ON FRIDAY "26 MEN GIVEN 5 YEARS IN PRISON." - THEN ON MONDAY IT'S "ONLY ELEVEN." According to Friday's edition of The Khaleej Times, a court in Abu Dhabi sentenced 26 men to five years in prison for confessing their gay sexual orientation and attending an unofficial gay union last November. They refused to apologize in court, and instead said that they were proud of their orientation and would not repent. However on Monday, The Khaleej Times, quoting "an anonymous source" said that just eleven of the 26 had been sentenced to prison, the others had been "acquitted." So, what explains the difference - is it just a "cock-up" or is it a "cover-up" ? Commentators have been left baffled, but it is eerily reminiscent of the sudden change of tune in Iran's media last year, when two children hung for consensual "gay crimes" and said to have been baffled by the "seriousness" of their crime, were later declared to have been "gang rapists." Is this another case of changing the story once Western media outlets pick it up, for fear of damaging dimplomatic relations and business ? The comparison also goes to show that in some ways the prisoners were lucky. Although sodomy is punishable by death under the Islamic sharia law it is thought that in this case there wasn't enough evidence to prove this, and fortunately the UAE is not known to have ever imposed the death penalty for homosexuality. An earlier report said the gay men might be given hormone treatment to correct their behaviour. The police had raided the wedding party last year at a hotel and had arrested 12 men in Arab dress and others dressed as women who were to be the 'brides' at the wedding. An Indian disc jockey was among the arrested. GayEgypt.com is still trying to find out more information. In its' online reports Friday and Monday - the Khaleej Times made little more than a passing reference to the sentence - On Monday there was no explanation given for the difference with Friday's account. ABU DHABI — The Abu Dhabi Court of First Instance has sentenced 26 gays to five years’ imprisonment. They were arrested in a hotel in the capital recently dressed in women's clothes and make-up in preparation for a gay wedding. An official source in Abu Dhabi said the public prosecution had accused the group of homosexuality, and referred them to lower court. The men were caught red-handed by the Abu Dhabi Police in a hotel in the city. They defended themselves in court, saying that they were proud of their act and were keen to practise it. DUBAI - A court in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has sentenced 11 men to five years in jail for taking part in preparations for a mass homosexual wedding in the country, a prosecutor source said on Monday. The source told DPA on condition of anonymity that another man was sentenced to one year in jail for obscenity and other 14 were acquitted in the same case. The source said the sentence is not final and it will go to appeal. Legal observes in the UAE said they expect a more lenient sentence when the case goes to appeal. Police arrested the 26 men in November last year in a hotel in Ghantout, a desert region on the Dubai-Abu Dhabi highway. Half of the men - including UAE nationals, Arabs and Asians - were dressed as women, with make-up and hairstyles, and the others were dressed in Arab attire. Both homosexuality and cross-dressing are illegal in the UAE. 2004: UAE police arrested a large party of men attending a gay wedding in the emirate of Sharjah and at the Khor Fakkan resort in Fujairah emirate. Twenty four of the men arrested in Sharjah were lashed and then released from prison. March 2005: Doctor on Dubai TV chat show says homosexuality is an addiction and that around two thirds can be cured with the right treatment. November 2005: Abu Dhabi Gay wedding arrests. Interior Ministry spokesman Issam Azouri says the men are likely to be tried under Sharia law. 29 November 2005: Washington condemns UAE for arrest of men on grounds of their sexual orientation. 30 November 2005: The Ministry of Interior denies reports that the detainees are to be sujected to hormonal or other correctional treatments. 9 February 2006: Emirates bans the "gay cowboy" film Brokeback Mountain. 11 February 2006: Emirates court sentences the 26 gay detainees from the Abu Dhabi "gay wedding" to five years prison each. x1. "For weeks on end they turn off the power, leaving the prisoners to suffer in darkness." ( UAEPRISON.COM ) x2. All belongings confiscated but they will be given two blankets, a plastic cup and a plate each. x3. Dinner "is served" at 8 and the menu consists of one slice of bread, dal (lentil) and a glass of black tea. ( UAEPRISON.COM ) x4. In the summer it's regularly above 40 degrees but there is no ventilation in the cells. ( HindustanTimes.com ) x5. All letters, incoming and outgoing, censored. x6. 