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Wayne Besen
PO Box 25491
Brooklyn, NY 11202
Activist Peter Tatchell makes a salient point when he writes in this week's Washington Blade:
This history of trumped up charges compels us to be skeptical about claims that the two teenagers hanged on July 19 were executed for raping a 13-year-old boy. Why should we believe a brutal judicial system that has a proven record of lying to cover up its crimes against humanity?
He ends his op-ed by saying:
"The failure of liberals and the left to support the Iranian struggle for democracy is one of the great betrayals of our age".
I tend to agree with Peter. On the left we are so afraid that we might offend some psycho fascist regime, that we are willing to swallow their party line. If you think the Muslim countries are fair to gay people, open up your gay travel guide, turn to the Middle East and find me a gay bar. Can't find one? Rest my case.
6 Comments:
I agree with Pete. These barbarians are not to be trusted.
They still treat women like SHIT and will "honor kill" (murder) their own daughters and wives; if a girl is raped it's automatically HER fault and she will be ostracized and psychologically and physically abused because of it. How could these psychotic fuck-wads possibly have any mercy or sympathy for homosexual adults OR CHILDREN (teenagers)?! These cultures don't even like DOGS! I rest my case.
I agree with all that has been said about this. Islam cannot possibly be a "peaceful" religion when it condones barbarity against its own people simple because they happen to be gay or some other undesirables who do not fit in with the tenets of islam. What galls me are western leaders who keep on defending islam in the face of terrorists with their mantra that the this is not the true face of islam. Hogwash! The right wingers would gladly commit the same acts against us if they could get away with it and I bet you anything Bush would turn a blind eye. Over 100,000 muslims in Britain condoned the two recent London attacks. For that kind of thing, they should all be deported. It was done to ex-nazis here in the U.S, so why not these cold blooded murderers who have no regard for human life? If they don't like the west, then why do they come here abusing the rights and privileges they never had in their own rotten societies.
I applaud Tony Blair who has put islamic fundamentalists in Britain on notice that if they publicly advocate terrorism against Britain and the west, that they will be deported back from whence they came, or if naturalized, stripped of their citizenship. Free speech even in our country is not protected by the first amendment if its intent is to advocate or induce others to commit crimes against society. Its time we became tougher on these low lives and get rid of them.
Your reference to Gay Travel reminded me of a Letter to the Editor of the Southern Voice that I wrote in October 2002 [referring to an Advertisment for a Gay Cruise in Eygpt]. I wrote this letter protesting Southern Voice's acceptance of Advertising dollars after following news reports [in the Southern Voice] of Gay men that had been arrested and imprisoned for merely being homosexual.
This letter was written in 2002. It seems little to nothing has changed in the last several years with regard to our support and solidarity with our Gay brothers and sisters around the world.
Letter to SOVO - October 2002
"Imagine our shock after reading the advertisement from Hanns Ebensten Travel (Key West, FL) in the latest edition of Southern Voice (11 October 2002): “Spend your Thanksgiving Holiday cruising the Nile in cosseted style...with twenty men…aboard a luxurious, privately-chartered paddle steamer for an unforgettable tour of Egypt.” We were taken aback by this, considering that Southern Voice has reported numerous AP news articles relating the persecution, brutal arrests, sensationalized trials, hard labor sentences and torture of suspected gays in Egypt from the Queen Boat case to the Damanhour Five.
Would any civic-minded gay publication endorse vacations encouraging gay Americans to spend tourist dollars flaunting about the Nile on a paddle steamer, while gay Egyptians are routinely monitored and live under the constant threat of harassment and arrest?
While there have been calls from members of the European Union to “cease aid and trade” with Egypt, as well as US Rep Barney Frank (D-Mass.) turning down a speaking engagement on cross-cultural understanding in protest—President Bush and the rest of the US government have remained eerily silent on the subject (all the while sending our hard earned tax dollars to aid Egypt in the name of courting a Middle Eastern ally). It remains to be seen if Hanns Ebensten will fill all twenty slots on this Thanksgiving pleasure cruise into Hell. We contacted Hanns Ebensten and spoke with a Marketing Representative who justified their marketing of tours to Egypt by stating that if they discouraged travel to every country that tortured or imprisoned homosexuals then they would have to stop servicing the entire Muslim world (a service provided by them for over 30 years). EU Labour MP Michael Cashman stated, "If dialogue fails to achieve a resolution then we must cease aid and trade. We cannot bankroll human rights abuses. If we do nothing, then we condone these abuses of fundamental rights.” With this said, our question to Southern Voice is this: was the profit made from this advertisement worth the price of the humanity of gay Egyptians?
posted by Anonymous, at
8/06/2005 4:49 PM
That's... pretty dumb. Thanks for wasting 45 seconds of my life reading this drivel.
posted by Anonymous, at
8/08/2005 3:36 AM
Actually Wayne, you might have trouble finding ANY bar in many places -- but point taken.
