From: aaldoubo@copper.denver.colorado.edu (Shaqeeqa)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.mideast
Subject: Re: Homosexuality and Islam
Date: 12 Dec 92 00:49:43 GMT
Organization: University of Colorado at Denver

In article <42375@sdcc12.ucsd.edu> revans@euclid.ucsd.edu (Ron Evans) writes:
><1992Dec9.144059.15070@cbfsb.cb.att.com> mmdh@cbnewsf.cb.att.com (Mazen Mokhtar) writes:
>
>>  As far as punishment, I am not sure what it is. I think that the punishment
>>for proven homosexual sodomy between men is the similar to the punishment for
>>fornication.
>
>
>	From The LA Times, Dec. 1, 1992, p.H/6:
>	"Islamic law is strictly enforced in Iran, where homosexual
>         sex is punishable by death."


What the L.A. Times proposes here distorts Islamic law without any prior
knowlege of what Islamic law is.  It is unfair to judge or take things
out of context (according to one or two newspaper articles, which may not
be factual) without having knowledge or a basic understanding in this
area.  A good example is when Danny Keren cited that flogging is enforced
in Iran against women who do not properly cover their hair or veil.  He
quoted a variety of anti-Islamic and inaccurate sources to support his
claim (perhaps he based his claim upon reading these), but the truth of
the matter (which he did not understand and only promoted the stereotypes
and false images of Islam), is that there is no law in Islam which permits
these actions against women under said situations.

Back to the subject matter, the point is that, while Islam is infact
enforced in Iran, its philosophy and practices are not purely fundamentally
Islamic.  I realize that this is very difficult for non-Muslims, without
any knowledge of Islamic law and philosophy (which is extremely wide in
doctrine), to understand how a government system works according to its
type of system and supporting it on an Islamic level.

According to sharia on capital punishment, the following apply:

1.  Unjust murder (murder which has been proved demands retalitation
	by taking the life of the murderer);

2.  Publically committing zina with a person who is not one's spouse
	IF AT LEAST FOUR upright people have ACTUALLY WITNESSED the
	intercourse talking place and TESTIFIED before the court that
	THEY SAW IT.  (The death penalty APPLIES to either of the two
	WHO IS MARRIED.  Confession, repeated four times before the
	court by the adulterer or adulteress, is equivalent to the
	testimony of four witnesses.);

3.  Apostacy from Islam after willingly accepting it and subsequently
	declaring an open revolt against it in such a manner which
	threatens the solidarity of the Muslim community is a crime
	punishable by death.

On Homosexuality:

"Allah has prohibited adultery, fornication, and homosexuality but has
	encouraged lawful marriage".

"The jurists of Islam have held differing opinions concerning the
	punishment for this abominable practice."


Perhaps if this is a law punishable by death in Iran (though we cannot
take one source as proof of anything - just as in the other case that
Danny cited), their reasons may be legitimate - to have a pure Islamic
society.  The laws are strict not because their are oppressive, but for
people to understand and respect it - that if they should defy the
law, they will be punished.  Every monotheistic relgion condemns the
practices of fornication, adultry, and homosexuality.  The only difference
is that when a country enforces a civil codes based on these principals,
it is condemned, while on the other hand condone a society which enforces
military rule and occupation on a people who are expressing their own
individuality and self-expression, which defies the strict civil laws
of that society. 

Anisa