The Gay Sons of Allah (DER SPIEGEL 09/17/2009)

[Call Me Wesley]

Wave of Homophobia Sweeps the Muslim World


In recent years Egypt, long known for its open gay scene, has started to clamp down on homosexuality. In July 2001 these defendents were
accused of participating in "immoral acts."

By Juliane von Mittelstaedt and Daniel Steinvorth (DER SPIEGEL)

In most Islamic countries, gay men and women are ostracized, persecuted and in some cases even murdered. Repressive regimes are often fanning the flames of hatred in a bid to outdo Islamists when it comes to spreading "moral panic."

Bearded men kidnapped him in the center of Baghdad, threw him into a dark hole, chained him down, urinated on him, and beat him with an iron pipe. But the worst moment for Hisham, 40, came on the fourth day of his ordeal when the kidnappers called his family. He was terrified they would tell his mother that he is gay and that this was the reason they had kidnapped him. If they did he would never be able to see his family again. The shame would be unbearable for them.

"Do what you want to me, but don't tell them," he screamed.

Instead of humiliating him in the eyes of his family, the kidnappers demanded a ransom of $50,000 (€33,000), a huge sum for the average Iraqi family. His parents had to go into debt and sell off all of their son's possessions in order to raise the money required to secure his freedom. Shortly after they received the ransom the kidnappers threw Hisham out of their car somewhere in the northern part of Baghdad. They decided not to shoot him and let him go. But they sent him on his way with a warning: "This is your last chance. If we ever see you again, we'll kill you."

Read full article here.

[demosincebirth]

1. Such loving and caring for human beings

[AndyA]

2. I'm not really sure that they're human.

Monsters of some sort. I don't think they were born this way, they were taught all of this shit. And therein lies the problem.

[Call Me Wesley]

6. It's a world-wide phenomena I'm afraid,

loving and caring isn't anything we're really good at.

[Heidi]

3. Not really a cultural thing at all, is it?

Any morning I can do a Google news search and find an article about one of our GLBT brothers and/or sisters being intimidated if not, indeed, beaten or killed outright. How convenient for us Americans that we can so easily say another culture's extremists are "worse."

[Arugula Latte]

4. Ah, religion.

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today

Imagine there's no countries,
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace

[Call Me Wesley]

5. Great song!

Although I'm not sure it's a pure religious problem:

Imam Abdullah and many others along with him have a somewhat different interpretation of the story of Lot. According to them, those whom God condemned were not homosexuals but rapists and robbers. It is not homosexuality that the Koran prohibits but rather rape. "The rejection of gays is a result of cultural and political factors," he says. "Just like honor killings and arranged marriages. They're not in the Koran either."

Religion will be used for political issues and vice versa.

[Duncan Grant]

7. Kick (nt)

:kick:

[TexasObserver]

8. Recommend

[ccharles000]

9. k/r