MUSLIM HATE FOR GAYS
Gays in the Islamic World
June 28, 2005
by Deroy Murdock
This weekend’s Gay Pride festivities in New York City climaxed with Sunday’s 36th annual parade down Fifth Avenue. As usual, the raucous affair thrilled some and rattled others, but everyone walked away intact.
One would have to fantasize about such an occasion, however, in most Muslim nations where homosexuality remains as concealed as a bride beneath a burqa. When it peeks through, it isn’t pretty. While many liberals (and President G.W. Bush) call Islam a religion of peace, “celebrating diversity” is hardly on its agenda. Consider these recent examples of the Islamic world’s institutional homophobia:
In Saudi Arabia, 105 men were sentenced in
April for acts of “deviant sexual behavior”
following their March arrests. Al-Wifaq, a government-affiliated newspaper,
claimed they illegally danced together and were “behaving like women” at a gay
wedding.
“Calling the event a ‘gay wedding’ has become a lightning rod to justify discrimination against gay people,” Widney Brown of Human Rights Watch told Patrick Letellier of gay.com.
Seventy men received one-year prison sentences while 31 got six months to one year, plus 200 lashes each. Four others face two years behind bars plus 2,000 lashes. If these four receive their lashes at once, Brown fears their wounds will prove fatal.
“Anyone caught committing sodomy – kill both the sodomizer and the sodomized,” Islamic cleric Tareq Sweidan demanded on Qatar TV last April 22. As the Middle East Media Research Institute (memri.org) reports, Sweidan continued: “The clerics determined how the homosexual should be killed. They said he should be stoned to death. Some clerics said he should be thrown off a mountain.”
Ogudu Emmanuel and Odjegba Tevin admitted that they were male lovers after their neighbors reported them to Nigerian cops. They were arrested January 15 and charged with “crimes against nature.” The pair apparently escaped from jail while awaiting trial and potential 14-year prison sentences. Gay rights activists worried that cops or other inmates may have killed them in custody.
Last November, an Islamic court in Keffi, issued an arrest warrant for Michael Ifediora Nwokoma after neighbors accused him of having sex with a man named Mallam Abdullahi Ibrahim. Nwokoma quickly fled. Ibrahim was charged with the “unholy” act of “homosexualism.” The court postponed Ibrahim’s trial indefinitely and incarcerated him until Nwokoma surfaces.
In northern Nigeria, where Sharia law governs 12 Muslim states, homosexuality requires capital punishment by stoning.
Iraq’s terrorist Ansar al-Sunnah Army, the Islamic Army in Iraq, and the Mujahedeen Army issued a statement last December 30 urging Iraqis not to vote in last January’s elections, lest democracy spawn un-Islamic laws such as “homosexual marriage,” in their words. To be sure, many Americans also oppose gay marriage, but they at least have the good manners not to detonate advocates of same-sex unions. Ansar-al-Sunnah is incapable of such restraint. It scored major headlines when it claimed responsibility for a December 21 bombing at a U.S. military mess tent at a base in Mosul. It killed 22 people, 18 U.S. GIs among them.
Egyptian cops have met gay men online and through personal ads, then arrested them, according to a March 1, 2004 Human Rights Watch report. Since 2001, HRW says at least 179 men have been charged with “debauchery,” prompting five-year prison sentences for at least 23. As the Associated Press’ Nadia Abou El-Magd wrote, HRW “interviewed 63 men who had been arrested for homosexual conduct. It said they spoke of being whipped, bound and suspended in painful positions, splashed with cold water, burned with cigarettes, shocked with electricity to the limbs, genital or tongue. They also said guards encouraged other prisoners to rape them” – thus using coercive gay sex to penalize consensual gay sex.
While he notes that secular nations such as Jordan, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Syria are more relaxed about homosexuality, Robert Spencer, director of JihadWatch.org and editor of The Myth of Islamic Tolerance, warns against equating the homophobia of strict Muslim states with, say, American social conservatives’ opposition to gay-rights laws.
“Jerry Falwell and others like him do not call for the deaths of homosexuals, while these people do,” Spencer tells me. “This demonstrates the bankruptcy and, ultimately, the danger of such moral equivalence arguments, which are nonetheless ubiquitous today in discussions of Islamic terrorism.”
Unlike Sunday’s marchers, many in the Muslim world literally risk their lives and limbs by merely peering out of the Islamic closet.
New York commentator Deroy Murdock is a syndicated columnist with the Scripps Howard News Service, and a fellow of the Atlas Economic Research Foundation.
Gays Get Death Threats From Islamic Fundamentalists
LONDON, July 18 – Three of leading members of Outrage! have received repeated death threats from Islamic fundamentalists in recent weeks and months, it was revealed today.
