A Muslim author condemning same-sex marriages and homosexual intercourse has in the same breath spoken out against discrimination and physical attacks against the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community.
BY BOO SU-LYN
Thursday June 18, 2015
03:42 PM GMT+8
KUALA LUMPUR, June 18 — A Muslim author condemning same-sex marriages and homosexual intercourse has in the same breath spoken out against discrimination and physical attacks against the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community.
In Mohd Khairul Anwar Ismail’s book titled “Suami Gay Isteri Mak Nyah: Nafsu Songsang Terlaknat” (Gay Husband, Transgender Wife: Unnatural Desires Damned by God) published yesterday, the lawyer said he wrote about how homosexuality is “unnatural” and “immoral”.
“Religion says it’s wrong, but even if you don’t look at religion, it’s also against morality,” Mohd Khairul told Malay Mail Online in a phone interview today.
“Muslims are said to be homophobic, but no, Islam just prohibits the practice of LGBT. Islam does not allow us to kill or to beat up the LGBTs… even though they’re not normal, it’s not a licence for society to discriminate against them or to hit them,” the legal exco of the Muslim Youth Movement of Malaysia (ABIM) added.
Mohd Khairul also claimed that the LGBT movement in Malaysia is trying to lobby for the repeal of Section 377 of the Penal Code that criminalises unnatural sex.
Section 377A does not specifically mention gay or lesbian sex, but criminalises fellatio and anal sex instead, as it states that a man who puts his penis into the anus or mouth of another person is said to commit carnal intercourse against the order of nature, which is punishable with whipping and imprisonment of up to 20 years.
It is also the law used to imprison former opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
Mohd Khairul claimed today that the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its official diagnostic manual of mental illnesses in 1973 because of lobbying from the gay movement, not because of scientific studies on sexual orientations.
He also criticised the legalisation of same-sex marriage in Western countries such as New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Canada, and several states in the US.
“Gay marriage is against natural laws. The purpose of marriage is not just to obtain happiness, but also to procreate,” said the lawyer.
US news channel CNN reported earlier this month that more than 20 countries have legalised same-sex marriage, including Ireland that recently held a referendum that voted in favour of it, as well as the majority of American states.
International news wire Reuters reported that an annual gay rights rally in neighbouring Singapore saw the largest turnout last Saturday in its seven-year history, drawing about 28,000 participants.
Malaysia’s Islamic authorities and conservative Muslim groups, however, have repeatedly condemned the LGBT community, while news website Gay Star News reported in 2012 assaults on transsexuals in the country.
Mohd Khairul told Malay Mail Online that LGBTs have the same rights as “normal” people to work, education, and safety.
“Society has a terrible view of the LGBT group. I don’t agree with this view. Humiliating and beating them up is not good… if the police overstep their boundaries, they should be charged in court and punished. Like with the transsexuals and transgenders, if the religious authorities overstep their boundaries and molest them, they need to be punished too,” he said.
Mohd Khairul’s “Suami Gay Isteri Mak Nyah: Nafsu Songsang Terlaknat” book published by the PTS Media Group is available now at the PTS office in Batu Caves, Selangor, and is expected to be available in MPH bookstores in two weeks’ time.