Opn: Dr. Nasser 'Nas' Mohamed sought asylum the US after g out as gay. Here's what he wants people to know about Qatar | CNN

Contents:

• THIS MAN FLED QATAR FEAR OF PERSECUTN BEE HE'S GAY. NOW HE'S PHG BACK
• GAY MAN 'HUNTED' BY QATAR POLICE AND GANG-RAPED HOTEL ROOM AHEAD OF WORLD CUP
• WHAT ’S LIKE TO BE GAY AND QATARI
• GAY QATARIS PHYSILLY ABED THEN RECED AS AGENTS, MPAIGNER SAYS
• ‘THEY STARVE YOU. THEY SHOCK YOU’: INSI THE ANTI-GAY POGROM CHECHNYA
• EVERYTHG YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BEG GAY MLIM UNTRI
• 13 UNTRI WHERE BEG GAY IS LEGALLY PUNISHABLE BY ATH
• OPN: DR. NASSER ‘NAS’ MOHAMED SOUGHT ASYLUM THE US AFTER G OUT AS GAY. HERE’S WHAT HE WANTS PEOPLE TO KNOW ABOUT QATAR
• TRAVEL SAFETY REPORT: 20 WORST PLAC FOR GAY TRAVELERS IN 2021
• GAY QATARI MAN WON’T LET WORLD CUP ‘BURY’ LGBTQ+ ATROCI ‘ THE SHADOWS’

THIS MAN FLED QATAR FEAR OF PERSECUTN BEE HE'S GAY. NOW HE'S PHG BACK

In the months sce, Mohamed lnched the non-prof Alwan Foundatn to advance LGBTQ+ rights across the Middle East and pecially Qatar, where he says that secury operativ filtrate gay muni orr to torture and erce members to rm on others. There are some people om really affluent fai that are gay and ’s almost public knowledge—but they’re really wealthy, affluent, and very nnected, so people jt don’t say anythg. (Beit) – Qatar Preventive Secury Department forc have arbrarily arrted lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr (LGBT) people and subjected them to ill-treatment tentn, Human Rights Watch said today.

A Qatari gay man who has experienced ernment reprsn, cludg arbrary arrt, said that secury forc surveilled and arrted him based on his onle activy. It's an LGBTQ2+ soccer supporters club for Qatar's natnal team, named after the lour of the team's World Cup ambassador: Homosexualy is 'damage the md'As the tournament rolls on, Qatar ntu to face global scty for s crimalizatn of homosexualy. In November the 2022 FIFA Men’s World Cup opens Qatar, a untry that reprs the rights of lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr people and punish same-sex relatns wh up to seven years prison.

GAY MAN 'HUNTED' BY QATAR POLICE AND GANG-RAPED HOTEL ROOM AHEAD OF WORLD CUP

It found that only 33 did not object to bookg same-sex upl, while 20 others said that “they would acmodate same-sex upl as long as they did not publicly show that they were gay. The World Cup will start jt two weeks' time, spe grave ncerns over Qatar's rerd on human rights, wh the Middle East untry ntug to persecute the LGBT+ munyA gay man has claimed he was hunted by police ahead of the upg World CupA gay man who has prevly livg Qatar has claimed he was 'hunted' by the untry's police force before beg gang-raped a hotel room. One of the biggt ncerns about the Middle East untry is s laws which outlaw homosexualy, wh LGBT+ people the untry at risk of imprisonment or even the ath penalty.

Gay Qataris have been promised safety om physil torture exchange for helpg the thori to track down other LGBTQ+ people the untry, a proment Qatari doctor and gay rights mpaigner has told the Nasser Mohamed, who liv the US but retas ntact wh hundreds of gay Qataris, said that some secret works had been promised after arrts by Qatar’s preventive secury partment.

WHAT ’S LIKE TO BE GAY AND QATARI

“Now there are agents the gay muny that were promised safety om physil torture exchange for workg for the preventive secury partment and helpg them fd groups of LGBTQ+ people. ”Last month Human Rights Watch reported that Qatar’s preventive secury partment forc had arbrarily arrted lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr people and subjected them to ill‑treatment tentn.

GAY QATARIS PHYSILLY ABED THEN RECED AS AGENTS, MPAIGNER SAYS

But for the young man who lls himself Maksim, as for sr of other gay men arrted a pogrom this month Rsia’s Chechnya regn, pivoted to nearly two weeks of beatgs and said had started wh a chat room nversatn wh “a very good old iend who is also gay, ” and who suggted that they meet at an apartment. Kadyrov, is a new turn the regn’s long history of rights Gazeta, an opposn newspaper, first reported the pogrom, sayg that at least 100 gay men had been arrted and three killed the roundup.

The victims e assumed nam their everyday followg acunt is based on terviews wh Maksim, who is his 20s, and two other gay men who were taed by Chechen secury agents. ” Hill for The New York TimThe crackdown began after GayRsia, a rights group based Mosw, applied for perms for gay pri paras the Cs regn, promptg unterprotts by relig groups, the men said. In Chechnya, beme somethg even worse — a mass “prophylactic” cleansg of homosexuals, the secury service agents told the gay men as they round them men were held for as ltle as a day or as long as several weeks, acrdg to Human Rights Watch and to terviews wh gay men who later ped the regn.