Peter Tatchell, OutRage! campaign coordinator Brett Lock, and gay Muslim and OutRage! spokesperson on Muslim affairs, Aaron Saeed, have been told they are on a “hit list” and are going to be “beheaded” and “chopped up”, in accordance with “Islamic law”.
The threats began soon after OutRage! stepped up its campaign in defence of gay Muslims, including gay Muslims fleeing attempted “honour killings” in Algeria, Iran, Palestine and in the UK.
The threats have been reported to the police. Officers have identified the phone number but have been unable to trace the owner, as it is a pay-as-you-go mobile phone.
The same Islamic fundamentalists have also threatened “attacks” on the whole gay community: “Just you wait, you'll see”, they warned Peter Tatchell in a chilling late night phone call. The caller said: “We are going to punish you all…The punishment for sodomy is death.”
“If the terrorists want to attack the gay community, they may well attempt to detonate a bomb in a crowded gay bar, restaurant, club or community centre,” according to Brett Lock.
“We also urge extra security and special vigilance in gay areas like Canal Street and Old Compton Street, and at up-coming, publicly advertised gay events like Big Gay Out and Soho Pride.
“Since early April, Islamic fundamentalists have made various attempts to track the movements of Peter Tatchell, variously posing as journalists, police officers and representatives of the Muslim Council of Britain.
“Because of previous murder plots, enhanced security checks and restricted access to Mr Tatchell have thwarted these attempts.”
Lock said that security chiefs suspect there are other terrorist cells in the UK. And he said that when they strike next, it could be outside London.
“Liberal Muslims, Jews and gay people are possible targets for future attacks,” Locke said. “All gay venues throughout the country should install CCTV and search everyone who enters.
“In April 1999, OutRage! issued a similar warning after the Brixton and Brick Lane bombs, advising that gay venues could be targeted and urging increased security. The OutRage! warning was mostly ignored. Five days later, neo-Nazi David Copeland exploded a bomb in the Admiral Duncan gay bar in Soho, killing three people.
“It would be very foolish to ignore the possibility of Islamists bombing a gay bar or club,” said Mr Lock.
Iran 'must stop youth executions'
By Steven Eke
BBC News
A US-based human rights organisation has called on Iran to end the execution of juvenile offenders.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Iran was in breach of international agreements it had signed up to.
The call follows last week's public hanging of two youths convicted of still unclear sexual offences.
Iran insists the youths were convicted of raping a younger boy. However gay rights organisations say the youths were executed for being homosexual.
'Inhumane punishment'
The case has had considerable global resonance.
Leading European and US gay organisations and publications have already launched letter-writing protest campaigns, and plan to hold demonstrations outside Iranian embassies over the coming weeks.
In a statement issued on Thursday, HRW said Iran was one of only five countries to continue executing juveniles and called for an end to what it called an inhumane punishment.
The Iranian judiciary has reacted angrily to the international outrage surrounding the public hanging of Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni, whom rights activists claim were aged 16 and 18.
Officials said they had been sentenced to whipping and hanging for rape, drinking alcohol and disturbing public order, and deserved the punishment they got.
Rare, close-up pictures of the execution were rapidly published on the internet. In them, officials can be seen placing nooses around the necks of the two obviously distressed, young men.
Public executions are not unusual in Iran but the execution of juveniles often attracts international opprobrium.
The case has been adopted as a cause celebre by gay rights groups.
They say the majority of media reports suggest the official charges were fabricated to reduce any public sympathy for the youths and that the real reason was the youths' sexual orientation.
Homosexuality is illegal in almost all Muslim countries, and punishable by death in many of them.
But gay and human rights groups say Iran's record is particularly shocking, having executed possibly thousands of gay men since the Islamic revolution.
November 27, 2005
Story from BBC
NEWS:
Published: 2005/07/28 18:39:26 GMT
BY JIM KRANE
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- More than two dozen gay Arab men -- arrested at what police called a mass homosexual wedding -- could face government-ordered hormone treatments, five years in jail and a lashing, authorities said Saturday.
The Interior Ministry said police raided a hotel chalet earlier this month and arrested 22 men from the Emirates as they celebrated the wedding ceremony.
Outward homosexual behavior is banned in the United Arab Emirates, and the gay group wedding has alarmed leaders of this once-isolated Muslim country as it grapples with an influx of Western residents and culture.
The Arabian peninsula, nevertheless, has a long tradition of openly homosexual wedding singers and dancers.
Police acting on a tip raided the hotel and found a dozen men dressed as female brides and a dozen others in male Arab dress, apparently preparing for a wedding ceremony, said Interior Ministry spokesman Issam Azouri.
