I always wonder how self-professed heterosexuals know why gays “suffer” from homosexuality. Take Imam Abdallah Adhami, a new senior adviser to NYC’s Park51 community center project (news peg!), who sells a DVD lecture online where he says “an enormously, overwhelming percentage of people struggle with homosexual feeling because of some form of violent emotional or sexual abuse at some point in their life. Again, not necessarily in their childhood….A small, tiny percentage of people are born with a natural inclination they cannot explain. You find this in the animal kingdom on some level as well.” Ya know who thanks you, Adhami? The Catholic Church, because they’ve really been getting beat up for being the most vocal anti-gay international book group, and now you can help Islam share some of the heat. Brava! In the meantime, I’m going to reflect on what made me gay. I think it might’ve been the “violent emotional abuse” I suffered when I wanted a Snickers bar at the pharmacy when I was six, and my mother told me No.
[flv:http://media.ny1.com:80/media/2011/1/26/video/Park51PKG_3230316.mp4 https://queerty-prodweb.s3.amazonaws.com/2011/01/99488934.jpg 650 400]
[NY1]
whatever
Religious people are homophobic? Knock me over with a feather. The mosque should still be built, though. First Amendment and all that.
Actually, what he’s saying is probably a lot milder than what is said in Southern Baptist churches every Sunday. And if they get to pop up their churches on every corner, so should Muslims.
Fitz
You might be surprised how many young men think that their homosexual feelings are “due to” something. They are right, they are due to being born. I also think that a LOT of people can tell that a kid is going to be queer, and the abuse starts early.. so it’s a mistake to assume that the gay came from the abuse, when in our society it;s the abuse that comes from being tagged as gay.
Francis
@Fitz: Good point.
As for this bigoted POS, just another in the long line of hurtful and hateful anti-gay garbage from religious/conservative individuals. No-one would have the balls to say these types of things about any other group but us. The sad part is the fact these fools feel completely entitled in saying, doing and thinking anything and everything about gay people, just because of their religion. The only thing you can do is educate the non-brainwashed and non-sick, because people like this won’t listen.
Screaming Queen
Religion is oppression! Period.
And to the poster that thinks the south is worse, puuuuuuhlease! I’m recovering catholic, not freakin stupid! There’s only one religion on this planet that ACTIVELY targets us homo’s for extinction through beheading, ONE! Islam is a hate crime!
This story totally harshed my excitement for the oppressed people of Egypt who deserve freedom and democracy.
Simon
Doh! Last time I’ve checked womens are lesser man in Islam, so why Imams ban being gay if it saves you from living in house with living abomination ?! 😉 Moreover why all Muslims says that they don’t have priests like Christians if thousands of older guys all over the worlds are translating old book for them and adding some spicy stuff. Generally offensive and hateful. It’s the same crap I hear every time I go to Catholic Church. Filthy hypocrites!
Jonathan
Many peoplke in this country consider a belief in Islam to be the result of violent emotional abuse. As well as a belief in Christianity. Religion is poison. Sort of like crack for the stupid.
hephaestion
What is NYC’s Park51 community center? This guy works for them? He’s being paid tax dollars for saying this wacko bullshit? Please clarify.
Atheism is dehumanizing
“Religion is oppression! Period.” writes an aptly id’d participant.
Whenever someone uses “Period” like this, I know that they have no rational argument, no accurate data, nothing of any value whatsoever to contribute just their own malice and ignorance.
People of faith brought down the Berlin wall that atheists built.
Most of the men and women who served in both world wars, were people of faith.
People of faith ended slavery in Europe and the U.S.
People of faith continue to be the dominant force for civil equality for people of color, women, and yes, GLBTQ people.
The reality is that there are, and have always been, people who seek to oppress others. To achieve that, they have used anything of value available to them, from religion to science, art and theater and commerce, language and dress, and philosophies and beliefs, including atheism.
Derek
I agree with Parvez Sharma. His opinion seems incredibly socially liberal for an Imam… I imagined most Imams saying “STONE THE GAYS” not trying to rationalize it. I would imagine an Imam saying that being amongst the most inclusive Muslim religious leader available :S
Devon
@Atheism is dehumanizing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-i7rz9CsIM
jamie
“People of faith continue to be the dominant force for civil equality for people of color, women, and yes, GLBTQ people.”