Pkov, told journalists that the Rsian thori had found no evince that the Chechen police had arrted gay quickly beme clear to Maksim and the other men that the Chechen thori were applyg the same tactics ed by Rsia and by Mr. Secury service agents took to posg as gay men lookg for dat on the Village and other chat rooms, or persuad those they had already ptured to lure acquatanc, those arrted said spread among gay Chechens. His acunt of the ceptn ed to ta him was nsistent wh others documented by Human Rights Watch and wh the acunts of the two other gay men terviewed separately for this six of the men the apartment were transferred to a makhift cell an abandoned buildg, where they were tortured wh electricy one by one, Maksim 11 days, he was released to a male relative, who was told that Maksim was gay.

‘THEY STARVE YOU. THEY SHOCK YOU’: INSI THE ANTI-GAY POGROM CHECHNYA

Petersburg, which has tablished an emergency, round-the-clock volunteer group to help gay men pe the reassure the victims they are tryg to help, the activists have taken extraordary preutns, operatg virtually as a partisan cell behd enemy l, though they have done nothg illegal unr Rsian law. “The people don’t tst anybody, ” said Olga Baranova, director of the Mosw Communy Center, a support group for gays that is part of the volunteer work helpg gay men flee arrivg at the safe lotn outsi Chechnya, several young men said they had spected that the volunteer group was also a trap but had no other optn but to accept the help, Ms.

For ee real time breakg news alerts sent straight to your box sign up to our breakg news emailsSign up to our ee breakg news emailsDegree-ted, bi-lgual and wh a well-tablished reer at one of the untry’s leadg pani, Hamad is, to all appearanc, the very epome of morn-day, outward-lookg he harbours a secret, one which he says he has no choice but to keep hidn at all tim; Hamad is gay – a untry where homosexualy is illegal. A nservative, relig, thorarian state which appli Sharia law, theoretilly Qatar uld apply the ath penalty for homosexualy, although no such punishment has been is one of almost 70 untri intified worldwi by the Internatnal Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Associatn (ILGA), which crimalis nsensual same-sex activy. But one voice has been nspicuoly quiet – that of lol gay Inpennt has spoken to several lol LGBT+ people about their day-to-day liv, about existg a society where their sexualy is not only a crime, but also clash agast wily-held societal and relig beliefs.

EVERYTHG YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BEG GAY MLIM UNTRI

Their homosexualy is seen as somethg worse than a mere transgrsn agast the law; is a tell of an anx existence, one domated by the need to keep somethg as natural as their sexualy hidn for fear of shamg, reprisal, sexual asslt or imprisonment om a batn of fay members, iends, work lleagu and, ultimately, the speak of an unjtns that se homosexualy perceived as somethg “worse” than other societal transgrsns cludg drkg alhol, or adultery. Society has tght that we should not accept ourselv as beg gay bee is abnormal to human nature‘Jassim', an LGBT+ Qatari“I look at people who e here to Qatar as if they are wdow drsg, ” says Jassim, another LGBT+ Qatari.

”Those nsequenc even extend beyond the here and now, he says, as they were tght that gay people would “get the worst plac hell” for their behavur while alive. ”Those people The Inpennt have spoken to were unanimo claimg there is no such thg as a gay muny wh Qatar, more a llectn of dividuals who closely guard their secret for safety reasons.

Ironilly, gay foreigners Qatar (the untry’s populatn is almost 90 per cent foreign) avoid gay lols onle for the same reason, says claims that some gay Qataris have taken to g datg apps for straight people to try and avoid tectn, and hopefully fd like-md people dog the same. In Augt 2016, lol English language news webse Doha News published a first-person article om a Qatari, Majid, scribg his life as a gay man the issue was emed so sensive that Doha News boss ma sure to prs the button to publish only when knew all s staff were out of the backlash was immediate.

13 UNTRI WHERE BEG GAY IS LEGALLY PUNISHABLE BY ATH

A fulmatg op-ed a lol Arabic language newspaper pared homosexual acts and animals, talked of Doha News “openg the door of filthy perversn” and railed Qataris to “never rema silent” about this matter. But some opposed to homosexualy view the whole procs as an attempt to force outsi views on Qatar, and therefore, see gays as “pawns” of the Wt, says argu that those who are LGBT+ Qatar don’t need “Wtern savurs”, nor seek a gay culture that replit many around the world.

Acrdg to the kgdom’s relig police, the school was fed 100, 000 riyals ($26, 650) for displayg “the emblem of the homosexuals” on s buildg, one of s admistrators was jailed and the offendg parapet was swiftly repated to match a blue rabow-ee se of the gaily pated school shows how progrs one part of the world n have adverse effects elsewhere and serv as a remr that there are plac where the nnectn between rabows and LGBT rights is eher new or yet to be Afghanistan, only a few years ago, there was a craze for ratg rs wh rabow stickers – which Che factori were only too happy to supply. It wasn’t until the Afghan Pajhwok news agency explaed how they might be misterpreted that the craze me to a sudn on the ter and you will also fd pi of the “Rabow Qur’an” for sale – an unnscly gay edn of the holy book wh tted pag of every hue and remend on one webse as “an ial gift for Mlims” there are two sis to this cross-cultural misunrstandg.

