More fanaticism from Denmark. Irshad Manji has some thoughts on the latest love letter from islamo-fanatic "Abdel" (alias "Andersen"):
Sounds to me a like a convert -- and a “homegrown” or “Western-raised” threat. We're seeing more and more like him. Which is why pretending that the problem exists outside of the West is no longer an option.
Responding to Eileen in Belfast, Irshad writes:
Many Westerners today would like to have it both ways -- embracing the universality of human rights as well as the equality of cultures. But that's not sustainable. Because if you believe that all human beings are entitled to a certain set of dignities, then cultural practices that violate those dignities can't, by definition, be defended. The French-Arab novelist, Amin Maalouf, nailed it when he wrote, "Traditions deserve respect only insofar as they are respectable - that is, exactly insofar as they themselves respect the fundamental rights of men and women."
The other "Exodus Ministries." You might have heard that President Bush's new Supreme Court nominee, Harriet Miers, was connected with something called "Exodus Ministries." You might have wondered: You mean, the "ex-gay" group? Ken Sain at the Blade Blog clears things up:
ep, I heard correctly. In fact, it turns out Miers is a former board member of Exodus Ministries. But turns out there was no need to panic.
Exodus Ministries, Inc. has nothing to do with the anti-gay group Exodus International.
Bruce at GayPatriot has some thoughts.
"Please do not leave us alone." The Persian Gay and Lesbian Organization (PGLO) posts this article by Doug Ireland:
The Persian Gay and Lesbian Organization (PGLO) has appealed to North American activists for help in mobilizing support for their campaign against the vicious, lethal, anti-gay crackdown taking place in the Islamic Republic of Iran. The anti-gay pogrom in Iran includes arrests and torture of gay people, executions of gay Iranians on trumped up charges, and a well-organized Internet entrapment campaign by Iran's religious sex police that is ensnaring gay Iranians daily.
In his latest e-mail sent to me today from Turkey, the secretary of the PGLO's Human Rights Commission, Arsham Parsi, wrote: “Dear Doug, Would you please introduce PGLO to your activist friends and groups and organizations? We need it, we are going to make a big campaign. We need their e-mail addresses. We reach out our hands of need to you!”
The PGLO is an outgrowth of an earlier, smaller Iranian gay group called Rainbow, which first organized in 1981. But PGLO, in its current form, has existed only since 2004. “We are a young team yet,” said Parsi in a telephone interview. With secretariats in Norway and Turkey, the PGLO claims a mailing list of over 29,000 Iranians. It maintains a trilingual website in Persian, German, and English. PGLO conducts educational and mutual aide activities inside Iran, and provides support for Iranian gays who have escaped from the Islamic Republic – the world's largest religious prison – and tries to help them obtain asylum in a country where they won’t be persecuted for who and how they love.
PGLO edits a monthly magazine in Persian, Cheragh and produces Persian-language radio programs for webcast ...
Finish reading the article at the link.
