The penalty in Islamic law for homosexuality is death. Many Islamic states still enforce this it, while others that do not fully implement Sharia, such as Lebanon, criminalize it and aim to stamp it out using abuse and oppression.
Lebanon’s Sunni Muslim Mufti Abdel Latif Derian has said that Dar al-Fatwa, the country’s top Sunni religious authority, “would not allow the legalisation of homosexuality”.
While Muslim-majority Lebanon calls on its security forces to crush LGBTQ+ activities in accordance with Islamic law and oppresses gays, nearby Israel is safe for gays. The Palestinian Authority also oppresses gays, as per Islamic teaching. Dozens were also recently arrested in Istanbul as Turkish police broke up an LGBTQ Pride march.
“Beirut Pride billboard vandalised as ministers order security forces to crush LGBTQ+ events,” by Josh Milton, Pink News, June 26, 2022:
On Saturday (25 June), Beirut Pride said within hours of its “Blooming Billboard” flowering, thugs tore down some of the thousands of flowers forming the LGBTQ+ Pride flag on it.
“We raised a billboard on the streets of Beirut to create awareness about a Lebanese law that still criminalizes same-sex love,” the organisation said on Instagram.
“The flowers represented members of the LGBTIQ+ community, how beautiful we are, and how resilient we are – a symbol that we always bloom no matter what obstacles we face.”
The billboard was placed in Sassine, Ashrafieh, and slowly bloomed with flowers across June with the line “love always blooms” underneath.
But “within hours, the billboard was destroyed by people who believe we don’t deserve equal rights to them”, the non-profit said.
Among them includes Lebanon’s interior minister, Bassam Mawlawi. Just the day before the billboard was vandalised, he instructed the country’s security forces to “immediately take the necessary measures to prevent any type of celebration, meeting, or gathering” of LGBTQ+ people during Pride Month….
“This phenomenon is contrary to the habits and customs of our society,” Mawlawi said, adding that “personal freedoms cannot be invoked”.
Every year since the first march in the Lebanese capital in 2017, Beirut Pride has faced hostility and threats of violence from conservative religious sects and the authorities….