''It was a real party with balloons and champagne,'' he said.
Azouri said the Interior Ministry's department of social support would try to direct the men away from homosexual behavior -- using methods including male hormone treatments, if the men are found to be deficient. AP
Muslim council condemns gay-marriage judgment
Johannesburg, South Africa
02 December 2005
The Constitutional Court
judgement on same-sex marriages is a step backward that will have serious
repercussions on the moral and social fabric of society, the Council of Muslim
Theologians said on Friday.
"It is ironic that the December 1 judgement of the Constitutional Court
recognising same-sex marriages coincides with World Aids Awareness Day -- a day
that bears testimony to the scourge of sexual promiscuity," said a statement
from the council's KwaZulu-Natal branch.
"Same-sex marriages are a violation of the limits prescribed by the Almighty, a
reversal of the natural order, a moral disorder and a crime against humanity.
"No person is born homosexual, just like no one is born a thief, a liar or
murderer. People acquire these evil habits because of widespread nude and
shameless social interaction."
Homosexuality deprives a man of his manhood and a woman of her womanhood and
leads to the destruction of family life.
"The Jamiatul Ulama (KwaZulu-Natal) views the judgement as a step backward which
will have serious repercussions on the moral and social fabric of society."
Earlier, the Marriage Alliance of South Africa welcomed the ruling that
Parliament change the Marriage Act within a year to allow same-sex marriages.
"We endorse and support the court's referral of the matter to Parliament and
thereby placing the final responsibility for the outcome on civil society and
the people of South Africa."
The alliance's Reverend Moss Nthla said: "The court has wisely taken the debate
away from the lofty heights of a Eurocentric, academic and legal platform to the
elected representatives of the people of South Africa.
"Hopefully the HSRC [Human Sciences Research Council] survey which reflects that
80% of the people in South Africa oppose same-sex marriage will have an effect
on the conclusions of Parliament in this debate."
The court also ordered that if the necessary change is not done within a year,
the words "or spouse" should be added to the relevant section of the Marriage
Act to take away the restriction that a marriage is only between a man and a
woman.
The judgement has received a mixed reaction of joy from gay groups, but outrage
from religious groups and some political parties.
People at the judgement were also disappointed that they have to wait another
year before they can marry. -- Sapa
Sacranie charge dropped, but Muslim gay row continues
-23/01/06
The Metropolitan Police have confirmed
that there will be no further action taken against Sir Iqbal Sacranie, head of
the Muslim Council of Britain umbrella group, after the Crown Prosecution
Service advised that he had no case to answer for alleged anti-gay comments on a
BBC radio programme.
But Muslim leaders immediately became involved in another row, after the
organisers of a Festival of Muslim Cultures due to be opened in Sheffield
tomorrow by Prince Charles refused permission for an event to celebrate the
lives of gay Muslims.
Aaron Saeed, Muslim affairs spokesperson for the gay rights group OutRage! had
offered to stage such an event, but told the Guardian newspaper that “we were
told that gay Muslims don’t belong in a festival of Muslim cultures.”
A spokesperson for the event said that participation in the Festival was not
restricted in terms of ethnic, sectarian or group divisions – but that this
particular proposal would have caused offence to some Muslims and was therefore
out of keeping with the tenor of the show.
Isabel Carlisle said that the Festival of Muslim Cultures did not want to be
“subverted by any other agenda.
Muhammad Yusuf of the Interfaith Alliance, a new and small group on the
inter-religious scene which tries to promote mutual tolerance, said that the
Festival organisers’ decision was “a matter of regret”.
OutRage! has been accused by some Muslims of being deliberately insensitive
towards them, while its members have accused Muslim organisations and leaders of
homophobia.
The group has also ‘outed’ clergy, and its figurehead Peter Tatchell – a human
rights campaigner who has twice tried to perform a citizen’s arrest on Zimbabwe
president Robert Mugabe – once occupied the Easter pulpit at Canterbury
Cathedral to protest against the Church of England’s rejection of homosexuals.
Many lesbian and gay Christians disagreed with the aggressive tactics, though
sympathising with the message.
Observers say that, as with the church, changing attitudes to sexual orientation
in Muslim communities is going to be a long process and needs to be led from
within rather than forced from without.
But gay rights activists say that they are tired of being told to tolerate
intolerance and discrimination.
Meanwhile, London mayor Ken Livingstone – who has been attacked for his
willingness to dialogue with more radically conservative Muslim spokespeople –
today opened an IslamExpo in London, claimed to be the largest in Europe, which
aims to challenge public prejudice against the religion.
And Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams, himself besieged by warring
factions in the Anglican churches over sexuality, will tomorrow help launch a
new Christian-Muslim Forum aiming to build bridges between the communities in
the sphere of public participation and consultation.
The Muslim Council of Britain is also involved in a continuing row over
Holocaust Memorial Day on 26 January 2006, which it is refusing to back because
it says it is not inclusive enough – something the organising trust disputes.
Festival of Muslim cultures refuses to allow gay
event
Sandra Laville
Monday January 23, 2006
The Guardian
A national festival to promote Muslim culture which is being partly funded by the government has refused to stage an event designed to highlight the lives and experiences of gays and lesbians.
Prince Charles will open the Festival of Muslim Cultures in Sheffield tomorrow and over the next 18 months events will take place across the country to promote understanding of the Islamic faith. Promotional publicity states that the festival will feature the "diversity and plurality" of Muslim cultures, but gay Muslims say they have been refused permission to present an event.
Aaron Saeed, Muslim affairs spokesman for the gay rights group Outrage!, said he offered to stage an event to celebrate the lives and experiences of gay Muslims in Britain and across the world. But he said the organisers did not want him to take part. "We were told that gay Muslims don't belong in the festival of Muslim cultures," said Mr Saeed. "It is appalling that a registered charity is allowed to discriminate against gay people ... It is time the conservative leadership of the Muslim community got used to the fact that gay Muslims are here to stay and here to fight."
In her letter to Mr Saeed, the festival's director, Isabel Carlisle, said: "We have sought to go beyond sectarian, ethnic or other group divisions so we do not enquire into the sexual orientation, gender or ethnicity of the artists ... equally, at this difficult time for Muslims living in this country we are not prepared to present works that will give offence to significant numbers."
Ms Carlisle told the Guardian: "The festival is "non-ideological and non-political and non-sectarian ... we don't want to be subverted by any other agenda and that is principally why we turned Mr Saeed down."
Muhammad Yusuf, a member of the Interfaith Alliance, said it was a "matter of regret" that a festival aiming to reflect the diversity of Muslim culture was not prepared to take on board a facet that was different by reason of sexual orientation.
Dutch test immigrants with gay kiss
Two men kissing in a park and a topless woman bather are featured in a film that will be shown to would-be immigrants to the Netherlands.
The reactions of applicants including Muslims will be examined to see whether they are able to accept the country's liberal attitudes.
From tomorrow, the DVD which also shows the often crime-ridden ghettos where poorer immigrants might end up living will form part of an entrance test, in Dutch, covering the language and culture of the Netherlands.
Those sitting the test will be expected to identify William of Orange and to know which country Crown Princess Maxima comes from (Argentina) and whether hitting women and female circumcision are permitted.
Muslim leaders in the Netherlands say the film is offensive. "It really is a provocation aimed to limit immigration. It has nothing to do with the rights of homosexuals. Even Dutch people don't want to see that," said Abdou Menebhi, the Moroccan-born director of Emcemo, an organisation that helps immigrants to settle.
He added: "They are trying to find every pretext to show that people should not come to the Netherlands because they are fundamentalist or not emancipated. They confront people with these things and then judge them afterwards."
Famile Arslan, 34, an immigration lawyer of Turkish origin, agreed. "I have lived here for 30 years and have never been witness to two men kissing in the park. So why are they confronting people with that?" she said.
She accused the government of preaching tolerance about civil rights while targeting non-westerners with harsh and discriminatory immigration curbs.
The new test the first of its kind in the world marks another step in the transformation of the Netherlands from one of Europe's most liberal countries to the one cracking down hardest on immigration.
Rita Verdonk, the immigration minister known as Iron Rita, has introduced compulsory integration classes, higher age limits for marriage to people from abroad and the removal of residency permits if immigrants commit petty crimes. She has also talked of banning the burqa.
The measures were prompted in part by outrage over the 2004 murder of Theo Van Gogh, who had made a film about the oppression of women in Muslim communities.
Applicants will sit the exam at one of 138 embassies around the world. They will answer 15 minutes of questions and those who pass the first stage will have to complete two "citizenship" tests over five years and swear a pledge of allegiance to the Netherlands and its constitution.
The centre-right government of Jan Peter Balkenende, the prime minister, believes the tests will provide an objective way of assessing the suitability of applicants by gauging how well prepared they are to make the transition to Dutch life and their willingness to integrate.
Critics complain that people living in the mountains of Morocco or rural villages in Pakistan will not be able to make the long journey to cities for Dutch language lessons. According to Instituut Oranje, a Dutch language school, someone with a low level of education would require 250 hours of tuition, costing US$2,000, to pass the tests.
