Qatari 'Sociologist' Blames Beirut Blast on 'Blasphemy, Plastic Surgery'

A Qatari sociologist says “blasphemy” in Lebanon — including an anti-Islamic culture of gays, promiscuous women, and plastic surgery — is to blame for last week’s port explosion in Beirut.

Abd al-Zaziz al-Khazraj al-Ansari is described as a “sociologist” by The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), which has translated several of his controversial commentary videos from Arabic to English. On August 6, Ansari uploaded a video to his Youtube channel in which he claims that Lebanon’s devastating port explosion in Beirut on August 4 was “divine punishment” for the eastern Mediterranean country’s pro-Western culture, as compared to more Islamic countries.

The blast killed at least 220 people and injured 7,000 more.

Ansari said in the video that the Beirut port explosion “was caused by the Lebanese people’s propensity towards blasphemy, plastic surgery, and sodomy,” according to the report.

“This is a message to our people in Lebanon [in the wake of the Beirut Port explosion]: You all have attacked the laws decreed by Allah for the world. The number one [reason for the disaster] is blasphemy,” MEMRI’s translation of Ansari’s video reads.

“85 percent of Lebanese girls are not married. What do you think they are doing? Making origami models with the boys? Collecting stamps? Most of them are involved in forbidden relationships,” Ansari alleged.

“Lebanon is famous for changing Allah’s creation,” Ansari said, referring to plastic surgery. “You want to puff your lips? Augment your breasts? Change your face? Go to Lebanon.”

“In addition, Lebanon is famous for the prevalence of sodomy and the abundance of homosexuals in it,” Ansari claimed.

“Most schools of [Islamic] shari’ah law view homosexual sex as deserving the same punishment as adultery, i.e. death,” the BBC notes. Ansari’s home country, Qatar, is one of several Islamic states that imposes the death penalty on people found guilty of engaging in what the court defines as homosexual acts.

Ansari has previously published videos online in which he called for the hanging and crucifixion of reformist intellectuals in Islam, and demonstrates “correct wife-beating in Islam.”