Qaradawi on Homosexuality
One semi-obscure debate that's been running for years now concerns what we should make of Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a Sunni Muslim scholar who hosts a very popular al-Jazeera program putting forth an Islamist point of view. The dispute basically concerns whether he's just the sort of Islamist who favors democracy and opposes terrorism who can productively win the argument with the more violent Islamist sorts, or whether his moderation is just a cloak for an extremist agenda.
At any rate, normally the point of MEMRI transcripts is to indicate that each and every figure in the Arab world who doesn't like Israel is also a wild-eyed extremist hell-bent on the destruction of the United States, but these MEMRI excerpts just make Qaradawi sound like a somewhat more candid version of a conventional socially conservative American religious leader. I wish they had provided the entire dialogue, since I'd really like to know how he followed-up on the claim that "lesbianism is not as bad as homosexuality, in practical terms."
Sorry for facile snark but I'd rather say that socially conservative American religious leaders sound a lot like fundamentalist Islamic preachers, a meeting of like minds most polite commentators in the US prefer to quietly gloss over...
No, you can't have your own facts!
August 14, 2006 11:18 AM | Reply | Permalink
I'm sure he's talking about the spread of STDs. In that regard, lesbianism isn't as bad as heterosexuality, in practical terms.
August 14, 2006 11:27 AM | Reply | Permalink
Do we have MEMRI equivalent for our domestic Taliban (and I do not mean Lamont voters)?
Anyway, on reproductive rights, rights of homosexuals and related issues our delegates at international meetings form a block with Muslim countries and Vatican. On the issue of death penalty for minors I guess we are in a very select club with Saudis and Iran.
August 14, 2006 11:30 AM | Reply | Permalink
I'd say that the idea that Lesbianism isn't 'as bad' as homosexuality is based purely on the idea that men having sex with men is more icky to the right-wing men then women having sex with women- and occasionally even exciting. At any rate, most of them believe in their heart of hearts that all it would take to "cure" a lesbian is one good romp with THEM- poor, weak-willed creatures that we are. They don't know what to do about the pesky men.
August 14, 2006 1:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Presumably, Islamic clerics consider women so inherently degenerate that they have less distance to fall, as it were.
August 14, 2006 2:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, I tried to find his comments on Al Jazeera's website, since fucking MEMRI doesn't provide the original Arabic nor a link to same.
Here's the home page of Qaradawi's show, badly translated by Google:
http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aljazeera.net%2FNR%2Fexeres%2F7455D9A7-AF8F-4FFD-BEEA-864E69F5921F.htm&langpair=ar%7Cen&hl=en&ie=UTF8
As you can see, there is nothing from June 5th ... so perhaps it's elsewhere.
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I blog at http://americanfootprints.com
August 14, 2006 3:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'd really like to know how he followed-up on the claim that "lesbianism is not as bad as homosexuality, in practical terms."
Well, if his thinking is anything like that of some of the religious conservatives I grew up around it may be something along the lines of "sex isn't actually sex unless it involves penetration with a penis," (this is the line of logic that allowed a lot of young women I grew up with to keep wearing their chastity rings even after doing a lot of things most people would consider sex). That then leads into, for some of these folks: "ergo lesbians aren't really having sex, poor deluded souls."
August 14, 2006 4:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
"lesbianism is not as bad as homosexuality, in practical terms."
Fairly traditional attitude in the US as well, I suspect. Victorian women were usually free to have housemates as long as they were discreet about it. For many males, having a girlfriend who used to be a lesbian probably counts as a kick--it implies that she's willing to take risks for sex, and also a sign that he's brought her around.
It's a slightly different point but I gather that lesbian porn works fine from a marketing perspective, because some women will watch it and men will watch anything.
August 14, 2006 4:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Actually, I believe that the Supreme Court made a decision in the past few years that prohibits the death penalty for minors.
"You say I'm a dreamer. We're two of a kind. Looking for some perfect world that we both know that we'll never find." - Thompson Twins, "Hold Me Now"
August 14, 2006 4:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is fairly traditional view that can be found in many societies past and present. Lesbianism doesn't threaten either the legitimacy of children, or cultural notions of masculinity (as male homosexuality obviously does): it retains the woman in the position of sex object and of course some (many?) straight men find it erotic.
August 14, 2006 6:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
I found that Qaradawi transcript quite amusing. The first sentence is: "Kerry, who ran against Bush, was supported by homosexuals and nudists." I wasn't aware that Kerry had any substantial nudist support.
August 14, 2006 8:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
My theory is that from the point of view of Holy Books it is even not clear that lesbianism is sex.
G..d or Allah paid a lot of attention to what happens with semen. I should not be wasted, it should not be used outside marriage etc. From that point of view, a Lesbian congress is a non-event.
August 14, 2006 9:52 PM | Reply | Permalink