The total bill of US$2,580 including US$95 for a preparatory test pack and DVD and US$414 for the exam makes the process unaffordable for many.
Dirk Nieuwboer, a Dutch journalist based in Istanbul, said the multiple-choice cultural test included a question about how to behave in a cafe if two men at the next table started kissing. "There was another question about which former Dutch colony a particular spice came from," said Nieuwboer. "Most Dutch people don't know these things."
However, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, a socialist from the parliament's immigration committee, said the film had been created to help prepare people for "open-minded" attitudes on issues such as homosexuality. "We have lots of homo-discrimination, especially by Muslim youngsters who harass gay men and women on the streets. It is an issue here."
A spokeswoman for Verdonk said an edited version of the DVD would be available for showing in Middle Eastern countries such as Iran where it would be illegal to possess images of homosexuality.
Source: China Daily
22-March-2006
Katherine Knowles
PinkNews.co.uk Exclusive
Death Squads searching for gay men are active in Iraq, claims exiled poet Ali
Hili. Transsexuals, he claims, are being burned and beaten to death in Baghdad.
The murdered Iraqi men are “usually discovered with their hands bound behind
their back, blindfolds over their eyes and bullet wounds in the back of the
head”, Mr Hili asserts.
Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani issued a fatwa against lesbian and gay people on
his website, which has caused a surge in homophobic violence both in Iraq, and
in Muslim communities in the UK. The cleric, who was nominated by Iraq for the
Nobel peace prize in 2005 answered the question “ what is your judgement on
sodomy and lesbianism?” with the words “forbidden. Those involved in the act
should be punished. In fact, sodomites should be killed in the worst possible
manner”.
Worrying, reports suggest that the militant wing of fundamentalist group The
Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) has taken this
instruction to heart. “Evidence we have received from our underground gay
contacts inside Iraq suggests intensified homophobic abuse, threats,
intimidation and violence,” said Mr Hili, who now runs the human rights
organisation OutRage. Mr Hili feared that the Badr Corps, the militant wing of
the SCIRI might be taking what little law there currently is in the troubled
country into its own hands.
“Intimidation, beatings, kidnappings and murders of gays have become an almost
daily event,” he claims. He said that many gay people had been forced to go into
hiding for their own safety. Men in contact with OutRage had described feelings
of terror and restrictive, desperate living conditions. One man writing on an
internet blog describes his feelings of despair: “Sometimes I think there is no
way out. I wish I was dead, but I am alive”.
“Gay Iraqis are living in fear of discovery and death,” said Mr Hili.
Muslim Leader Threatens Gay Activists Planning Parade in Jerusalem
July 06, 2006
by Jim Kouri - JERUSALEM -- Last week a top Muslim leader, Sheik Ibrahim Sarsur,
who is also a member of the Israeli Kensett, warned gays that "if they dare to
approach the Temple Mount during the World Pride 2006 parade in Jerusalem - they
will do so over our dead bodies."
Charles Merrill, 72, a gay rights activist,
defiantly replied, "I will be approaching the Temple Mount out of love and
forgiveness to those who hate us. If the three major religions in the Middle
East (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) want us stoned to death as it dictates
in their ancient scriptures, then our gentle innocent blood will be on their
hands. Gays are
the meek in society and love all of humanity."
Merrill is one of thousands of homosexuals who will be taking part in World
Pride 2006, a gay event in the holy city of Jerusalem. The event, which is held
in a different world city every four years, was to have been in Jerusalem last
summer but postponed due to the Israeli pullout from the Gaza.
Sheik Sarsur warns that he will use all means at his disposal to stop the gay
pride parade and festivities in a city that is sacred to Christians, Jews and
Muslims, and may find such an event would defile the city's sanctity. Other
religious leaders have also condemned the use of Jerusalem for political
activism.
Merrill says he will be marching in Jerusalem on August 10th as a celebration of
universal love, and love across borders. Merrill's same sex partner, Kevin
Boyle, will remain in the USA to carry on in the event of Merrill's death at the
hands of religious extremists.
But some gays aren't big on the idea of this particular parade. One man said
that the parade will do more damage than good.
"Rubbing our lifestyles in the faces of religious people and leaders is not the
way to achieve acceptance and support for our rights. Jerusalem is considered
the holiest city on earth by three religions that have millions and millions of
followers. It's not the way to win them over," said the man, a New York City
fashion designer who wished to remain anonymous.
Merrill, 72 - whose cousin, Charles Merrill, founded Merrill Lynch, and whose
late wife, Evangeline, was the only daughter of Johnson & Johnson founder Robert
Wood Johnson - wants other gays to join him in World Pride 2006, Jerusalem,
Israel.
