Stop Exploiting LGBT Issues to Demonize Islam and Justify Anti-Muslim Policies

[rug]

Photo: Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post/Getty Images

Glenn Greenwald
June 13 2016, 3:23 p.m.

IN THE LATE 1990s, Eric Rudolph — raised Catholic and affiliated for a time with a Christian Identity sect — bombed abortion clinics and a gay bar, insisting they were venues of immorality and evil. Last July, an Orthodox Jewish Israeli attacked the marchers in the Jerusalem LGBT pride parade, stabbing six of them, and one of them, a teenager, died of her wounds; justifying his attacks by appealing to Talmudic punishments for homosexuality, he had just been released from a 10-year prison term for doing the same in 2005. Yesterday, a Christian pastor from Arizona, Steven Anderson, praised the slaughter of 49 people in an Orlando LGBT club on the ground that “homosexuals are a bunch of disgusting perverts” and are “pedophiles.”

Violent attacks on gay bars in the U.S. have long been common, as sociology professor Greggor Mattson documented today: “The crime blotters of the gay press have always been punctuated by attacks on patrons at gay bars and continue to be today,” including killings. In 2014, a brutal hate crime against a gay couple was carried out by staff and students at a Catholic high school. In overwhelmingly Catholic and evangelical Brazil, killing of trans women is now an epidemic. The Terrence McNally play Corpus Christi was repeatedly targeted in the U.S. with bomb threats and had to be canceled because it depicted Jesus as gay.

A 2015 Pew poll found that U.S. Muslims were more accepting of homosexuality than evangelical Christians, Mormons, and Jehovah’s Witnesses:



Similarly, U.S. Muslims are more likely to support same-sex marriage (42 percent support it) than are U.S. evangelicals (28 percent), historically black Protestants (40 percent), Mormons (26 percent) and Jehovah’s Witnesses (14 percent). Indeed, U.S. Muslims are roughly just as likely to support same-sex marriage as Christians generally (44 percent).



https://theintercept.com/2016/06/13/stop-exploiting-lgbt-issues-to-demonize-islam-and-justify-anti-muslim-policies/

[anoNY42]

1. I'm pretty far from being a Trump supporter, but...

I know, that subject line makes it seem like something bad is coming!

I agree that one should not just assume all Muslims hate gay people. That said, I think any given Trump supporter would reply that they are mostly concerned with Muslim immigration, and studies have shown that folks in Muslim countries are anti-gay by extremely wide margins (like, 98 percent in many places). The link below is to a post about Orlando including a Pew study of attitudes in other countries. I will say that the study is from 2003, so keep that in mind:


https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2016/06/13/some-questions-about-the-orlando-massacre/

[rug]

2. Jerry Coyne's been grinding an ax for an even longer time than the data he posted.

He's coy about it but he looks favorably upon profiling Muslims.

A belated welcome to DU.

[anoNY42]

4. Coyne

Oh I agree, he is closer to Sam Harris than most liberals. I linked there because that's where I had read the Pew study results.

[Warren Stupidity]

3. Your charts show that religious people are less bigoted than they used to be

but that they remain homophobic bigots. You posted a quote from a Catholic bishop in another one of your op's that explicitly blamed religion for homophobic bigotry. Preaching homophobic nonsense remains the norm.

[rug]

5. Are you complaining?

You misstate what the bishop said. He acknowledged that religion has a part to play in homophobia. Unlike you, who routinely claim that religion is the cause of homophobia. It's a difference you're incapable of grasping.

So, let's assume you're right. Do you want religious people profiled and under surveillance?

[Bluenorthwest]

6. The Bishop admitted it, you posted his admission but now you deny what he said.

The victims of the killer were not religious people, they were LGBT people. Religion is one of the causes of homophobia and the primary conduit through which homophobia gains power in the world, religion is why homophobia is allowed to flourish, religion legitimizes that bigotry actively. The Bishop spoke some truth. Too bad you can't hear him.

[rug]

7. Pay attention. warren stupidity misstated what the bishop said.

Do you know what op warren was referencing? It's easy to find in the Catholic & Orthodox Group.

And you're right, religion is one of the causes of homophobia, but far from the only one. Check out China and Russia.

I'll repeat, I think you only know what you think the bishop said. It is pretty good but without the spin warren gave it. A link to his entire statement is in the post I referenced.

I'll simply ignore your snotty last sentence.

[Warren Stupidity]

8. Apparently this is a misstatement:

My misstating of what the Bishop said:

Second, sadly it is religion, including our own, that targets, mostly verbally, and often breeds contempt for gays, lesbians and transgender people. Attacks today on LGBT men and women often plant the seed of contempt, then hatred, which can ultimately lead to violence.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1218230975

The actual quote from the Wapo article:

Second, sadly it is religion, including our own, that targets, mostly verbally, and often breeds contempt for gays, lesbians and transgender people. Attacks today on LGBT men and women often plant the seed of contempt, then hatred, which can ultimately lead to violence.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2016/06/13/florida-catholic-bishop-it-is-religion-including-our-own-that-targets-lgbt-people/

I see now how I clearly misstated what the Bishop said.

Perhaps the objection was to the headline I used:

Florida Catholic bishop: ‘It is religion, including our own,’ that targets LGBT people

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1218230975

Florida Catholic bishop: ‘It is religion, including our own,’ that targets LGBT people

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2016/06/13/florida-catholic-bishop-it-is-religion-including-our-own-that-targets-lgbt-people/