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  • johnpi 9:22 am on February 5, 2010 | 1 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , gays, ,

    Contrasting the difference between how homosexuality is viewed in Europe and America versus the Muslim world.

    Luongo — who details his adventures in Afghanistan, where he attends a “gay party” — agrees with Sharma, saying that while in Europe and America “homosexual desire and acts become the very definition of a person,” in the Muslim world, “homosexual desire and acts are simply one aspect amongst others, something people do but not something that defines a person above all things.” Thus many of the Muslim men the writers encounter do not identify themselves as gay, and ask the latter why they don’t have wives, causing deep confusion, and in the case of Richard Ammon, offence.

    Via Kawdess tweets.

     

  • johnpi 2:49 pm on January 26, 2010 | 2 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , gays, , , , , ,

    Islam Online has a new section called “Unveiling the homosexuality.”

    Here’s an excerpt from an interview with Dr. Awsam Hanna, an Egyptian psychiatrist who has experience in ‘reparative therapy’ where he is describing the ‘homosexual personality.’

    It is also a part of the whole “homosexual personality,” characterized by low self-esteem, lack of social skills, disconnection from body, and emotional isolation from society with varying degrees in different individuals. The isolation is not just because of the hatred and homophobia of society, it is an element in the psychopathology (disease process) of the disorder itself. Of course the homophobia of the society adds to it, but it is not entirely caused by it.

    I guess that means there is no such thing as a socially or economically successful gay person.

    Via Kawdess tweets

     

  • johnpi 8:17 am on October 14, 2009 | 1 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , gays, , , , ,

    In researching another story about homophobia in Muslim communities, I came across this three-years-and-still-going thread about in-the-closet Muslim lesbians. It seems that a lot of “secret” Muslim lesbians are finding succor on this thread, so I thought I would pass it along. The descriptions of flourishing lesbian communities in some Muslim countries are also noteworthy. Some excerpts:

    From Saudi Arabia:

    Yes there are many Muslim Lesbians around. I am from Saudi Arabia, the worst country there is for Homosexual yet, I am telling you I have never faced any problems. Ok, I am not very “visible” but it is my choice for a variety of reason one of which is my style and fasion taste. But, dykes are every where. We have a famous shopping mall here in Riyadh with a floor for women only. That place is heaven! Just visit the place on weekends and you will be amazed at the number of “couples” strolling around, window shopping etc. There are a few lesbian spots on the floor as well.

    From Malaysia:

    How are you? I was born, raised a muslim and I practice Islam well… quite religiously. hehe..

    I am out to most of my friends, and most of them are practicing muslims. and they cant be more supportive. Well, two or three have showed negative responds and those two/three were egyptians. But we Malaysians are really quite open about it. They treat me the same if not better.

    These supportive friends of mine, they know and love me for who i am. Alhamdulillah, being gay does not change their perspectives on me. I even changed some of their mind about lesbians and homosexuals.

     

  • johnpi 9:06 pm on August 2, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: gays, , , ,

    Attack on Tel Aviv gay youth club leads to victims being forcibly ‘outed’ to their families.

    Members of The Aguda said that the process of notifying the families of the victims, a portion of whom were alone in Tel Aviv hospitals, had been particularly trying as some of the families are unaware of their children’s sexual orientation or involvement with the group.

    “Most of these kids are in the closet and their parents know nothing,” Sofer explained. “Meanwhile photographers are chasing the ambulances and the whole country is talking about it.”

    “Some of them were trying to prevent the ambulances from taking them because by law the hospitals must notify the kids’ next of kin,” he added. “In the end the parents had to be notified. There was no other way.”

    It was rumored that one of the victims was an orthodox Jew, a claim The Aguda and the Israel Police refused to confirm or deny.

    Israel is more ‘tolerant’ than those repressed Arabs and their morbid homophobia…while this incident does undermine the hasbara campaign in the link, it doesn’t take away from the fact that this could just as well have been Muslim gay youth in an Arab country suffering a vigilante religious attack, and it would have been just as despicable.

