow flags would be permitted in stadiums but Ansari, the chairman of the National Counterterrorism Committee at the Ministry of Interior, said that there should be no promotion of gay rights.
He told the Associated Press: “If he [a fan] raised the rainbow flag and I took it from him, it’s not because I really
