More Mad Muslim Bullshit.
In Brief:
Pakistan court deems Valentine’s Day ‘un-Islamic,’ bans across country
https://www.rt.com/news/377208-pakistan-ban-valentines-day/
Valentine’s Day has effectively been banned in Pakistan after the Islamabad High Court (IHC) ruled on Monday to prohibit marking the occasion in public spaces and government offices across the country, effective immediately, regional media reported.
The court ruling came as the result of a petition started by concerned citizen Abdul Waheed, who complained that promoting the holiday in the media and across social networks is “against Islamic teachings and should be banned immediately.”
All print and online media outlets have been ordered to “stop all Valentine's Day promotions,” and celebrating the occasion in public too has been banned.
Justice Shaukat Aziz, who made the ruling, directed the Federal Ministry of Information, the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) and the Islamabad High Commission to start implementing the court’s decision.
On social media, many Pakistanis reacted to the court’s decision with a mixture of sarcasm and dismay.
Court verdicts and warnings from religious clerics can not stop people from loving. How do you ban emotions and feelings? #ValentinesDay— Ashar Jawad (@AsharJawad) February 13, 2017
While banned gangs of murderers roaming free with their suicide bombers, High Court in #Pakistan preferred to ban a benign #ValentinesDay— Zulfi Rao (@ZulfiRao1) February 13, 2017
You should learn how to conquer the heart. Let them celebrate #ValentinesDay— Veengas (@VeengasJ) February 13, 2017
When Hate is Powerful than LOVE; Only Happens in Pakistan 🇵🇰 #ValentinesDay— Alamdar Khan (@Alamdar405) February 13, 2017
#ValentinesDay is not a part of our 'culture'. All great love stories incl SassiPunnu, HeerRanjha etc are from the East.— Shahrukh Sohail (@shahrukhsohail7) February 13, 2017
Even the #TajMahal is a symbol of love. But no, let's ban #ValentinesDay because celebrating love is 'unislamic' & will ruin our morals— Shahrukh Sohail (@shahrukhsohail7) February 13, 2017
Valentine’s Day is a tradition that may have had its origins in an ancient Roman fertility festival and was subsequently adopted by the Catholic Church to commemorate one or more Christian martyrs named Valentine, who were persecuted in the Roman Empire. It is now a day for celebrating love and romance in many parts of the world.
Malaysian Muslim authority says ‘training & guidance’ can reverse homosexuality (VIDEO)
https://www.rt.com/viral/377179-malaysia-lgbt-muslim-homosexuality/
Malaysian authorities have released a video explaining to Muslims how to approach the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community and suggesting that sexual orientation can be changed with “extensive training”.
The Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim) released the three-minute video encouraging the Islamic community to ‘be patient’ and help those who wish to change their sexual orientation with “extensive training and guidance”, according to the Malay Mail Online.
In Malaysia, a predominantly Islamic country, homosexual activity and changing gender are illegal under both state courts and Sharia law.
Jakim urged gay people to repent their homosexuality and to fulfil their sexual desires through marriage and fasting.
A 2015 report by the Human Rights Watch said “discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people is pervasive in Malaysia.”
The report went on to say that “transgender persons face arbitrary arrest, physical and sexual assault, imprisonment, discriminatory denial of healthcare and employment, and other abuses.”
The video has received mixed feedback from its thousands of viewers on Facebook.
Some have commended Jakim for taking a more accepting approach toward the Islamic LGBT community:
“Color me surprised with rainbow colors. JAKIM actually came out with a video that is non-hateful of the LGBT community,” wrote Luq Harith.
“Not impressed with the content but kudos to JAKIM for focusing on not being hateful or violent towards LGBTQ people,” wrote Huda Mutalib.
Others criticized the organization for encouraging reparative therapy and suggesting a person’s sexual orientation can be changed.
“This video is going to make people believe that there is a way to 'change' homosexuals into heterosexuals. No way you can do that,” wrote Sheelabanu Sri
“We set such a low bar for Muslims to get them to act like decent human beings. Calling for reparative therapy is not exactly good intentions, let alone genuine respect that LGBTQI people should live their lives the way they want it to be,” wrote Zulaikha Mohammad.
“So JAKIM's strategy is to use compassion to lure Muslim LGBT to the 'right' path while enacting anti-LGBT syariah laws to punish and ruin the lives of those who decide to follow their heart and their own conviction,” wrote Raymond Tai.
Doorless dorms to stave off gay sex: Islamist Indonesian minister ridiculed for ‘nonsensical’ plan
https://www.rt.com/news/365132-indonesia-doorless-student-dorms/
Indonesia’s controversial social affairs minister, Khofifah Indar Parawansa, has caught social media flak after voicing her plan for doorless student accommodation to prevent gay and pre-marital sexual liaisons, as part of a wider crackdown on “moral degradation.”
Khofifah said she was inspired by a visit to a campus at a “very prestigious university,” which she avoided naming, that had already implemented the policy.
“When we asked why, they said they had anticipated the possibility of sex and so they removed the doors so that that behavior would not happen. That’s why I’m recommending university dorms, both male and female, remove their doors,” she told Antara news agency during a trip to Semarang, in Central Java, over the weekend.
