Crackdown on gays proposed in Bahrain

[andy]

[img2=left]http://www.gayspeak.com/forum/images/news/bahrain.jpg[/img2]MPs in the Gulf state of Bahrain are calling for a range of measures to be taken against gay people in the country, including deporting foreigners suspected of being gay.

The country only held its first elections in 2002, and since then politicians have mainly addressed themselves to "moral" issues such as banning female mannequins from shop windows and tackling the widespread problem of "sorcery."

The bi-cameral parliament is dominated by Shia and Sunni Islamist parties.
The foreign affairs, defence and national security committee has backed proposals to tighten immigration checks to stop foreign gay people entering the country.

"The Interior Ministry has told us that it already bans suspected homosexuals as they try entering the country from Bahrain International Airport," committee secretary Jalal Fairooz told Gulf Daily News.

"They look manly as they come to the airport, but when they get in they return back to their unaccepted homosexual attitude.

"Homosexuals are found in huge numbers at hairdressing salons and beauty and massage spas, which the ministry regularly inspects.

"Those who look homosexual or offer customers personal services are being caught by police and taken to the Public Prosecution."

Mr Fairooz said that homosexuals were a "threat to our society and Islamic values."

The committee is also proposing that a study be carried out to ascertain how widespread homosexuality is in the country.

Gulf Daily News reports that "the Education Ministry claims there are no homosexuals in schools" in Bahrain.

The proposals will now be considered by the Bahrain parliament's general-secretariat.

In 2006 a Kuwaiti tourist was convicted and fined for having gay sex with a Bahrain Defence Force (BDF) recruit.

The Lower Criminal Court in Manama handed the unnamed 23 year old man a 100 Bahraini Dollar fine after he was found naked in a car with a 22 year old Bahraini on the seafront.

[Shadow]

Whilst I have great respect and time and patience with those people that choose to follow any particular path in life, I find myself with my jaw in my LAP reading this article, as it just hammers home to my mind the MAJOR major drawbacks of organised religions ... such as the sluggishness with which they move with the times.

The way I think about it is almost like somebody that's so attached to a particular piece of wood that they cling onto it for dear life, and have to be dragged from it for forward-thinking progress to be made, leaving claw-marks in it where they were hanging on, y'know ?

I think that, because so many organised religions worship this static impression of what (their) God/s is/are, they don't appreciate that, if you believe in a God or Gods, and that God or those Gods WERE around in the here and now ? THEIR attitudes would have to adapt to take into account world events and so on as well, so the dynamic flow of change that you get in ordinary life is not suited to organised religious worship, and this is a good example of why.

I'm sure that homosexuals in Bahrain don't get tax exemptions or let off parking fines, or preferential treatment in any area when compared with "normal" people, so they are just as ordinary in the eyes of the Government as any other on all those levels - they just happen to be vehemently persecuted for their sexual preferences, which is just THOROUGHLY unreasonable !

Very, very saddening :frown:.

!?!?! Shadow !?!?!

[princealbertofb]

So how do the other Emirates choose to deal with their gay population? Is it better? Is it worse? Dubai? Shardjah? Qatar?

[marshlander]

Maybe I'm just naturally cynical, but has anyone else noticed how it often seems to be predominantly men who are most vocal on abortion issues and straights who mouth off most vehemently about gays? Strangely, both groups having so little in the way of logic or moral philosophy to support their prejudices, resort to hiding behind the robes of their gods when justifying their evil behaviour.

Truly sickening :mad:

Anyone might think there weren't any other issues that might more usefully be addressed, but I suppose that might mean looking at changing their own behaviour before getting on with the more important job of bullying others?