I think you have probably misunderstood El-Baghdadi's intentions - it's a bit messy to follow but worth reading through all his Tweets on the subject. The limited nature of Twitter means it's not the best platform for nuanced discussion and he himself acknowledges this and it's an ongoing process with no conclusions reached as yet
I do agree that FIFAs heavy handed approach has made the hysteria worse, if they had simply allowed the captain's to wear the armbands I think there would have been less exposure for the whole issues than the way it has eventually played out
I saw those tweets and I don't think I misunderstood El-Baghdadi's intentions. Admittedly saying "El-Baghdadi seems to be arguing in favour of preserving the status quo in which living in the shadows is the best possible outcome" was poorly phrased, but I somewhat disagree with the way he reasons in terms of cause and effect.
Mainly because I don't think there is a way to address LGBT issues, by the West or anyone else, that wouldn't initially lead to massive social backlash. Even in campaigns in football in recent years that weren't specifically about this world cup or LGBT rights elsewhere, for instance the rainbow laces campaign in the Premier League, social media abuse is absolutely vile. Of course a lot of that from within the UK, but also a lot from people outside of the country.
While El-Baghdadi might not endorse the views, using examples like
"As a person from Qatar, I can tell you the way society sees the rainbow symbol shifted from an “LGBT” symbol to a symbol of western racism trying to tell us they care about humans more than us barbarians. That shift happened after the organized european media campaign.".
to support his point that western media is causing more damage seems somewhat disingenuous. I'm sure that narrative has gained traction more recently, but I don't think at any point were LGBT rights and the rainbow flag not seen as a Western thing in many parts of the world. Pretty sure Putin also has used similar rhetoric recently, implying LGBT issues are Western corruption or something along that line. Branding it as neocolonialism or racism is just a convenient defence; the actual attitude towards the issue remains the same whether you reject LGBT people on religious grounds, or supposedly in protest to Western self-righteousness.
Not everything I'm saying here or in my previous comment are directly tied to or opposing those tweets, and maybe I'm wrong on some points. I just think LGBT rights have gained a lot of traction and support in Western Europe over the past decade, and at least superficially as well in football. And as with most causes, more visibility often causes more outspoken reactions from people with differing viewpoints. Ideological polarisation, or at least the perception thereof online, is something we're seeing in many forms on different topics around the world. Maybe it's always been like that, the constant action and reaction back and forth between traditional values versus progressive (for lack of a better word) values, maybe it's happening more than ever. That's why I don't know if it's right to pin increasingly vocal anti-LGBT rhetoric that much on western media in connection with the world cup.
Of course it shouldn't be up to the West to decide to unleash that backlash on the local queer community, but as other tweets under his have pointed out, even as an experienced human rights activist El-Baghdadi also doesn't speak for the local LGBT community. It's a complicated topic for sure, and as with many things there's really no right answer. I'm curious to see what he has to say after speaking to LGBT Arabs