If Merrill's name sounds familiar, it's because he's also one of the founders of
a growing movement in the United States for homosexuals to withhold their taxes
until the government recognizes gay partners as having the same legal rights as
heterosexual married couples.
According to the two gay activists, the momentum for the same-sex marriage tax
protest started with a Page Six article in the New York Post and in an article
on the Internet news organization WorldNetDaily.com in February 2006.
The articles covered how Merrill and his partner protested an anti-gay marriage
amendment sponsored by President Bush.
Merrill said in a released statement, "As a result of nationwide publicity, we
have had e-mails from hundreds of gay men and women from all over the country
wanting to join us and asking how they could be a part of the gay tax protest."
Boyle added, "We gays will gladly pay our taxes once the government stops
discriminating against us and passes laws that allows us to marry the person[sic]
we love. We deserve the same Federal and State benefits as other married
citizens."
Discrimination in the tax code also caught the attention of Howard Dean,
chairman of the National Democratic Party. In a recent speech on June 3, 2006 to
the gay political group National Stonewall Democrats' conference in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, Dean mentioned the outrage of gays and lesbians who are denied the
benefits of marriage.
He is quoted as saying, "It is wrong for our tax code to be discriminatory. And
it is wrong for any group of Americans to live in fear of hate crimes. We
(Democrat Party) believe that every taxpayer should have the same government
services and benefits as any other American."
Dean also said, "The fight continues, and the Democrat Party is standing with
you by leading the fight against discrimination, and by helping you meet your
electoral objectives this fall...."
The World Gay Pride parade may be cancelled, however, due to the continuing
violence in the region between the Palestinian terrorists and the Israeli
defense forces.
Holy hatred: Homosexuality in Muslim countries
afrol News - The majority of Muslim countries outlaw same-sex relationships. The seven countries in the world that carry the death penalty for persons presumed guilty of homosexual acts, justify this punishment with the Shari'a. Culture is not, however, always "against us and there are positive examples of same-sex relationships to be found in different Muslim cultures," she writes.
By Anissa Helie
- I was born and raised in Algiers, of a French father and an Algerian mother.
Having access to both cultures made me realize early on that racism as well as
sexism were all-pervasive on both sides of the Mediterranean. It took me a few
more years to come to the conclusion that homophobia was just as widespread.
Amnesty International counts at least 83 countries where
homosexuality is explicitly condemned in the criminal code. Twenty-six of these
are Muslim. This means that the majority of Muslim countries, including
supposedly 'liberal' ones like Tunisia as well as dictatorships like Sudan,
outlaw same-sex relationships. The seven countries in the world that carry the
death penalty for persons presumed guilty of homosexual acts, justify this
punishment with the Shari'a, or standard interpretation of Muslim jurisprudence.
Though not always applied, the existence of the death penalty makes sexual
minorities extremely vulnerable.
The state is not alone in practising repression.
Communities and families have a part to play. In Indonesia, for example,
homosexuality is not illegal. But in 1998 'Muslim militia' launched an anti-gay
campaign on the island of Mindanao during which gay Muslims were terrorized,
beaten up and ordered to leave or be castrated.
Jordan does not specifically outlaw homosexuality either.
But that did not stop four Jordanians last year trying to kidnap their
23-year-old lesbian relative studying in the US, beating her and attempting to
force her on to a plane bound for Jordan. The US police acted promptly and came
to her rescue, but such an outcome tends to be the exception rather than the
rule. Violence, harassment, persecution and extrajudicial or 'shame' killings
are not uncommon.
Sex and tradition
In spite of such obstacles and hostility, same-sex
relationships do take place, even in the most repressive countries. As one
researcher from the Gulf told a Pan-Arab Conference on Sexuality held in Oxford
in June 2000: "In prison same-sex sex is the norm. Saudi Arabia is just a large
prison". Sometimes, the very segregation of the sexes allows for intimacy
between people of the same gender without it being considered abnormal. As long
as one keeps a low profile, such behaviour may generally go unchallenged.
This is true for both sexes. For women, cultural patterns
may allow particular opportunities for intimacy: it's fairly acceptable to share
a bed with your female cousin, your best friend and so on. And traditional
women-only ceremonies may actually enable rural lesbians to make regular contact
with other women.
Culture is not, therefore, always against us and there
are positive examples of same-sex relationships to be found in different Muslim
cultures. Nor is invisibility necessarily required. For example, in some
traditional travelling theatres and musical groups in Pakistan, the younger men
who play female roles sometimes live as a couple with the group leader. Among
such communities, male couples may live out love relationships quite openly.