     

  • johnpi 7:19 pm on August 1, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: gays, , , , , , ,

    Recently, I posted a link to a blog post by Richard Silverstein that explained how Zionist hasbara-heads were promoting the first-ever all-Israeli, all-Jewish gay porn film for the purpose of placing Israel on a pedestal and showing how ‘tolerant’ and ‘freedom-loving’ it is – which, as the theory went, would also throw into stark relief the morbid homophobia of the Arabs/Palestinians.

    A story out of Tel Aviv tonight:

    Israeli police say a gunman entered a youth club for gay teens in central Tel Aviv on Saturday night and sprayed the interior with automatic rifle fire, killing three people and injuring 11.
    ….

    “This was a hate crime, a premeditated attack,” witness Yaniv Weisman told Channel 10 TV. He said Cafe Noir, the basement club, was popular with youth.

    “Those hurt were very young,” he said.

    Openly gay Knesset lawmaker Nitzan Horowitz said it was “without a doubt the biggest ever attack on the Israeli gay community, we are all in shock.”

    Witnesses told Israeli media that the gunman was dressed all in black, and described the scene as a “bloodbath.”

    The gunman fled the scene and has not been caught. May Allah give the victims peace and justice.

     

  • johnpi 9:19 pm on July 27, 2009 | 1 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , gays, , , , ,

    Zionist Hasbara activists are marketing the production of the first all Israeli/all Jewish porno film. Why?

    Richard Silverstein tells all:

    Make no mistake, this is not a one-off promotion by an odd-ball Jewish gay pornographer. This is part of an orchestrated hasbara campaign spearheaded by groups like Stand With Us, who promoted Israel during the latter’s Gay Pride Festival as a natural ally of gays around the world. The angle for SWU (and there always IS an angle with groups like this) is to trumpet the alleged homophobia of Palestinian/Arab society compared to the alleged freedom and tolerance of “western” Israel towards a gay lifestyle. Never mind that Israel is less tolerant of gays than the average western country. That matters little for the hasbaraniks of SWU.

     

  • johnpi 2:44 pm on July 11, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , gays, , , ,

    Gay bloggers and gay newspapers have been aggressively questioning the use of donated funds by an activist group called Iraqi lgbt, an unregistered charity that works to protect Iraqi gays from homophobic violence. One blogger claims Iraqi lgbt has been stonewalling him, and the SF Bay Times picked up the story:

    Reading Petrelis’s hectoring email string, posted on his blog, one first feels some sympathy for the beleaguered activist at the receiving end of Michael’s incessant demands for details. In the end, however, one starts to wonder why the hell [Chairman] Hili can’t get it together to send even a minimal report…

    Iraqi lgbt has now produced an account of its spending here. The group’s statement says its financing of efforts to bring refugees to safety are very sensitive, involve stealth to avoid authorities, and sometimes bribery when authorities can’t be avoided. Recent efforts at outside oversight backfired, putting gay refugees at risk.

    (More …)

     

  • johnpi 5:31 am on July 2, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , gays, ,

    India decriminalized homosexual acts.

    The petition had been staunchly opposed by religious groups, particularly leaders of India’s Muslim and Christian communities who argued that all homosexual acts were “unnatural” and should therefore be banned.

     

  • johnpi 2:07 pm on June 1, 2009 | 2 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , gays, , ,

    ABC has a four-page expose on Saudi gay life in particular and throughout the Middle East in general. Some highlights:

    * Paranoia is rampant: In a recent case, the muttawa arrested a man at a Jeddah shopping mall for homosexuality because his jeans and shirt were too tight.

    * Denial is widespread: Among Arabs, it seems, a mix of stigma and machismo causes most gays to identify as “tops.” “It re-enforces this feeling that you’re not really gay. They’re more comfortable with being tops, because it’s easier to negate [the gay stigma].”

    * Egypt was once known as the “San Francisco of the Middle East,” but whomping on gays is a great way to steal fire from the Islamists. “One of the ways [Arab authorities] prove they’re bona fide is by cracking down on people that everyone hates.” Hate as an organizing principle of society doesn’t seem any closer to God than war as an organizing principle of society (as in the US).

    * Elites imitate the neoconservative mindset in having one set of rules for themselves and another for the ‘little people.’ “I’ve been invited to private parties for gay men in Jeddah, but I never go because I know what would happen if we were caught. Unless it’s a VIP house — if the party is at the home of one of the princes or one of the sheiks then you’re protected.”

