RE: Sodom and Gomorrah & Iraqi PrisonerAbuse

salam, br. elisha,

very well said. thank you.


Afdhere Jama
Editorial Director
HURIYAH Publications
PO BOX 423343
San Francisco, CA 94142
tel: [1] 415.517.0055
e-mail: [email protected]
website: http://www.huriyahmag.com




>From: Elisha <[email protected]>
>Reply-To: Muslim community debate and 
>discussion<[email protected]>
>To: [email protected]
>CC: [email protected]
>Subject: [Progressivemuslimsnetwork] Sodom and Gomorrah & Iraqi 
>PrisonerAbuse
>Date: Fri, 7 May 2004 13:52:30 -0700 (PDT)
>
>With the photographs of American soldiers using their
>power to subject men whom they conquered to sexual
>humiliation, before our eyes we see an example of what
>Sodom and Gomorrah was like.
>
>When any sane person irrespective of sexual
>orientation views those acts they are repulsed, it was
>indeed an abomination - THEN and NOW.  Most religious
>scholars get hung up on homosexuality in Sodom &
>Gomorrah, as though it was a central them.  Just
>because homosexual acts were involved doesn't mean the
>actors were homosexual.  Any objective person must
>admit that the character and the nature of what is
>described in Sodom and Gomorrah doesn't accurately fit
>two persons seeking marriage or even just having sex
>in today's world.  The public nature of what went on
>in Sodom and Gomorrah does not even resemble a typical
>gay relationship.  Male aggression, violence, public
>humiliation are central themes in the Iraqi prisoner
>abuse scandal and in the ancient story of Sodom and
>Gomorrah.
>
>I want to make a final point, to drive this issue
>home.  The tone of the scriptures regarding Sodom and
>Gomorrah also involve the theme of uncleanliness.  And
>therefore homosexuality has been smeared with this
>similar charge as unclean, nasty and thus an
>abomination.  Murder and rape do not even carry this
>same association.  Well, what was captured by those
>photographs of American GIs abusing prisoners was
>unclean, nasty and thus an abomination.
>
>Public molestation and rape, fit right in with
>bestiality, and incest - not just because they are
>unhealthy; but because they were the practice of the
>people to whom the scriptures were revealed.  The
>Torah and the Qur'an gives law to address the specific
>behaviors of the people contemporary with their
>revelations.  The Quran's condemnation and repeated
>references to female infanticide is virtually not
>applicable to the modern world.  And it would be
>foolish to look for a modern expression of that act to
>apply the Qur'an's legal code to; it was an artifact
>of the time.  So it is with Sodom & Gomorrah there is
>no modern equivalent of that cultural practice,
>although there are some that are similar - homosexual
>rape in prison, etc.  The Iraqi prisoner abuse mimics
>Sodom & Gomorrah but even those events are not
>congruent.  The practice itself, as well as the
>scriptures that address them are artifacts of their
>time.  This is why one most be careful when looking
>for analogous situations in the present to equate them
>with.  But in this case I think I found one - the
>Iraqi prisoner abuse.  Search your heart and your mind
>and ask yourself which situation most resembles Sodom
>and Gomorrah; a same sex couple or the photographs
>we've seen regarding the abuse of Iraqi prisoners.  If
>all of the homosexuals on the planet were removed, the
>sexual abuse of those prisoners would have occurred.
>
>Salaam,
>
>Elisha
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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