There is also an entire body of poetry in local and Urdu literature that is
clearly based on male love, yaari (3). Positive as they are, such examples
should not make us forget that homophobia is prevalent, as well as
systematically promoted by conservative forces everywhere.
Conservative manipulation
The "Qur'an clearly states that homosexuality is unjust,
unnatural, transgression, ignorant, criminal and corrupt", declares the
Jamaat-e-Islami, an extreme right politico-religious party in Pakistan. In fact,
the Qur'an is far from clear on the issue and the controversy regarding the
position of Islam and homosexuality is ongoing. For some people, homosexuality
is "unlawful" in Islam; for others, the Qur'an does not clearly condemn
homosexual acts. The only actual reference to homosexuality in the Qur'an can be
found in the sections about Sodom and Gomorrah. While the harsh punishment
inflicted on the people of Sodom and Gomorrah at the time of the prophet Lut is
for some people a clear proof that Allah meant to eradicate homosexual practice,
others argue that there is no specific punishment for homosexuality. The people
of Sodom were punished for "doing everything excessively" and for not respecting
the rules of hospitality. They insist that it is not the Qur'an itself that
brings condemnation of homosexuals but rather the homophobic culture prevailing
in Muslim societies.
In the vanguard of repression are so-called "religious
fundamentalists". But in the Women Living Under Muslim Laws Network to which I
belong, we maintain that "fundamentalism" is not a return to the "fundamentals"
of any given religion. We believe that "fundamentalists" are extreme-right
political forces seeking to obtain or maintain political power through
manipulation of religion and religious beliefs, as well as other ethnic,
culturally-based identities. And the rise of "fundamentalism" is a global
phenomenon which affects not just Islam but all major religions.
There is also a strong connection between fundamentalist
homophobic assaults and those directed against women who do not "behave", who
may be unmarried or living alone. Extremist religious leaders and their
followers target sexual minorities and women. They focus their offensive against
homosexuals as well as others who transgress boundaries of "acceptable"
behaviour. The very same rhetoric is used to justify repression against
homosexuals, feminists or "different" women - who all are systematically
denounced as non-Muslim, non-indigenous and so forth. It is always through
manipulation of religious, national or cultural identities that violence is
legitimized.
Both extremist religious leaders and state officials are
likely to demonize sexual minorities, often as a means to distract from economic
crisis or political controversy. Indeed, incitement to hatred and manifestations
of homophobia increase in places where the local political agenda is most
affected by growing fundamentalist forces.
For example, one of the very first victims of Algerian
fundamentalists was Jean Senac, a gay poet assassinated in the early 1980s. Also
in Algeria, Oum Ali, an unmarried woman living alone with her children in the
Southern town of Ouargla, was stoned and her house burned down in 1989, killing
her youngest son. These two incidents occurred long before the "official"
beginning of the conflict; they reveal the untruth of Algerian fundamentalists'
claims that they only resorted to violence in 1992 after being robbed of victory
by the Government's cancellation of elections. In fact they targeted both
homosexuals and women earlier on - but there was hardly anyone to stand up for
such "second-class victims".
Joining forces
Why is sexuality and sexual conformity the focus of so
much attention by fundamentalist forces? A possible answer is that when people
exercise individual choice it appears as a challenge: autonomy - especially for
women - is seen as a threat.
It is interesting to note that in past centuries Arabs
attributed homosexual behaviour to the bad influence of Persians. Today, it's
much the same story, though the characters may change - homosexuality is
currently denounced as a "Western disease". In June 2000, Malaysian Foreign
Minister Syed Hamid Albar stated that homosexuality was "against nature" and -
following a call by Human Rights Watch to ban Malaysia's sodomy law - insisted
that: "We can't amend the country's laws merely due to calls by outsiders".
Not just a local or national phenomenon, fundamentalism
has taken on a global dimension. Extremist religious leaders from various faiths
are coming together to oppose Sexual rights. By "closing ranks", coalitions of
Christians, Muslims and other fundamentalists affect the international agenda.
We saw the effect of such alliances on women's reproductive rights at the Cairo
Conference on Population and Development in 1994. Such alliances also blocked
the recognition of the rights of lesbians at both the 1995 World Conference on
Women held in Beijing and the review of the Beijing Platform for Action in June
2000.