Lol. For sure!
Also; just because what he said is moderate for the islamic orthodoxy means that somehow his comments can be seen as a progression? Look at what he said! That is not progress.
kayla
…I’m not trying to defend this guy, but he could have just used the “they are demon possessed” explanation…….just saying….I know it’s hard for some people to understand….But this guy is light years ahead of the Imams urging their congregations to kill the gay….This is a rather liberal Imam!!
Adonis-of-Fire
For me the opinion of a crazy muslim such as him is worth less than nothing.
David
And he worships the paedophile prophet Mohammed.
I think I am going to draw a few pictures of Mohammed now.
tallskin2
And meanwhile here in the UK the first charges have been brought against muslims who demand death to gays
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12298858
27 January 2011 Last updated at 20:20
Pair charged with stirring up homophobic hatred
A Gay Pride march in London Legislation banning homophobic material was introduced in March 2010
Two men from Derby have been charged with stirring up hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation.
It is the first such prosecution since laws outlawing homophobia came into force in March 2010.
Razwan Javed, 30, and Kabir Ahmed, 27, will appear before magistrates on Friday.
The charges relate to a leaflet, The Death Penalty?, which was distributed outside the Jamia Mosque in Derby in July last year.
The leaflets were also posted through letterboxes in the city.
Mr Javed and Mr Ahmed have both been charged with distributing threatening written material intending to stir up hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation.
Crown Prosecution Service lawyer Sue Hemming said: “This is the first ever prosecution for this offence and it is the result of close working between the Crown Prosecution Service and Derbyshire Police.
“Following complaints from the public, Derbyshire Police mounted a thorough investigation.
“We have carefully reviewed the evidence provided by the police and are satisfied that there is sufficient evidence and it is in the public interest to charge these men.”
[email protected]
I agree with some of the comments below in so far as this Imam is pretty mild compared to many others, however he still suffers from the religious disease, that is making a God of his own opinion.
When your whole world view is predicated on your faith, a nice way of saying your subjective feelings, there is little humbleness before the facts and actually getting off ones butt to speak to gay people and learn what makes us so is unnecessary indeed contraindicated as one might find out truths that are not readily reconciled with ones religious preconceptions.
The mental gymnastics Christians and Muslims have to go through to reconcile a supposedly loving God with people being born homosexual results in absurd conclusions such as gays choose to be homosexual or can choose to change because God wouldn’t make people gay then condemn them to extermination.
The fact is the religious individuals criteria for determining truth is so absurdly subjective it is amazing they manage to function in objective reality at all. It is also the reason why conflicts between religions or heresies rapidly descend into violent confrontation as logic and reason play little part in the decision making process to begin with.
divkid
i agree with: Atheism is dehumanising; and kayla.
the religion thing is much more nuanced than you’re giving it credit for. y’all are understandably angry: lives are at risk from the religiously motivated; but, also from those using religion as a *cover* for those same hateful impulses.
who knows how many murders have been *prevented* by believers who’s adherence to the injunction not to kill for fear of damnation is even stronger than their impulse to murder us. would these same people if “freed from their shackles of religion” be any kinder to us? would it be easier to be dispatched out of secular motivations such as machismo or even mere arbitrary disgust.
some folks take on religious dogma will likely always see us as morally culpable, disordered or bad. that sucks. but hey, if they stop at just wanting to pray for my soul and that i repent that i might be saved, it’s *their* precious time they’re wasting.
this is rambling…i know what i want to say but im not skilled enough to get it over. anyways…
btw cassandra im an atheist, but human foremost. i *cant* believe — here i stand and can do no other. so, some christian compassion for those denied your gift?
Priscilla Queen of the Jungle
“An enormously, overwhelming percentage of people”?
Bitch, please! BASED ON WHAT EVIDENCE BASE?
Thought so. I’m not up on the latest psychology research, but I seem to recall that rates of childhood abuse are similar for straight and gay men.
