JonMc
Striker
Yes. But homosexuality has long been tolerated in Islam at the same time. From Greco-Roman beliefs during their Golden Age that same sex attractions are completely natural to lots and lots of homoerotic literature and poetry.Islam is inherently homophobic, as are the various Christian Bibles - just that some individual Muslims and moreso Christians, tend to ignore/make excuses for the bits they disagree with - especially that bit.
The Ottoman Empire decriminalised homosexuality during the exact same political reforms that included the adoption of secular law, displacing religious law. The religious texts say what they say, and they are unambiguous - in the case of Tanzimat secular reforms, they just stopped imposing it as the de facto legal framework.
I'm not trying to excuse the way Islam is now. I'm just pointing out that for much of it's history, it wasn't this way. Like I say. Islam is deeply conflicted. Islam has a long tradition of toleration towards homosexuality.
What on earth do you think Oscar Wilde was doing all those times he spent in Morocco and Tangiers? They were places he could go and feel safe. He was persecuted...here.
Back to the point. This has to be nipped in the bud. We can't have professional protesters being bussed in from other areas. The quicker they deal with it publicly, the less ugly these shenanigans will be.