mozambique
religious
leaders on aids and gays
May
31, 2004: The Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique
in Maputo reported recently on the homophobic ranting of
an Islamic cleric that formed part of a debate on Aids.
Clearly disapproving of the cleric's views, the report also
takes a side swipe at some Christian leaders too.
Mozambique's
National Council for the Fight against AIDS (CNCS) on Wednesday
gave a platform to a notoriously homophobic cleric to vent
his spleen and hatred against those people who do not share
his sexual orientation the Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique
in Maputo reported May 19, 2004.
On the second day of a public debate on strategies for preventing
infection by HIV, the virus that causes Aids, the first
speaker from the platform was Islamic cleric Sheik Aminuddin
Mahomed.
His speech had nothing to do with strategies for fighting
Aids. Instead, he attacked what he called "the revolution
of the gays", and implied that gay sexual practices
were somehow responsible for Aids.
He insulted many in his audience by claiming that morality
and ethics can only be exercised by religious believers,
and lumped together "blasphemy, heresy, homosexuality
and pornography", in a long lament against the modern
world.
He appeared completely obsessed by homosexuality, and particularly
by anal sex, a practice which he mentioned over and over
again. "Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by god because
of homosexuality", Aminuddin raved.
He also attacked gay bars (even though no such institutions
exist in Mozambique), claiming that these were nests of
depravity where gay people took part in anal sex, oral sex
"and other disgusting practices".
Absurdly Aminuddin claimed that the ninth of the Ten Commandments
- "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife"
- justified the practice of veiling women. Apparently, if
you can't see them, you can't covet them.
This appalling display of intolerance and ignorance made
Rev Dinis Matsolo, of the Christian Council of Mozambique,
sound reasonable. He did at least recognise the responsibility
of those with knowledge, including churchmen, to transmit
it to those without.
"People are dying because they are not informed",
said Matsolo. "As religious people, transmitting knowledge
is for us, not an option, but a necessity".
But he lamented the "anti-Biblical behaviour"
prevalent among so many Mozambicans, who failed to follow
the ideal of abstinence from sex before marriage, and faithfulness
to one's partner after marriage.
Matsolo did not go so far as to condemn condoms, regarding
them instead as "a human invention to save life, since
the other prevention methods were not being observed".
Matsolo also claimed that hygienic practices in dealing
with blood are dictated by the Old Testament, and that this
part of the bible prohibits the shedding of blood. Clearly
Matsolo is not familiar with the more blood-spattered parts
of the Old Testament, notably the divinely-sanctioned genocide
in the Book of Joshua.
Spanish doctor Jesus Paes described himself as a catholic
but distanced himself sharply from the Vatican's position
on the use of condoms. He dismissed the claim that condoms
do not work because they allegedly have tiny holes through
which the HIV virus slips. Paes pointed out that this has
been refuted by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
He noted that Pope John Paul II has apologised for crimes
committed by the Catholic Church in the past, and wondered
whether, at some future date, the Catholic hierarchy would
have to apologise for the church's attitude towards condoms.
Paes added that there was no necessary contradiction between
advocating condom use and appealing to other forms of prevention,
such as abstinence and faithfulness to a single partner.
But he did not believe that calls for sexual abstinence
in the Mozambican countryside were realistic, since "abstinence
takes away one of the few pleasures people in the bush have".