reply to post by mideast
Hi Mideast,
I read your posts, and I don't agree with your interpretation of Genesis 19 as having a clear anti-gay message at all (see above post).
Your other posts also talk about TV and entertainment (at the time of Lot?), and I see some quotation marks and the exact same quote elsewhere on ATS,
so I hope it's not plagiarized.
You don't come out as strongly homophobic, or as proposing willful human hurt on gay people, so I respect your personal views (which at least propose
waiting for the return of an unloving, vengeful God to deal with people attracted to the same sex).
I'd say they are very incorrect however, especially with a comparison to food.
Eating is a necessity and drive - within means - and so is sexuality.
Only somebody who carefully measures every calorie to a painstaking amount of bland, uncooked food can say they only eat for survival.
Everybody else also eats for pleasure, and Mideast culture has some of the most enjoyable spices and best cooking!
I just find that a particularly bad example, that's also downright hypocritical, especially on why gay people should be oppressed or feel bad.
You probably won't agree with me on anything, but that's OK.
Some would say religion is the biggest entertainment industry on the planet, and people would be surprised at who that showbiz benefits.
I'd just like to add that there are other views, also in Islam.
One could have responded in an Islamophobic way (attacking the founder of the faith and his sexual activities, as Christians often do), but that's not
helpful.
But there are other views.
I think for example of Iman Muhsin Hendricks and the Inner Circle:
www.rnw.nl...
In SA gay activists like Zackie Achmat continue to fight for the Palestinian people, although I sometimes feel it's like turkeys supporting
Christmas.
Such activists have long records of fighting apartheid, institutionalized homophobia and for the rights of HIV-positive people.
Their voices do matter.
However, I'm not convinced gay people will benefit from Mideast "justice" or integration, and posts like yours enhance my suspicions.
I'd like to support human rights for all, but I get a constant sensation that gay rights will not be human rights in the Islamic Mideast.
By "gay rights" I mean simply tolerance and privacy for choices between adults, and not necessarily marriage or Western-style visibility.
Interesting interview from Democracy Now on the Parvez Sharma documentary:
A Jihad for Love: Gay Muslims fight for rights, part 1/3 on
Youtube:
edit on 27-7-2012 by halfoldman because: (no reason given)
