Houthi Islamic Scholar Dr. Ahmad Al-Shami: The West Has A Double Standard Regarding Freedom Of Expression – Why It Is OK To Burn The Quran But Not The LGBTQ+ Flag?

Houthi Islamic scholar Dr. Ahmad Al-Shami said that the West has a double standard when it comes to freedom of expression. He made his remarks during a Friday sermon that was delivered at Al-Firdaus Mosque in Sana'a, on Al-Eman TV (Houthis-Yemen), and was posted on Al-Eman's Youtube channel on September 13, 2021. Al-Shami gave the example of an American who burned the LGBTQ+ pride flag, who was sentenced to 18 years in prison. He compared this with the burning of the Quran, which according to Al-Shami is merely considered a matter of freedom of expression in the West. He said: "All you promiscuous and morally depraved (people) are the creation of America." For more about Ahmad Al-Shami, see MEMRITV clip no 8944.

Ahmad Al-Shami: "Freedom and human rights only mean human rights of the Westerners. The freedom that they want to promote through NGOs, and by the means of people defeated by Western civilization, is Western-style freedom. It means that one if free to take the holy Quran and burn it, as was done at a courthouse in America, and was also done a couple of days ago by a criminal MP in Europe or America. Many TV channels showed that he burned the Quran in front of his house.

"What did the defeatists and the Americans say? They said that this was freedom of expression. However, when a zealous Christian American burned the flag of the homosexuals – the flag of the people who allow for homosexuality and lesbianism – he was sentenced to 18 years by the court in America. Log on to the BBC website. They talk about it. 18 years in prison.

"Why is burning the Quran considered personal freedom and freedom of expression, while burning the colorful flag hurts the feelings of several thousands depraved homosexuals? Burning the Quran does not hurt the feelings of one billion and 600 million people? This is strange. These are double standards.

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"When the official authorities close a certain restaurant, that has a gay logo, then you hear all the crows crowing on Facebook and on social media, and silencing anyone who wants to defend this move, saying: 'Shut up, don’t say a word,' accusing anyone who talks [about this] of belonging to ISIS. All you promiscuous and morally depraved [people] are the creation of America. The promiscuous, deformed, and homosexuals were all created by America."