Deja Vu: Comparing Ugandan Homophobia with Nazi Rhetoric

Genocide begins with words. The process of identifying and dehumanizing the "other" involves the dissemination of a hateful ideology of difference long before physical killing -- it is this ideology that lays the groundwork for the genocide itself.

It is for this reason that malicious language cannot be brushed aside as harmless, but should be treated as an early warning of something far more sinister, even if not all cases of virulent identity politics escalates to genocide.

When compared with the language used against Jews by the Nazis, the appalling legislation criminalizing "aggravated homosexuality" in Uganda is cause for even greater alarm:

• Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels: "Defending against the Jewish danger is only part of our plan. [Jews have] attempted to mobilize the world against us, in the secret hope of winning back the territory it has lost."
• Ugandan Ethics and Integrity Minister James Nsaba Buturo: "It is the duty of Ugandans to be vigilant because agents of immorality are busy using all lies and deceptions to hurt our society."

• Nazi politician Dr. Robert Ley: "There is no room in the world for the Jews any more. The Jew or us, one of us will have to go."
• Ugandan cleric Sheikh Ramathan Shaban Mubajje: "I asked President Museveni to get us an island on Lake Victoria and we take these homosexuals and they die out there. If they die there then we shall have no more homosexuals in the country."

• Adolf Hitler, from Mein Kamf: "Was there any form of filth or crime...without at least one Jew involved in it. If you cut even cautiously into such a sore, you find like a maggot in a rotting body, often dazzled by the sudden light - a Jew."
• Ugandan Sheikh Multah Bukenya: Quoted as saying that his followers are "ready to act swiftly and form this squad that will wipe out all abnormal practices like homosexuality in our society."

• Nazi Nuremberg Laws of 1935: "Marriages between Jews and citizens of German or kindred blood are forbidden...Sexual intercourse between Jews and subjects of the state of Germany or related blood is forbidden."
• Proposed Legislation in Uganda: "A person who purports to contract a marriage with another person of the same sex commits the offence of homosexuality and shall be liable on conviction to imprisonment for life."

The Ugandan legislation goes on to impose strict sentences any person who "aids, abets, counsels or procures another to engage in acts of homosexuality" -- also bearing a striking resemblance to the Nazi-era. This might not be genocide yet, but the situation is surely one to watch, and to stop, before it's too late. For more coverage of the Ugandan legislation, check out Change.org's Gay Rights blog.

[Photo from Wikimedia Commons.]