    * ABC fails to apply post-colonial analysis and observe that all Arab homosexuality is derivative of Western colonization…oh wait, Saudi Arabia has never been colonized. Never mind.

     

  • johnpi 8:03 am on June 1, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: gays, , , , ,

    Coming a little late to this story, but on Friday the US embassy in Iraq held what the invitation says is the first-ever U.S. Embassy Gay Pride Theme Party.

    “Come celebrate the start of Summer with color . . . and in costume!” the May 10 invitation says. “Dress in drag or as a gay icon. All are welcome.” The invitation was attached to what was called an “All Hands Alerts” e-mail.

    An embassy spokesman said by way of explanation: “This is an event organized and sponsored by a group of employees. Given the lack of places to meet in Baghdad, the embassy allows groups to use its social facilities for events on a first-come, first-served basis.”

    This plays right into the ‘post colonial analysis’ of Iraqi homophobes who claim that homosexuality was imported with the occupation.

     

  • johnpi 12:19 pm on May 1, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , gays,

    White House list of civil rights promises to gays suddenly gets shorter.

    (More …)

     

  • johnpi 7:01 pm on April 20, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: gays, , , , , serial killers

    An Indonesian serial killer who is facing the death penalty, Verry Idham Henyansyah – most of whose victims were gay, and who happens to be gay himself – has written an autobiography, “The Untold Story of Ryan” (Ryan was his nickname). Interesting fact:

    Ryan writes in the book of being a good boy who graduated at the top of his class from both elementary school and high school, and who went on to become a Koran studies teacher — ironically he also dated his first Koran studies teacher, a man, for nine years from the age of 20.

    “Ryan’s” violence against other gays reminded me of a comment from another recent story in which a persecuted young gay man in southern Iraq said one of his boyfriends was a religious militia man who had threatened to kill him.

     

  • johnpi 9:13 pm on April 15, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: gays, , , ,

    In the last few weeks, 25 boys and men are reported to have been killed in Baghdad because they were, or were perceived to be, gay, Amnesty said….

    The letter [from Amnesty International] also raised concerns that religious leaders may be inciting violence against members of Iraq’s gay community.

    For more information, the [newly redeemed] Little Green Footballs blog has some context.

     

  • johnpi 5:12 pm on March 2, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: gays, , , ,

    This will be a political nonstarter, as it is intended to help the two groups that are most loathed by the still-very-powerful religious right – gays and immigrants. Supporters however see it as part of a multi-year effort to compel passage.

    Reps. Keith Ellison and Betty McCollum are cosponsoring legislation that would help bi-national same-sex couples keep their families together. Called the Uniting American Families Act, the legislation would allow non-citizen partners of gays and lesbians to gain permanent resident status in the same manner as married couples.

     

  • johnpi 12:15 am on January 27, 2009 | 11 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: gays, , , , marriages of convenience

    Imagine a delighted South Asian Muslim family receiving a marriage proposal from a promising recent med-school grad for the hand of their attractive, young daughter in marriage.

    In reality, the doctor is gay, the daughter is lesbian, and the two of them have found each other through the Internet to arrange a marriage of convenience. The two will go on to live communally with their respective lovers in the same house. “I get married to a lesbian, we sleep in different rooms, and remain friends. Meanwhile I can have a boyfriend.”

    Here’s a short film that illustrates the scenario above. The film asserts that there are hundreds of gay Muslims in America today living in such MOC marriages – maybe even a seemingly heterosexual couple you know.

    Interestingly, the narrative of the girl refers to how she grew up mostly completely separated from boys in the Muslim way and so grew close to her girlfirends, until one became her girlfriend – implying that the Islamic norm of strict sex segregation fosters homosexual connection. Recently, Umar, in his response to Yusuf Smith, referenced stories of homosexual behavior at Islamic madrassas, which again point to the possibility that strict sex segregation fosters homosexual connection.

    Regarding MOCs, if we leave aside the question of whether God is happy, everybody else is. The community’s norms are not overturned, the extended family doesn’t have to “suffer” social repercussions to their fragile honor, no one has been murdered, no heterosexual winds up unknowingly married to a homosexual, and the guy gets the girl in the end. No wait…

     

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