Egypt’s Al-Azhar, Sunni Islam’s top authority, has become the latest to join recent condemnation of campaigns supporting same-sex marriage.
In a statement, Al-Azhar stated that marriage in Islam is between a man and a woman, and that all extra-marital affairs are ‘sinful’ and prohibited. The statement added that it rejected all campaigns to legalise same-sex marriage, referring to the recent #LoveWins campaign that launched after the US Supreme Court allowed same-sex marriage.
Earlier this week, Egypt’s Orthodox Coptic Church also said it was opposed to same sex-marriage and same-sex relationships.
“Humanity already is having a huge moral and religious crisis, as well rebellion, which is an entry to atheism and all forms of extremism, including same-sex marriage,” said Pope Tawadros II, according to Al-Ahram.
Media
Egyptian media has also taken part in the debate surrounding same-sex marriage.
After changing his profile picture to a rainbow coloured one, Egyptian actor Khaled Abou El Naga was criticised for his apparent support of same-sex marriage.
Wael Ebrashy, a television show host, condemned the actor’s Facebook profile picture change, stating that “Egypt has its own traditions” and that same-sex marriage and LGBT rights would “destroy family values” in Egyptian society.
Meanwhile, Egyptian television show host Mona Al-Iraqi, who had earlier this year been criticised for falsely accusing 26 men of homosexuality in a Cairo bathhouse and aired their arrest on public television, surprisingly came out in support of same-sex marriage.
On both Twitter and Facebook, Mona Al-Iraqi shared a photograph of a rainbow flag and a caption that stated that there should be no persecution of the right to life and love.
Comments (23)
This is ridiculous, we have terrorism, corruption, injustice, overpopulation and countless other real problems they should be “condemning” but instead they preoccupy themselves with what’s happening 10,723 km away, debating about something they don’t even need to worry about anytime soon. Let’s work on reducing the hate before trying to limit the love.
just for your knowledge ever since same sex marriages have been legalized in America , lots of people who are interested in the same sex are being more blunt about their interests not to mention the teens who are starting to accept the whole thing sine ” America ” says it’s okay ….
Do you want Egypt to stay homophobic? there are videos on youtube of people beating and slapping “gay looking” males on the street, are you content with this cruelty? A very small portion of Egyptian society is starting to see that maybe it’s okay, that maybe it shouldn’t be in our power to control other people’s lives and be hateful, that maybe God would want us to focus on ourselves and our beliefs and let other people do the same. How is this a bad thing? Maybe the new generation could be less hateful, this will be better for us as a country, we still arrest and deport homosexuals, which causes us to lose a lot of money, these are working and contributing people who are helping our economy grow, these are tourists that come to pay. We have more important things to deal with that trying to get people to hate homosexuals, how many teenagers are accepting extremism compared to how many teenagers are accepting homosexuals, and which one is affecting us more? We need priorities, we need to work on stopping the hate or this country and it’s economy will keep falling.
We are a conservative nation. This will never be accepted. Not by the government, nor by the people!
that’s my point,let’s worry about an actual problem, like inflation, terrorism, poverty, inequality, lack of healthcare, lack of education… we have a bunch of problems to be fighting rather than debating about something that isn’t going to be accepted anytime soon
Then your people and government will disappear into the mists of history, to be forgotten by all.
So be it. We Egyptians decide our own cultural norms and values. Western ‘white knights’ who go on a preach about morality, like you, should do that in their own countries. Not in ours.
You don’t get to decide that. Humanity will need to be unified going forward if we are to survive as a species out in space, and the smallminded idiocy from people like you is holding our species back. That is unforgivable.
I’m Egyptian, and Ancient Egyptians accepted homosexuality so I know my real culture, I take the good and not the corrupted hate and I know what I need to value in order for my country to thrive, I need to value my fellow Egyptians who contribute to a better Egypt, regardless of their personal life choices that doesn’t concern me. What we don’t need in our culture, is more hate and more issues to split us.
That’s not actually “your culture”. Your culture is the culture that is taught to you by your parents. Why go back to the jahileya.
That was weak and disrespectful reply. I’m done with this debate.
Jahiliya…the only jahiliya in Egypt is the one imported from Arabia by Amr Ibn el 3ars, and is still being used to brainwash religious robots like yourself.
You wanna be conservative, go ahead, but don’t make choices for other people.
Sexual orientation is not a “western” thing…it’s human and universal.
I don’t make choices for other people. I protect the norms and values that have been passed on to us by our parents from people like you who want us to become like the USA. Westernization is a cancer, but you will discover that , when you grow up.
God created Adam an Eve not Adam and Steve. We aren’t homophobic , but if that’s what we are for you right now then yes, I would LOVE to stay homophobic . No , of course I’m not content with such cruelty but I’m not content with such thing getting legalized either . Unfortunately , we can’t do anything about them but we can’ accept them either . It’s not about being ‘hateful’ I can’t force a homo to be straight , I can’t abuse him for being what he is and I can’t accept him as a part of our society. I can’t be ‘friends’ with them and I don’t want to be . by the way I’m a teenager and my friends agree with me . Women are made for men and men are made for women this is the way it’s suppose to be . This is how you and I were made so please don’t tell me now that this messed up shit is ‘ okay’
I hate that phrase, we might as well start preaching incest because that’s supposedly how we came to be. Adam and Eve were trying to repopulate, think about it really, why would God create gay people if he didn’t love/think the world would be a better place? I really think we should just stop messing up nature, because if we just let people be the way God made them we wouldn’t have overpopulation, and we can actually spend time trying to undo bad decisions made by the government and fix our economy. Homosexuals have a different brain structure than heterosexuals,lesbians have a “male-like” distrubution of grey matter in their brain, I could get into science but you get the point, obviously no some women were not made for men and some men not made for women, they were born with brains that attract to the same sex, It’s not your place to be content or not, it doesn’t affect it in any way and all it does is make other people half-way across the world happy, what does concern you is our failing economy, womens’ right, the lack of education. I wish people would spend as much time not accepting things like harassment on the street, ignorance and other relevant problems, the world would be a much better place.
http://www.jewsnews.co.il/2015/07/09/islam-same-sex-marriage-this-is-why-muslims-are-so-silent/