[Warning: This post is somewhat political…]
[2nd warning: Because of where I’ll be this summer, I am guessing that a majority of my posts are going to be somewhat political…have fun with that…]
Last night, as I walked home from the Internet place (they’re beginning to know as a regular there), I was invited to sit with the hotel manager, Sameh, and Abdul, the head waiter and a guy from Italy. The Italian got up to leave after a few minutes, and Sameh said, “You know what he is right…gay.†They were making some joking comments about the man, and telling a few stories, and then I asked, “Do you have many Egyptians who are gay or lesbian?†Sameh said, “Everywhere Adam, everywhere in the world, they are. But, we are a Muslim culture, if you are gay, you…†and then he made a hand gesture of someone getting their head cut off.
I don’t know how accurate that is to any actual Islamic principles concerning homosexuality, but that was definitely the sense of what Sameh was saying. For about 5 minutes, Sameh (who I believe is Muslim in some sense of the word) sounded very much like a conservative evangelical Christian. He spoke of how homosexuality is wrong because it goes against the natural order, “it just doesn’t work,†it isn’t what God wanted, the population will just start to decrease rapidly, and then mentioned how President Bush, who is a Christian, and knows that homosexuality is wrong. He gave me a very odd look when I told him that I was a Christian, studying to be a Christian pastor, and I believed homosexuality was a valid expression of sexuality, even if you were a Christian.
Sameh said, “Bush….he is crazy. We cannot like his views on military or war or money. Bush is crazy. But on this issue…on homosexuality…we agree with Bush. Bush is right.â€
So, it appears that if Muslims are one-issue voters like many conservative right-wing Christians, then they would have voted for Bush as well.
Interesting. Muslims liking Bush. Maybe the end-times are coming…