In
times of disaster, the operative phrase for fundamentalists in all religions
these days seems to be blame the queers.
A Saudi Arabian professor from the Al-Imam
University in Riyadh — Sheik
Fawzan Fawzan — pointed the finger of Islam at gays and lesbians,
indicating that they were to blame for the recent tsunami in the Indian
Ocean that killed more than 150,000 individuals in over 13 countries, including
the popular gay resort of Phucket, in Thailand.
“These great tragedies and collective punishments that are wiping
out villages, towns, cities, and even entire countries, are Allah’s
punishments of the people of these countries, even if they are Muslims,” Fawzan
pronounced.
“Some of our forefathers said that
if there is usury and fornication in a certain village, Allah permits
its destruction.”
Call me crazy but I wasn’t exactly sure what usury means. I had some
vague recollection of childhood Bible stories about Jesus going after money-lenders
in the temple and trashing the joint but that was about it — I had
to look this one up.
u*su*ry (yoo-zhu-ree) — The practice
of lending money and charging the borrower interest, especially at
an exorbitant or illegally high rate.
Okay…so I guess that means finance
companies that offer loans at high interest rates are to blame as well.
Did somebody tell me Capital
One was owned by a Saudi investment firm?
“We know that at these resorts, which
unfortunately exist in Islamic and other countries in South Asia, and
especially at Christmas, fornication
and sexual perversion of all kinds are rampant.”
That innuendo was about as subtle as a slap in the face.
“The fact that it happened at this particular time is a sign from
Allah,” Fawzan
continues to rant. “It happened at Christmas, when fornicators and
corrupt people from all over the world come to commit fornication and sexual
perversion. That’s when this tragedy took place, striking them
all and destroying everything. It turned the land into wasteland, where
only
the cries of the ravens are heard. I say this is a great sign and punishment
on which Muslims should reflect.”
Blah, blah, blah.
“All that’s left for us to do
is to ask for forgiveness. We must atone for our sins, and for the
acts of the stupid people among
us and improve
our condition. We must fight fornication, homosexuality, usury, fight
the
corruption on the face of the earth, and the disregard of the lives
of protected people.
How elitist and self-serving. Calls to mind a similar
maniacal raving
by Jerry Falwell following the devastating events of Sept. 11, 2001.
It
was during a broadcast of Pat Robertson’s “700 Club” that
Falwell stepped over the line. “The abortionists have got
to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And
when
we destroy
40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe
that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the
gays and the
lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle,
the ACLU, People For the American Way, all of them who have tried
to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say ‘you
helped this happen’.”
Falwell later apologized, but
even now the din of fundamentalist Christian ranting regarding
our latest world tragedy can be heard.
Listen to the words of
vociferously anti-gay Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church in
Topeka, Kan.
“The tsunami was an adumbration of the wrath of God, a harbinger
of things to come: that Great Day of Judgment. The lands affected by
this judgment from God aren’t just full of idolatry; we’re talking
about places (think Thailand) that are hot spots where American businessmen
travel for the express purpose of fornicating with young Asian children…not
to mention the fact that those Asian countries weren’t
the only ones affected by the tsunami. Do you realize that
among the dead and missing
are 20,000 Swedes and over 3,000 Americans? Filthy Swedes
went to Thailand — world
epicenter of child sex traffic — to rape and sodomize
little Thai boys and girls. 20,000 dead Swedes is to Sweden’s
population of nine million as 650,000 would be to America’s
290 million population. We sincerely hope and pray that all
20,000 Swedes are dead, their bodies
bloated on the ground or in mass graves or floating at sea
feeding sharks and fishes or in the bellies of thousands
of crocodiles washed ashore by
tsunamis.”
Phelps has such a talent — if you could
call it that — for
visually repulsive railings. It would almost be comical if
it wasn’t
so tragic. At least we can take some consolation in the fact
that Phelps is clearly insane. |
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