Why Have Christians Led Anti-Gay Pogroms Before the Islamic World?

After working around the Islamic world and taking a close look inside the Somali justice system, which, like many Islamic world systems includes not only state, but also Islamic and clan law, I feared for the future for gays, lesbians, and bisexuals in those countries. But now recent controversies in largely Christian Uganda, Malawi, and even Jamaica have raised the risk of anti-gay pogroms in Christian Africa before the Islamic world. A new film and a recent article come closer to answering why this has been happening.

Many countries of the Islamic world retain laws punishing homosexuality with execution, and there has definitely been a pattern of barbaric persecution, including, recently, in Iraq. Interestingly, the male-dominated culture in the Islamic world, which sometimes discouraged women from participating in the male-dominated public sphere, encouraged men to hold hands, even nuzzle, in public. When I traveled, I had men cozy up to me, making even gay-friendly me very uncomfortable, and I wondered how could a culture which legally justified the murder of gays also include men willing to take such risks?

Gays, lesbians, and bisexuals have likely gone so far underground in the Islamic world that even the most vehement gay basher believes two men holding hands could be nothing more than brotherly love. In the Islamic world there are very few gay rights organizations, NGOs, or sub-culture gathering spots; anti-gay violence occurs one outing at a time.

Philip Jenkins wrote recently in the New Republic (thanks to Jeff Rigsby for forwarding this) about how many African leaders have been arguing over homosexuality, some leading anti-gay crusades in a quest maybe meant to prove their adherence to the written word, to bind new congregations, or to evidence their independence from the decadent West. Maybe anti-gay violence has popped up around Christian Africa these days precisely because many gay residents recently felt more confident going public, comparing their situation to that of gays in neighboring Islamic countries.

Recently, filmmaker Parvez Sharma directed a feature documentary, A Jihad for Love, which tours the world interviewing gays, lesbians, and bisexuals who are also devout Muslims about this particular challenge. I'm looking to check it out and learn more about this cultural dilemma. If you've seen it, give us some thoughts down below.

Photo credit: Braxton University (Ad for Africa's first gay rights march, South Africa, 1990)