Friday March 29th, 2024
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Egyptian Mufti Speaks In Defense Of Homosexuals

In defiance of most of the population of Egypt, Grand Mufti Shawki Allam is defending gays' rights to exist.

Staff Writer
The grand mufti of Egypt, Shawki Allam, while speaking to a German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung last month, declared that hurting gays and lesbians is in fact wrong, regardless of homosexuality being unacceptable in Islam. 
 
While speaking about moderate Islam and condemning the mass murder of 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, Allam said, “No one has the right to hurt homosexuals or to take the law into their own hands.” Allam is at odds with other religious officials in Egypt who do not share his moderate views. Imam Sheikh Ahmad Al-Tayyeb, leader of Al-Azhar said during an interview in June, "No Muslim society could ever consider sexual liberty or homosexuality to be a personal right. Muslim societies consider these to be diseases that have to be fought and treated."
 
Though there are no laws clearly outlawing homosexuality in Egypt, social norms played a major role in persecuting the LGBT community, such as the invasion of their privacy, assaults and attacks, arrests, and criminalisation.