[email protected]
@[email protected]:
Reply to Atheism is dehumanising. I find the demarcation some make between “atheist” philosophies such as communism and religion to be artificial and far too convenient. They are actually little different, in both instances (atheist/theist) someone becomes so convinced their philosophy is true they are willing not only to sacrifice their own lives to it they are willing to sacrifie yours as well. The communists for example believed in a heaven like the Christians only theirs was removed to some future time when the prolateriate paradise would be realised not to some metaphysical realm.
Some seem to think being credulous and dogmatic, believing in some god or other makes you a better more moral person than being atheist… I submit this thesis is far from proven.
tallskin2
@divkid – you ask “who knows how many murders have been *prevented* by believers who’s adherence to the injunction not to kill for fear of damnation is even stronger than their impulse to murder us. would these same people if “freed from their shackles of religion” be any kinder to us?”
The answer is yes, societies whose people are freed from the shackles of religion ARE better for us. Compare atheist, secular Europe with the more religious societies on the planet and the more atheist the better the situation for gays.
Dallas David
The question arises, “How do you know?”
If he doesn’t have the research to back it up, then presumably he’s just whistling out his butt.
Chris
Meh.
I’ve heard worse from the religious right.
Jay
Well, maybe bigotry will bring the mullahs and the evangelical holy rollers together. May they breed each other in peace!
Andy
@Atheism is dehumanizing: Communism was yet another religion. The Party was the infallible God, Marx the prophet, Lenin the demigod: part man, part god. The saints were the lesser comrades who kept the faith.
Christianity is the worship of a magical Jewish zombie. Just say no to all mindrot!
Atheism is a prejudice
[email protected] writes:
“When your whole world view is predicated on your faith, a nice way of saying your subjective feelings, there is little humbleness before the facts”
In comparison to atheism, a world view entirely predicated on ego – the subjective feeling that anyone who has experienced something you have not is just wrong, because you said so. Where is the humbleness before the fact that most of humanity is experiencing something that atheists say they do not?
“and actually getting off ones butt to speak to gay people and learn what makes us so is unnecessary indeed contraindicated as one might find out truths that are not readily reconciled with ones religious preconceptions.”
Funny thing, for decades now, millions of people of faith have been speaking to GLBTQ people, and listening to us, and wonder of wonders, questioning, challenging and rejecting anti-gay theology.
But atheists, now that’s a different story. Like homophobes, they do not listen to people of faith, they do not learn, they do not make the effort to find out truths that are not easily reconciled with their ego-based preconceptions.
“The fact is the religious individuals criteria for determining truth is so absurdly subjective it is amazing they manage to function in objective reality at all.”
Ah, as opposed to the atheist criteria: the lack of experience of the Divine of a few people supersedes and disproves the experiences of the Divine of most of humanity for as long as humans have been leaving tangible records of any kind.
Atheism is entirely subjective, but worse than that, it is based on the absence of evidence or experience.
Of course, your abusive assertions betray the intrinsic immorality and inhumanity of atheism, it demonstrates that atheism is simply a means of labeling other people as inferior to yourself, sub-human, fit for abuse. Lacking religion, you are not even able or willing perhaps to be civil to the people you refuse to listen to.
“It is also the reason why conflicts between religions or heresies rapidly descend into violent confrontation as logic and reason play little part in the decision making process to begin with.”
No. You are making a very subjective assertion that ignores the preponderance of human history – most conflicts, over anything, rapidly descend into violent confrontation. By applying a universal phenomena selectively to people of faith, you model prejudice and bigotry.
Further, the history of humanity demonstrates beyond any reasonable doubt that logic and reason, so absent from your post, have been used to justify violent confrontation over natural resources, populations, material wealth, intellectual wealth, and many a petty squabble born of ego or greed.
“I find the demarcation some make between “atheist” philosophies such as communism and religion to be artificial and far too convenient. They are actually little different,”
Actually, there is a great deal of difference.
“in both instances (atheist/theist) someone becomes so convinced their philosophy is true they are willing not only to sacrifice their own lives to it they are willing to sacrifie yours as well.”