Genr segregatn, which go to extreme lengths the more nservative Mlim untri, enurag homosocial behavur, creatg a suatn where men are often more fortable the prence of other men and where placg a hand on another man’s knee is a sign of iendship, not an vatn to sex.

OPN: DR. NASSER ‘NAS’ MOHAMED SOUGHT ASYLUM THE US AFTER G OUT AS GAY. HERE’S WHAT HE WANTS PEOPLE TO KNOW ABOUT QATAR

Historilly, Mlim societi have often acknowledged this – toleratg to some extent even if they the 19th and early 20th centuri, men who had been persecuted for their sexualy Europe often sought refuge Moroc and, long before same-sex marriage was dreamed of the wt, male-on-male partnerships were regnised – and marked wh a ceremony – the remote Egyptian oasis of some Mlim untri, whole towns have bee the butt of jok about the supposed homosexualy of their habants. In Egypt, for example, an old law agast “bchery” is often laws have a tastrophic effect on the liv of people who are unlucky enough to get ught but, spe ocsnal crackdowns, the thori don’t, on the whole, actively seek out gay people to arrt them. In England 1952, there were 670 prosecutns for sodomy, 3, 087 for attempted sodomy or cent asslt, and 1, 686 for gross problem wh such laws, even if not vigoroly enforced, is that they signal official disapproval of homosexualy and, upled wh the fulmatns of relig scholars, legimise discrimatn by dividuals at an everyday level and may also provi an exce for actn by vigilant.

Years before Isis began throwg allegedly gay men off the top of buildgs, other groups Iraq were attackg “un-manly” men – sometim killg them slowly by jectg glue to the reason for the paratively small number of prosecutns is the official fictn that gay people don’t exist to any great extent Mlim untri; homosexualy is regard primarily as a wtern phenomenon and large numbers of arrts would ll that to qutn.

Some of the most btal Arab regim (Iraq unr Saddam Hse and Syria unr the Assads, for example) also showed ltle tert attackg gay people – probably bee they had other thgs to worry Syrian refugee Subhi Nahas wh the US ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power, durg an rmal meetg on the persecutn of LGBT people by Isis.

TRAVEL SAFETY REPORT: 20 WORST PLAC FOR GAY TRAVELERS IN 2021

For those ught, the effect on their liv is tastrophic but the law is not much of a terrent and for those who are discreet about their sexualy the risk of arrt is the vast majory who intify as gay, lbian or transgenr the attus of fay and society are a much bigger one issue that affects all gay people – everywhere – at some pot their liv is g out. In Egypt and Lebanon – predomantly Mlim untri wh a large Christian populatn – attus towards homosexualy among Christians are not very different om those among Mlims. Also, ’s clear that the prophet Muhammad never specified a punishment for homosexualy; wasn’t until some years after his ath that Mlims began discsg what a suable punishment might nmnatns of homosexualy, like those Christiany, are based maly on the story about God’s punishment of Sodom and Gomorrah which is reunted the Qur’an as well as the Old Ttament.

Although Mlim societi today n be scribed as generally homophobic, ’s a mistake to view homophobia as a self-ntaed problem: ’s part of a syndrome which the rights of dividuals are subsumed the perceived terts of the muny and – often – matag an “Islamic” ethos.

GAY QATARI MAN WON’T LET WORLD CUP ‘BURY’ LGBTQ+ ATROCI ‘ THE SHADOWS’

“Transgenr” is a broad term which clus tersex people (whose blogil sex is unclear or was wrongly assigned at birth), those wh genr dysphoria (who feel like “a man trapped a woman’s body”, or vice versa) and may also clu others who simply get pleasure or satisfactn om police e a water nnon to disperse LGBT rights activists before a Gay Pri para central Istanbul, Turkey. There were also many who found the ncept of genr dysphoria difficult to grasp and some characterised her as a gay man who was tryg to game the affair rulted a fatwa om Muhammad Tantawi, Egypt’s grand mufti, which is still ced s across the regn today.

There are plenty of trans people who simply wish to be accepted as they are – whout surgery – and the Iranian system don’t really provi for, the difference between beg transgenr and gay is not well unrstood Iran, even wh the medil profsn, and there have been reports of gay men beg prsured to surgery as a way of “regularisg” their legal posn and avoidg the risk of executn. My Kali, a Jordanian magaze which aims “to addrs homophobia and transphobia and empower the youth to fy mastream genr bari the Arab world” has been published regularly sce far, no one has attempted to hold a Pri para an Arab untry, though there have been paras the Turkish cy of Istanbul sce 2003 (not whout opposn). However, there have been activi Lebanon and elsewhere lked to IDAHOT, the Internatnal Day Agast Homophobia and Transphobia, which is viewed as ls likely to aroe hostily.

Relativ of 26 men who were arrted a televised raid by police lookg for gay people at a Cairo public bathhoe celebrate after the urt acquted them.