10 lashes if they go on hunger strike. x8. To be constantly abused, humiliated and tortured. x9. To be raped by "real men" and prison guards. 10. One or two latrines per 200 prisoners................Oh, and no books ! According to GulfNews.com, a foreign worker has been sentenced to 35 lashes and deportation, while his gay lover has been sentenced to five years imprisonment. The men were caught having sex in a normally quiet area outside Al Ain. The Federal Supreme Court turned down the appeal and upheld a lower court's sentence. 10 February 2006: The "liberal" Arab-European League has published a crass cartoon suggesting a comparison between gay weddings and animal bestiality. Under the caption "Europe still progressive 2015" - it depicts the union of a woman and a donkey being blessed by a priest. Even an "ordinary" donkey insult is one of the worst types of affront in the Arab world. Last Tuesday Egyptian football striker Mido was banned from the Africa Cup final for using the "d word" in an argument with his coach. On its' website the League says it stands for "solidarity with all Muslim peoples and communities and all the oppressed peoples of the world." Obviously, 15 million Arab Gays and Lesbians are not included. Reference: http://www.arabeuropean.org/newsdetail.php?ID=99 Sex shop Ann Summers came in the firing line today as Muslim groups claimed that a blow up doll "Mustafa Shag" was offensive. While Mustafa is a very common name, it is also one of the many many names - Al Mustafa - meaning "The Chosen One" - by which the Prophet is known. On the Ann Summers website Mustafa Shag was still proudly displaying his equipment this morning. Viewers are informed that he is "Your own inflatable escort for your Hen Night adventures. Mustafa comes with his own penis. Blow him hard to inflate him and watch his 7 incher come to life." The doll costs £15 or around $25 and you can order up to five of him at a time, presumably either for a hen-night or gay gang bang. Muslims in both Worcester and Manchester in the United Kingdom were said to be deeply offended. Malik Mohammed Fayaz, chairman of the Worcester Muslim Welfare Association, at Tallow Hill Mosque, said this type of insult was the gravest offence he could imagine. He predicted it could badly effect community relations. However, Jacqueline Gold, owner of Ann Summers nationwide, said: "We don't want to offend anyone. This feels like political correctness gone mad." We agree with Jacqueline. Abu Hamza, the hardline Egyptian Islamist and homophobe, has today been jailed in London for seven years for incitement to murder. He was found guilty of "directly and deliberately stirring up hatred against Jewish people and encouraging murder of those he referred to as non-believers." He has already served over a year in detention and may also be eligible for parole which means he may walk free in just two years time, if, that is, he's not extradited to the United States where he is wanted on terrorism charges. Abu Hamza was born in 1958 into a Middle Class Alexandria family and came to England in 1979 where he worked on the edge of London's gay scene, as a bouncer for a heterosexual night club in Soho. By 1980 he had married an English woman, Valerie Traverso, but soon afterwards while living in the U.K.'s leading gay resort, Brighton, he drifted towards radical Islam. He became the immam of the infamous Finsbury Park mosque in north London in 1997 and was finally arrested in 2003. He has praised the execution of gays in Afghanistan. Hamza also, allegedly, struck up a frienship while in Belmarsh with Nazi nailbomber David Copeland, the man who bombed a gay bar in Old Compton Street (Soho). Hamza allegedly managed to persuade the crazed terrorist to convert to Islam ( Ref.) During a sermon in 2000, Hamza claimed that British politicians grovelled to Israel for fear of being exposed as gay or corrupt. "Israelis...got a file for each of these politicians - how much homosexual you are, how many money he has been taking as a bribe, whom his wife goes with, which child he has been abusing." Once trapped in the witness box at court, Hamza's language was a lot more moderate in tone. "Whoever comes towards me I take them with open arms," adding that while he was "against homosexuality," he would not be personally abusive to a gay person. "If (a gay man) comes to me to say hello I don't push him away, I don't harangue him." Earlier, he allegedly declared that if the state did not outlaw homosexuality "some people have to stop it. People will be killed, no problem". (Ref: http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-432.html ) He believed AIDS had been sent by Allah to punish gay men. "They have a common punishment amongst them and they have the virus to run after