When asked about the privacy implications of getting changed and conducting all personal life in full view of passersby, the 51-year-old politician retorted: "A dormitory is either all male or all female. What privacy?"
While that statement implies that the chances of the sexes mixing in dorms are already low as it is, the minister said that the measure is aimed as same-sex relationships.
“It’s not only men and women who are doing it [having sex]. The thing that is equally dangerous is men with men and women with women,” said the member of the Islamist PKB party.
Khofifah has previously made statements accusing LGBT activists of trying to “turn underprivileged children into homosexuals,” and has also lobbied for gay people to be given psychiatric treatment that would “cure” them of their “disorder.”
Human rights organizations and students united to try and bolt the door on the proposal.
"Such a plan, if true, obviously does not make sense," Bonar Tigor Naipospos, deputy chairman of Setara Institute, an Indonesian human rights NGO, told Reuters.
“A door represents the individual need for privacy. Yet the state, for reasons of morality, wants to smash through that door and make the behavior and consciousness of individuals uniform,” continued Naipospos, who questioned if the minister had conducted any factual research about student behavior, prior to launching the plan.
Students took to Twitter to voice their discontent.
"Khofifah recommends doorless dorms to avoid premarital sex. Then sexual harassment and theft will run riot," stated one user.
“They can do it in the bathroom! So bathrooms will be doorless too? Then I’ll go around to the girls’ dorms more often!!" joked another.
While putting this particular proposal into practice may prove problematic, it comes amid an intense and profound constitutional and social battle in the world’s fourth most populous nation, in which Khofifah is a key protagonist.
The minister is one of the highest-profile members of the Family Love Alliance, a group of Islamic politicians and activists that is seeking to make pre-marital sex a crime punishable by jail, and to equate adult homosexual relations to pedophilia, and other sex crimes.
The Constitutional Court is set to rule on its proposals next month.
“We are gravely concerned about the moral degradation happening in our country and we strongly disagree with the arguments presented by those rejecting our petition — that what is going on in people’s bedrooms is private and will not affect other people,” Rita Soebagyo, the chairperson of the Family Love Alliance, told the Australian.
“We also disagree with their [social liberals’] version of sex education. They say it’s OK for unmarried people to have sex as long as you wear contraceptives. This is against the values of our religion and our culture.”
Parliament is also separately discussing a new criminal code, which also strives to prosecute pre-marital sex in the world’s biggest majority-Muslim state, where almost 90 percent of the 250 million citizens espouse Islam.
“People are now afraid that what happened in Iran and Syria could happen here.
People are talking about it now,” Nursyahbani Katjasungkana, founder of the Indonesian Women’s Coalition and Legal Aid, an NGO, told the Australian. “Just last week President Jokowi told the BBC our constitution guaranteed freedom of expression but it seems to me his statement is contradictory to what is actually happening.”
Gay Indian man threatened with ‘corrective rape’ by his own family
https://www.rt.com/news/374114-gay-indian-man-corrective-rape/A young man in India has been beaten and threatened with rape after his family found out he was living with his gay partner.
According to the India Times, the young man known as ‘Sanjoy’ was subjected to a string of physical and emotional abuse from his family in the city of Kolkata, formerly known as Calcutta, in West Bengal. After his parents found out that Sanjoy, in his early 20s, is gay and living with his partner, they hired local thugs to beat him and torment him psychologically.
Koninika Roy from the Humsafar Trust, a Mumbai-based advocacy group for LGBT rights, also said that the parents tried to send him to a doctor to “cure” him of his homosexuality, and when the doctor refused they considered forcing him to undergo “corrective rape” therapy.
Corrective rape is a crime perpetrated on members of the LGBT community to ‘punish’ them for their sexuality. In some cases it might be facilitated by members of the family in an attempt to force the victim back into their traditional gender role.
“Violence against the LGBTQ community is extremely common in India. Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code and the fact that same sex behavior is criminalized in the country means that homosexuals cannot live freely,” Roy told the India Times. “The story of this gay couple is just one of the examples of how the LGBTQ community is treated in India.”
Sanjoy has since managed to get a court order against his parents and is now back living with his partner, although they have since run out of money due to their legal fees. In a statement obtained by Gay Star News, the couple say that they do “not wish to play the victim card” but expressed frustration at how “family honor” affects LGBT lives.
“The pain is real, the hardships loom large, the tears are red and at times you feel low enough not to live or breathe anymore because there doesn’t feel a point in doing so,” Sanjoy’s partner said.
They were also hopeful, however, having got back together despite the family’s best efforts.
“Love kept us strong and our mental strength added to the fuel of the ‘won’t-be-giving up’ attitude … We are living together as for now, with nothing but each other.”
Homosexuality can be prosecuted as a crime in India under a colonial-era law, Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which criminalizes “unnatural” sexual intercourse. Although the law was repealed in 2009, it was reinstated in 2013 by the Supreme Court. Gay couples in India also have to deal with possible persecution from their families, the more traditional of which may even kill to uphold their “honor.” Honor killings are widespread across India, taking place in both traditional Muslim and Hindu communities.
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