Normally I don't like to post multiple posts but I was sent this on YouTube today and I felt the need to share it with everyone. This video brings up so much for me. First it sickens and saddens me beyond words. It reminds me that my heroes are the GLBT people who live in countries like this one, who face the threat of death every day. It must be a collosal act of will just to leave your house in the morning. Secondly, to me, it suggests what a country can become when ever a particular religion is allowed free reign over the rights of the people. Though the risk is remote in America, it still exsists.
Watch this with caution...many scenes are graphic and hard to watch. Even worse are the comments left on YouTube. I don't recomend reading them. My heart grieves for these people and for those who love them....and for anyone that thinks we won the war for freedom and goodness in Iraq..this is what we won. Good luck dear reader......
Bryan,
ReplyDeleteI am so glad you posted this. Most gay people don't realize that even though we have it bad in some parts of the U.S., in the Islamic world it's a million times worse.
Most murdering of gay people now occurs in the countries dominated by Islam. In almost all Middle Eastern countries, the penalty for being gay is death.
At least in America, someone who commits a hate crime against a gay person is thrown in jail (i.e. Matthew Shepard's killers).
But over there, it's the government itself that is directly involved in the murdering of gay people. I wish this wasn't the case, but the biggest threat to the LGBT population of the world is Islam.
I watched this on you tube as well.
ReplyDeleteThere is a fair bit of sunni bashing on there, I think that certain shias in the comment section are mostly interested in hanging the sunnis (no surprise there they hate each other) and would just like to use homosexuality as an excuse.
The stupid thing is that recreational homosexual sex is very common in the muslim world. Much more so than in the west. Lack of any kind access to women basically leaves an all male world not unlike prison.
I have a relative who has been on a couple of tours in Afghanistan. He walked into a tent to get a local translator at 1pm to find the entire tent full of hardcore homosexual activity.
There are one too many countries in the world that ban homosexuality under different penalties that vary from simple fines to imprisonment for days / months / years / lifetime to death penalty, and, as we can see, some countries allow their citizens to act as judges and executioners with no questions asked. There is a good article in wikipedia about that — just a list of countries with all major information about GLBTQ rights, freedoms & punishments; when I studied that article last spring there were little pictures of skull with bones (you know, like on pirate flags) next to the countries where you can be killed for being gay, now those pictures are gone.
ReplyDeleteIraq. One man (Hussein) comes and destroys everything, using religion to justify his methods. I'm not saying that religion is innocent on its own, but any religion is dangerous, it's the most powerful weapon in the whole world — devotion (I'm basically quoting this new TV Series, "V," because I completely agree with that notion). Any religion asks people to have a blind faith without asking for any proof, saying that this is the real faith, the one that demands no proof, that needs no proof. And when you agree with that, when you blind yourself, when you practically cut your eyes out, you can't see anything anymore, you rely on someone who claims to know the path, you give yourself to them completely, you surrender your will to "higher power" and you cease to exist as an individual, all alone in the whole world, only to become a part of something bigger, and it feels right. This is a very dangerous path, but most of people choose it, because they don't want to be alone anymore, with no answers, with only fears & uncertainty.
And this is what we protect so passionately in our Constitutions? this is what we value more than common sense? this is what we use to justify any discrimination against people who did not do anything wrong to us? Ridiculous! Absolutely ridiculous!
This is soo upsetting and sad...
ReplyDeleteEvangelical Christians would do the same thing..if they could. We should never leave our guard down here...
ReplyDeleteI have no doubt that evangelical Christians would do the same thing if they could.
ReplyDeleteThe roots of Islam (just like in Christianity) is Judaism and the 3 religions have historically persecuted gays.
Here in the US, we will never be able to talk to the Christian Right but we could explain to the "average Joe" the dangers of having religion influencing government policies.
Yes,we have separation of religion and state but we all have to admit that this is not true all the time.
Just like Jim Stone said we can't leave our guard down.
Any how, this video was very painful to watch because it seems like it was only yesterday when I read in the Saudi newspapers about excutions of gays.