Of course, similar coalitions influence local political
agendas. Take Britain, a secular country with a very vocal extremist Muslim
minority. A Muslim-Christian alliance was recently formed to oppose the repeal
of Section 28 - a law introduced in 1988 which forbids the "promotion" of
homosexuality in schools as "a pretended family relationship". At a conference
in May 2000, religious spokesperson Dr Majid Katme stated that "lesbianism is
spreading like ire in society. We must vaccinate our children against this
curse". He is supported in this view by Sheikh Sharkhawy - a senior cleric at
the prestigious Regent's Park mosque in central London - who publicly advocates
the execution of gay males over the age of ten and life imprisonment for
lesbians.
At least as worrying is the support for fundamentalist
politics by the so-called "free West". The help extended by states pretending to
defend democracy is not a new phenomenon. Imam Khomeini was resident in France
for several months in 1978, just before going back to Iran to lead the "Islamic"
revolution. In Afghanistan, the CIA not only trained the Taliban but has also
"admitted bringing 25,000 Arab volunteers to fight against the Red Army".
Incidentally, both those countries - Iran and Afghanistan currently sentence
homosexuals to death.
What does that teach us? First, that the hypocrisy of
most political leaders knows no limit: their ever-changing definition of
"fundamentalism" allows them to turn against allies of yesterday with whom they
should never have got involved in the first place. Second, it is obvious that
economic and geo-strategic concerns always prevail. We can only regret that
there are so few allies at the international level who are ready to compromise
their interests in order to defend the rights of women and sexual minorities.
Strategies of resistance
Despite a threatening environment, sexual minorities are
organizing and becoming more visible in Muslim countries and communities. For
example, much research is being carried out to interpret religious texts. The
Qur'an is being re-examined by gay, or gay-friendly, theologians and believers
in order to break the monopoly of male homophobic interpretation. To counter the
stereotype of homosexuality as foreign, others are engaged in reclaiming
homoerotic literature.
Another positive example is found in Lebanon, where
homosexuality is illegal, but a popular weekly TV programme (Al Shater Yahki)
has been focusing on sexuality since 1997 and includes gay voices. The fact that
they speak from behind masks gives a measure of the risks involved.
Nevertheless, new solidarity associations are being set
up (see above). These organizations are, for obvious security reasons, often
located outside Muslim countries. Most of them, however, connect with either
individuals or groups within Muslim countries. Whether mainly political, social
or religious in their motivation, these organizations all aim at breaking the
isolation faced by sexual minorities. In Muslim countries and communities,
sexual minorities have only just begun speaking out. Threats of violence and
accusations of betraying one's culture and religion have discouraged many from
taking a public stand. However, more and more people are rejecting the idea that
violence against sexual diversity is "divinely sanctioned"
Violence against gays preached in British mosques claims new documentary
By Tony Grew
September 1, 2008
Channel 4 will transmit controversial programme this evening that claims anti-Semitism and homophobia are being preached at a leading British mosque.
Dispatches documentary Undercover Mosque: The Return, "goes undercover again to see whether extremist beliefs continue to be promoted in certain key British Muslim institutions," the channel said in a press statement.
The film also investigates the role of the Saudi Arabian religious establishment in spreading fundamentalist Islamic ideology in the UK.
"A female reporter attends prayer meetings at an important British mosque which claims to be dedicated to moderation and dialogue with other faiths." said Channel 4.
"She secretly films shocking sermons given to the women-only congregation in which female preachers recite extremist and intolerant beliefs.
"As hundreds of women and some children come to pray, a preacher calls for adulterers, homosexuals, women who act like men and Muslim converts to other faiths to be killed, saying: "Kill him, kill him. You have to kill him, you understand. This is Islam.""
The programme will also feature Muslims and Islamic academics who reject and condemn these teachings of intolerance and segregation and warn of the impact this version of Islam is having on British society.
One imam at a leading university accuses the Saudi religious establishment of the: "distortion of Islam itself, the abuse and misuse of this great faith of mine and not only mine but of my children as well."
In May Channel 4 and independent film maker Hard Cash accepted damages and an apology at the High Court following a row over the original Undercover Mosque documentary, broadcast in January 2007.
The Dispatches programme showed preacher Abu Usamah at Green Lane Mosque in Birmingham calling for gay people to be executed.
"If I were to call homosexuals perverted, dirty, filthy dogs who should be murdered, that's my freedom of speech, isn't it?" he told followers.
A scene in the advertising for the documentary also showed a preacher calling for people to "take that homosexual and throw him off a mountain."
In August 2007 West Midlands police referred Undercover Mosque to the media regulator Ofcom and together with the Crown Prosecution Service issued a press release in which they said the words of three preachers featured within the programme had been "heavily edited" so their meaning was "completely distorted".
Kevin Sutcliffe, deputy head of current affairs at Channel 4, said after the HIgh Court ruling: "This is a total vindication of the programme team in exposing extreme views being preached in mainstream British mosques."