Guest Post: A Saudi Perspective, part 2

 A Saudi Perspective, part 2

By: Tariq Aziz

Forward by: Jeremy Boulat (me)

 

    With deep gratitude towards Tariq Aziz, I present the 2nd part of Tariq's thoughts, in a rough translation from Arabic.  Tariq is a Saudi Arabian with a popular Twitter account and blog. I present this with no personal comment as I want it to stand on its own merit.

 

Beware of the politicization of homosexuality!

    It is not hidden from anyone that the global trend to deal with homosexuality is clear, far from silence, ignorance, discrimination and hatred. Scientifically and medically from many aspects.

    I believe that homosexuality is primarily a human issue, there is no doubt about that. However, the problem lies in some parties or parties that live on politicizing humanitarian issues and trading and manipulating them for goals that are far from rights and humanity.

    For example, the American Democratic Party has succeeded to a large extent in politicizing homosexuality by creating a global image that homosexuality is a partisan issue in America, and that only Democrats care and support it, but this is certainly not true. The Republican Party, despite its greater popularity among conservatives and Christian extremists, is full of gay political figures, even the federal legislation of gay marriage during the Obama era was legislation from the Supreme Court in America and not from President Obama, and the dominant voice that decided gay marriage at the time among judges in court after their tie was the veteran conservative Republican judge appointed by Republicans, Anthony Kennedy. The Republican President, Donald Trump, considered his support for gay, bisexual, and transgender persons as part of his presidential work, and promised them protection from ideologies that justify violence against them, and even in his tweets he repeatedly expressed his support and support for them, as did his daughter Ivanka Trump and the rest of his family, who expressed their relationships and friendships with homosexuals supported their causes.

    Sexual orientation or gender identity are not political parties or movements, nor should they be partisan or social pressure issues between opponents, whether by supporting or fighting them. The worst thing that may be done to humanitarian issues is politicization, as when they are used for political disputes or settling international scores, exploited by opposition movements to make false human rights victories or religious calibrations and outbidding against their governments or their homelands, while they are more authoritarian and exclude their opponents.

    I will not forget how a "colorful" channel like Al-Jazeera Qatar described homosexuality in its Arab channels as contrary to nature, according to studies, (according to its claims), but Al-Jazeera in English used to denounce the fight against homosexuality, and Al-Jazeera Plus complements it in English to confirm that homosexuality is part of nature and must be protected from ignorance and backwardness!

    Likewise, the situation with Turkey, which deals with homosexuality as a political card that reaps from it some political gains, whether in its global image or through its attempts to join the European Union, away from the human and legal reality of Turkish homosexuals.

    While I wish our societies to get rid of discrimination, hatred and incitement towards peaceful homosexuals, to cherish human diversity and our peaceful differences, and to promote equality in our human value with respect and peace, I strongly reject the political commercialization of humanitarian issues, including homosexuality, and I beware of attempts to politicize them with rights titles, because what we really need is the internal social awareness of their conditions and their psychological and social suffering. By virtue of that, we are religious societies, and I call for a modern religious review and treatment by clerics that separate homosexuality and sexual transgression between legally prohibited homosexuality or imitating the opposite sex and not linking them to the religious and historical heritage of Lot's people in line with awareness of contemporary legal and medical rights.  I call also for the end to the perpetuation of the theory of conflict between religion and homosexuality, and that must be kept away from the politicization and ambitions of suspicious or external political organizations and movements that favor their gangs and their calculations or political victories without taking into account the security of homelands, human safety and the prosperity of societies.  

-by Tariq Aziz

 

You can read the original post here in Arabic.