From: ahmed-shakil@CS.YALE.EDU (Shakil Waiz Ahmed)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.bangladesh
Subject: Re: R: Our attitude towards homosexuality
Date: 31 Jul 92 20:40:36 GMT
Organization: Yale University, Department of Computer Science


In article <Bs9rB1.Kt9@news.udel.edu>, banla@brahms.udel.edu (Rosana Khan) writes:

>      Why are you seeing both, adultry and homosexuality, in the same
> light ? You can compare homosexuality only with heterosexuality but
> not with adultry.   
> Homosexuality is a act between two people-- male + male/ female + female.
> heterosexuality is a act between two peolpe-- male + female. So, where dose
> the adultry fit into any one of them  ?


I guess my point still isn't clear.  I'll try and explain it one more
time -- hope it becomes clearer this time.

I am not equating adultery with homosexuality, and I'm not comparing
the literal meaning of the two in any way at all.  And I am not trying
to fit one into the other.  My point was regarding establishing a
framework of morals under which to evaluate the two.  More
specifically, I was questioning how one can ensure that one applies a
consistent set of rules to come up with such a framework.

From the Islamic standpoint, the view that I personally subscribe to,
both are immoral.  To me this seems consistent with a set of ground
rules to determine morality.  What I was arguing is that to maintain
consistency, if you choose to distance yourself from that view, then
you should accept both adultery and homosexuality as moral.  In the
case of homosexuality, several posters have argued that there is no
question of immorality because it is merely a sexual orientation.  My
argument was that someone could equally well claim that a need to
commit adultery could be someone's orientation, i.e. someone may feel
a need to have multiple partners.

Zunaid and some others have expressed that they feel adultery violates
a basic trust in marriage, hence *harming* someone, whereas
homosexuality does not.  I have several problems with that
perspective.  To begin with, in search of a consistent set of base
rules, I fail to see why there should even be such a trust in marriage
if one could argue that a person commiting adultery is merely acting
upon a whim related to sexual orientation.  Furthermore, most
homosexual relationships do not take place under the bonds of
marriage, so where does that leave that argument?  And then we have
the issue of diseases.  Obviously, we all know that the spread of
diseases is by no means limited to the homosexual community.  That
isn't the point.  The point is that the homosexual community certainly
is not immune from sexually transmitted diseases, indeed for diseases
such as AIDS, their community may be statistically more vulnerable.
Given that, the question of who is harming whom in *any* sexual
relationship becomes a non-trivial issue, and generally makes the
ground rules even more complex, leading to yet more contradictions.

So what am I trying to say?  First let me reiterate what I am *not*
saying.  I am not saying that adultery and homosexuality are
equivalent.  I am not saying anything about discrimination or
persecution.  I am not saying anything against homosexuals.  I am not
questioning anyone's right to have their own set of beliefs and moral
values.  What I *am* saying is that Islam has a consistent set of
values and morals, and that is what I subscribe to, thus considering
both homosexuality and adultery as sinful.  People may choose
to disagree, but when they do, they are likely to fall into a logical
trap unless they advocate open everything, i.e. homosexuality,
adultery, premarital sex, etc.

I hope my point is finally clear now...

-- Shakil Ahmed
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