them wherever they go." He didn't explain why, if gay sex was haram and AIDS a punishment, lesbians are among the groups least affected by HIV infection. Ironically some of Hamza's close knit band of young male supporters enjoyed gay sex secretly. See for instance this 2002 report from the Guardian ( click here. ) Photos: Left - He encourages fanatics to attack gays but, right, spots our photographer while dressed as "Zaara". Chief Mufti Talgat Tajuddin has warned that Muslims would stage violent protests if Moscow's May Gay Pride went ahead, but we expose the homophobic Chief Mufti as a secret cross-dresser ! Just last Tuesday, he was demanding harsh penalties against Moscovites planning the "Perverts Parade." "If they come out on to the streets anyway they should be flogged. Any normal person would do that ........The protests might be even more intense than the riots abroad against those controversial cartoons," threatened Tajuddin The cleric insisted that the Quran taught that homosexuals should be killed because toleration could lead to the extinction of the human race and added that gays had no human rights. Yet a GayEgypt.com photographer, tipped off by a member of Russia's gay community, staked out his luxury central Moscow apartement and snapped a picture of him dressed as a housemaid. A little earlier on, the candid photographer also caught him as he boarded a bus outside Moscow's only transexual bar. A spokesperson for the Mufti insisted that GayEgypt.com was mistaken, but that if was true, it might be because Tajuddin was seeking a new identity. The past year had brought him a lot of bad luck and only last month he adopted a new name "Zaara," meaning "beautiful flower," in an attempt to find new meaning in his life. Later we cornered the Mufti outside a women's clothing store in Khimki, Moscow's red light area. He reluctantly agreed to a brief interview at which he reminded GayEgypt.com that we ourselves had published an article showing that the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) loved transexuals in a platonic sense, whom he not only tolerated, but rewarded with special privileges. For instance, they were the only "men", with the exception of close family relatives, allowed to be in the company of an unveiled woman. "By implication," Tajuddin continued excitedly, "Allah loves cross-dressers too !" "But," the cameraman rudely interjected, "Isn't it a bit hypocritical to demand death for gays and a bar on Moscow's Gay, Lesbian and Transexual Pride, while you yourself are dressing up as a rather pretty parlourmaid ?" Unfortunately the interview was then curtailed by the appearance of two hansome security guards. Photo: left - Tajuddin (dressed as "Zaara") waits to board a Moscow Bus outside a Transexual Club - Right - he struggles to explain himself during a brief interview. Mrs Doubtfire Producer sues GayEgypt.com - In an angry email he asked "How dare you use photographs of the affable and lovely Mrs Doubtfire and pretend that they are that evil homophobe Tajuddin ?" GayEgypt.com has agreed to settle out of court. How could we possily justify such a malicious libel ? ******************************************************************************** AHMADINEJAD BANS DEGENERATE MUSIC BUT "QUEEN" ARE STILL THE CHAMPIONS. An album of Queen's greatest hits was belatedly released in Tehran in August 2004. It was the first rock act to win the approval of the Ayatollahs, but now sales of Queen tapes and CDs have been banned despite the fact that Queen's lead singer and songwriter, Freddie Mercury, was of Iranian descent. Had Freddie grown a beard, thrown out his glam wear and donned a cheap dull jacket, you might almost see a passing similarity with Iran's austere president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. But the singer, who told one newspaper "I am as gay as a daffodil, my dear!" was a true rebel and hardly the role model Iran's Mullahs are looking for. He was notorious for his campery on stage and his promiscuity off and in the late 1980s, though he knew he had AIDS, he bravely continued peforming and composing until his death in 1991. The news that his music had been officially endorsed by the Government was a highly popular move in 2004, but now Iran's hardline regime is calling for stricter censorship of Western music in a country where a single act of consensual gay sex can get a man stoned to death or (as was the case in July last year) two teenage boys hung from the back of a lorry. ( The insufficient height of the drop ensured they suffered a slow agonising death. ) All media outlets are now strictly censored since last December when Ahmadinejad officially banned all Western music from state radio and TV stations. Earlier the same month Ali Rahbari, conductor of Tehran's symphony orchestra, resigned