That is not a defining trait of either religion or atheism. How convenient and artificial an assertion for you to make. The fact of the matter is that people have been willing to sacrifice their own lives, or better still from their perspective someone else’s life, for just about every reason, philosophy and principle under the sun. Many an atheist here is willing to sacrifice the lives of people of faith to an oppressive dream of a world free of religion.
“Some seem to think being credulous and dogmatic, believing in some god or other makes you a better more moral person than being atheist… I submit this thesis is far from proven.”
Falsely characterizing the beliefs of people of faith, as you just did, certainly doesn’t make you a better person. It actually indicates the opposite. Christianity teaches that the evidence of being a better moral person lies in how one treats others. Atheism seems to teach that it lies in abusing religious people.
My premise is that atheism is intrinsically a prejudice, it contains no moral code or ethical system at all, borrowed or uniquely its own. All it has is the rejection of other people’s experiences and testimony.
Tallskin2’s false claim is simply evidence that for at least one atheist, his/her lack of religion corresponds with a lack of integrity, morals and ethics.
Andy
Your entire post is divorced from reality.
divkid
@tallskin2: i want to believe that. but then look at cuba — which i’m otherwise sympathetic towards; and china, and other atheist, quasi-atheist (ergo soviets/nazis); and secular societies: hate crimes are committed by people who’ve never set foot in a church and have the most astounding ignorance of the most basic tenet of christianity or biblical reference — welcome to britain.
i guess i’m warring with my own misanthropic tendencies vs enlightenment idealism. voltaire thought that *god* was a good idea to keep the ignorant people — predisposed to irrationality — in line, and protect civilisation by diverting these people from a yet more harmful course.
if it’s true that religion is the opium of the people, i’m easier if they’re kept drowsy and docile.
of course, better by far that we were all rational, self-directed agents. but maybe were mostly not. even if there isn’t a predisposition to religion: the so-called god gene, we do have other natural drivers predisposing us to equally bizarre and damaging behaviours.
in order to facilitate a group to bond they have a tendency to define themselves against an “other” — a scapegoat (often for most spurious of reasons: the narcism of small differences.) this behaviour is typical of any highly social species and particularly noted in our closest ape relatives.
(though curiously not in bonobos, who’s bonding stratagem consists in frolicsome fun-for-all-the-family-fuck-fests; and polyamorous polymorphous-perverse-peen-pokey. the evolutionary whatnot is like waaay beyond me — but ignorance has never been a reason to holdback my opinion > its probably so that no fucker has an opportunity/hands free/energy left, to pick up a weapon.)
c’mon admit it, after all that talk of monkey lovin’, the idea of reincarnation doesn’t sound so bad after all does it? i’m up for some monkey sex how about you…and your mom and dad and nephew and sister and…
divkid
edit “peen pokery”
Jason
@tallskin2:
“societies whose people are freed from the shackles of religion ARE better for us”
Agreed. For example, it is well known that gays did very nicely for themselves in Hiter’s Germany, Mao’s China, and Castro’s Cuba, which quarantined people with AIDS.
You, sir, are a genius.
kayla
@Jason: Don’t forget RUSSIA! When Lenin and Stalin destroyed the churches and synagogues, didn’t the gays get all liberated and stuff…..so much so that they’re still being beaten in the streets….yes only the religious are anti-gay….or maybe not…….
Radical Atheists; the ones who not only disbelieve in God, but are actively anti-religious, are working on the false premise that religions make men do bad things, as if religion was some extra-terrestrial force dropped from outer space. But if what they contend is true, really is true,i.e.: Religion is man-made, then sans the religion doesn’t the man who created it, the petty, violent, vengeful man remain……? Just asking……
Think about all the thefts, rapes and murders committed across America and around the world on a daily basis…..Religion is hardly the only motivator for evil….or in Today’s world, even the biggest motivator……There’s almost a part of me who wants the Atheists to get their wish….Just so I can say….”See not much has changed, has it?”
divkid
@kayla: brilliantly put, and if i could’ve resisted the urge to divert up the road of tom-foolery that’s what i’d have said.
big tick.
now missy back to the studying!