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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".






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