his post and quit the country after widespread media and official criticism. His apparent crime was to conduct Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in its' first Iranian performance since 1979. Before leaving, he played Beethoven's Ninth Symphony to packed Tehran theatre houses over several nights. Its' first performance in Tehran since the 1979 revolution. But the concerts angered many conservatives and prompted newspaper columns to denounce Rahbari for promoting Western "degeneracy". However the good news is that while the Mullahs may have won a battle or two, they are loosing the battle on the streets where Queen's illegal bootleg albums and singles have been outselling all officially approved music. Here are are some of the band's lyrics that are still numero uno in Tehran's booming underground music scene. I WANT TO BREAK FREE ! I want to break free, I want to break free, I want to break free from your lies You're so self satisfied I don't need you I've got to break free God knows, God knows I want to break free and after the government's decision to censor all music on the television and radio the following might also find some resonance - RADIO GA GA. All we hear is Radio ga ga Radio goo goo Radio ga ga All we hear is Radio ga ga Radio blah blah Radio what's new? Some (Ayatollah) still loves you ! and some words of warning regarding Ahmadinejad - LISTEN TO THE MADMAN ! Oh oh children of the land Love is still the answer take my hand The vision fades a voice I hear Listen to the madman! But still I fear and still I dare not Laugh at the madman ! And finally for all you gay Iranians out there - here's a feeling you're certainly familiar with taken from WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS I've paid my dues Time after time I've done my sentence But committed no crime ! In the Name of Allah - Halal Films - a documentary, filmed across three continents, looking at the lives of 175 million Queer Muslims. You can help donate to the costs of production and distribution via the Hartley Foundation Website. The film is being supported by three major television companies but since we could not find a poster, GayEgypt.com has produced its' own smudged masterpiece (left) on a limited budget (A piece of tea stained notepaper and ten cents for the cost of scanning.) F*@@ OFF OR GET "QUASHED" ! PROTESTERS TO MARCH ON RUSSIAN EMBASSIES Posted 27 February 2006 - by GayEgypt.com. The Mayor of Moscow, Yuri Luzhkov, has declared that the city authorities will not tolerate any lesbians and gays attempting to assemble on 27 May to celebrate Gay Pride. It would be unacceptable "in any form" and would be "resolutely quashed", echoing the homophobic call by Chief Mufti Talgat Tajuddin, Russia's leading Muslim leader, that gays should be thrashed. In response IDAHO (International Day Against Homophobia) and other groups have organized protests outside Russian Embassies for Thursday 2nd March in London (12 noon), Minsk (time uncertain), Paris (time uncertain), Stockholm (time uncertain) and Warsaw (6pm). For more details on the London protest see idaho-uk.org and for background to the situation in Russia see GayRussia.ru or our own report - third article down (18th February) on the home page. The Mayor is deferentially referred to as the "czar" of Moscow and has lucrative contacts with top bankers and business executives. Need to find him ? If you know where some big-money contract is being signed, he'll be there. He's been accused of mafia style business arrangements but has held on to his post of mayor since 1992. Now he backs Muslims in their outrage over the proposed Gay Pride, but not long ago he suggested Chechens and othe "dark-skinned" immigrants be expelled from Moscow. The Mayor has many media moghuls in his pocket and Pravda and other media outlets have decided to back him to the full. It's most recent article on the Pride march reads more like a traditional Communist party editorial, refering to "A group of gay activists led by the notorious lawyer Nikolai Alexeev " and it continues "In view of such a unanimous condemnation of the gay parade in our capital, Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov and city authorities will certainly ban it." but Pravda fears foreign intervention. "It is a well-known fact that claiming the rights and freedoms of sexual minorities has long been one of the main methods used by the West for “promoting” democracy in “underdeveloped” countries. Staging public actions is one of the ways used for the above purpose." The Mayor's opposition to Gay Pride has come as no suprise to most Russians. In March last year Luzhkov backed the construction of a golf course in an area of North West Moscow because he felt that a well used family Golf Club would succeed in detering gays from the area. |