The cause of Homosexuality is revealed!

[ACCtuary]

Apparently, according to a recent AP report from the Lebanon Desk, written by Donna Abu-Nasr, homosexuality is popularly seen as being exported by the US and Israel as a way to weaken Arab men. (Ms. Abu-Nasr is not advocating this point of view, just pointing out its prevalence).

Even 2Pac wouldn't propose something so ridiculous.

The full text can probably be found in several places. I found it at

Originally Posted by "AP

Gay Arabs dealing more with sexuality
Despite strict laws, there is movement and even an advocacy organization.
By Donna Abu-Nasr
Associated Press

BEIRUT, Lebanon - When Ahmad Mahfouz told his mother he was gay, she took him to a psychiatrist, thinking he had a disease that could be cured by antidepressants.
When that didn't work, she urged him to date a woman. He ignored her advice.
"So now, whenever she sees me, she beats me with anything she can lay her hands on: a metal hanger, leather belt, her shoes," Mahfouz said.
The 19-year-old college student, a Lebanese Muslim, is unusual in his candor and willingness to be identified, though not photographed. But more Arabs are coming out as gay, or at least coming to terms with their sexuality, even though in some countries they face laws that can land them in jail, and extremists who beat them up because Islam condemns homosexuality.
On top of that, homosexuality is widely seen as a disease spread by the United States and Israel to corrupt Arabs and undermine their religious faith.
In Lebanon, gays can find refuge at the cramped, one-room office of Helem, which says it's the first Arab nongovernmental organization openly fighting for their rights. Helem was set up last year despite a vaguely worded law that punishes "unnatural sexual intercourse" with up to one year in jail.
Lebanon, with its mixed population of Muslims and Christians, has a history of religious pluralism and exposure to the West. But elsewhere, homosexuals are on their own.
Egyptian authorities use criminal articles against debauchery and prostitution to prosecute gays. They have entrapped, arrested and tortured hundreds of men thought to be gay, says a report by New York-based Human Rights Watch.
The group says police agents snare gay men through Internet personal ads, and that at least 179 men have been prosecuted for debauchery since the start of 2001. Hundreds of others have been harassed, arrested and often tortured but not charged, it says.
Among them are 52 men rounded up in 2001 in a police raid on a boat-restaurant on the Nile and accused of taking part in a gay sex party. A court acquitted 29, 16 were convicted and freed pending their appeal, and a few were jailed for a year.
French President Jacques Chirac has expressed concern to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak about the treatment of gays, but the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, the country's largest rights group, says homosexuality is so detested in Egypt that it cannot speak out against prosecutions of gay men.
A recent Egyptian news report posted by Al-Arabiya TV on its Web site described a Kuwaiti gay wedding party in Cairo and triggered hundreds of blistering messages. Some of them said insurgents in Iraq should be killing gays instead of innocent Iraqis.
Many claimed the United States and Israel were promoting homosexuality to strip Arab men of their manhood. Only a handful urged tolerance of homosexuality.
Whether the wedding took place is not clear. The story was detailed but did not identify the hotel, and Egypt's attorney general, Maher Abdel Wahid, issued a statement saying no complaint was received and no investigation was ordered.
Saudi Arabia, which enforces a puritan Islamic code, also keeps gays under pressure, according to Human Rights Watch.
On March 10, it said, authorities detained more than 100 men at a party in the city of Jidda, sentencing many of them in closed trials without legal counsel to up to two years in prison and 2,000 lashes, usually meted out 50 at a time depending on medical examinations.
Human Rights Watch said the offenses were not spelled out, but a Saudi news report claimed the men allegedly were "dancing and 'behaving like women.' "
Last year another Saudi daily, the English-language Arab News, said 50 men were arrested for allegedly attending a gay wedding in the holy Muslim city of Medina.
Dalal al-Bizri, a Cairo-based Lebanese sociologist, says gays are more reviled than drug addicts "because homosexuality is seen as being exported to the region by a country whose armies and fleets have struck Arabs - the United States."
"It's also seen as a threat to an insecure Arab machismo that has been politically impotent and feels humiliated by its inability to do much for the Palestinians or Iraqis," she said.
Homophobia forces many Arab gays to lead a double life - marrying and having children while secretly pursuing gay relationships.
But others, like Mahfouz in Lebanon, refuse to play along.
A slim man with dark hair, he says he is looking for a new place to live to escape his mother's wrath, her efforts to take away his cell phone, and her attempts to stop him from listening to music that she believes made him gay.
"Until I leave, I am trying to placate her by pretending to date. The woman is a lesbian friend, but my mother doesn't know it," he said with a smile.

I didn't really want this in political, because the article was focusing on social trends. Maybe mods will move it. Up to them.

Jews are accused of many things, but spreading homosexuality? Remember who wrote the book of Leviticus, people!

The arguments proposed by many gays is that if this were a choice, why would they choose to suffer so much by remaining gay. Yet, people continue against tremendous odds to struggle to keep their true selves.

Makes me wonder a bit myself about choice. And if it is not people's choice to be Gay, why would G-d forbid it? G-d only prohibits things that people have a choice to avoid.

Perhaps the exact wording - do not lie with a man as you would with a woman applies only to those who would ordinarily sleep with a woman. Perhaps G-d was condemning a culture where people would sleep with anyone, including children. There are many ways to interpret that verse in Leviticus. One is to say it is just plain wrong, but still be thankful for an initial attempt to govern sexual mores, even if part of it was mistaken.

Anyway, this was just my attempt to struggle with something in my own religion that I've wondered about how to approach.

[E. Blackadder]

Originally Posted by ACCtuary

Even 2Pac wouldn't propose something so ridiculous.

Don't press your luck, pal.

[ACCtuary]

He may offend, but he never bores.

[Listerine]

I can't find this article. It suggests a widespread belief in Lebanon that the US and Israeli governments seek to make more arab men gay?

[ACCtuary]

I've been having intermittent '500' HTML errors trying to recover it for you. The quip mentioned was only a small aspect of the article - the greater more important aspect was coming to grips with alternate sexuality in a culture in absolute complete denial.

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/2...n/13151849.htm

See if that link works better. If not, I'll just clip the article. The article is free, with registration.

Interesting, as an AP report, I thought it would be in every newspaper. I am finding this not to be the case.

[ahow]

I don't know if this is true or not, but I had heard in some of the less strict Arab countries, they sleep with women for necessity (reproduction) and men for pleasure. Although I am sure it is very unspoken if it is true...

[carrot]

Originally Posted by ahow

I don't know if this is true or not, but I had heard in some of the less strict Arab countries, they sleep with women for necessity (reproduction) and men for pleasure. Although I am sure it is very unspoken if it is true...

That sounds more like the Greek culture to me.

[_BullDog_]

Originally Posted by carrot

That sounds more like the Greek culture to me.

Greek and Roman.

[Mel-o-rama]

That reminds me when Koreans accused America for making their constituents addicted to smoking by selling them cheap cigarettes. Makes a lot of sense!

[lipman]

Originally Posted by carrot

I don't know if this is true or not, but I had heard in some of the less strict Arab countries, they sleep with women for necessity (reproduction) and men for pleasure. Although I am sure it is very unspoken if it is true...

I have a couple friends who work in the middle east. Upon a return visit, they told me of some richer Arab men paying young valets and bellhops to sleep with them at the fancier hotels around town.