Religion Dispatches
…s the continent. Essa challenges those who suggest homosexuality is an “un-African” western concept, saying that “to suggest that Africa has no place for homosexuals is to imagine the continent’s history as beginning when prude missionaries brought Bibles, long skirts and umbrellas as a marker of civilization.” The construction of sin and categorical notions of sexuality over the past four centuries on the continent are inextricably linked to colo…
Read More…philanthropy. It’s complex motivations like these that lead many to believe that they’re just one more example of Western organizations using African problems as a prop to promote their own interests….
Read More
…parts of the hit musical they felt furthered harmful racial stereotypes of Africa and Africans. This is no small ask. Anyone familiar with The Book of Mormon is likely familiar with its capacity for rudeness. The cartoonish world of the show’s creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone paints white Mormonism and Black Africa with brushes so broad they blend both the ludicrous and the actual. Broadway audiences have sometimes had a hard time telling these…
Read More
…rge. With the exception of some significant Greek communities in Egypt and South Africa (who are decidedly not in the market for a new Russian bishop), the relatively few African convert communities on the continent are neither financially affluent nor politically powerful—yet. Modern Russia also has designs on Africa, where it seeks to compete with China and the Western powers for influence on a continent of natural resources and growing markets….
Read More…and Nigeria. Among those featured in the story is Muhsin Hendricksi, a gay South African Imam, and Taj Hargey, founder of the “Open Mosque” in Cape Town. Egypt: Anti-Gay Crackdown Drawing International Attention Over the past year we have reported on the Egyptian government’s use of anti-gay persecution as a means of placating Islamist factions. Meredith Kucherov reported for Human Rights First this week that “the current crackdown is exceptional…
Read More
…adejo of Oyo, who is Nigerian, responded to Obama’s advocacy saying, “Most Africans care about religious values, about the family, about the complementary nature of man and woman and the culture that makes us Africans. Why can we not choose what ‘benevolence’ to accept from the West? Why can we not just be helped to fight corruption, terrorism, unemployment disease and illiteracy?” “Nobody should be killed for private wayward or immoral behaviors…
Read More
…d fire a college professor for being gay or lesbian, compared to 8% of non-Southerners. The South is a hotbed of anti-LGBT sentiment because a large fraction of the population identifies as Baptists or with other exclusivist sects, and they also tend to hold literalist beliefs in the Bible. Over 45% of Southerners hold literalist views, compared to fewer than 26% of non-Southerners, while only 12% of Southerners adhere to a secular view, compared…
Read More…recognition of civil status documents, including registered partnerships.” Africa: African American LGBT Faith Activist Supporting African LGBTs Alturi profiles Joseph Tolton of the Fellowship of Affirming Ministries whose work in Africa has grown 2009, when news reports about Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act began circulating and Tolton traveled to the country. “I fell in love with the people, I fell in love with the land, I fell in love with the…
Read More
…yman’s discrimination. United Kingdom: Marriages of Convenience Among LGBT South Asians The BBC reports on LGBT people from South Asian communities—Muslim, Hindu, and Sikh—who use social media to find people of the opposite sex willing to be part of a marriage of convenience to meet familial and community expectations: Whilst homosexuality is considered a sin in Islam, some imams have said the bigger sin is the deception of being involved in a mar…
Read More
…wn, you mount.” Far from isolated cases, across Islamic history—from North Africa to South Asia—we see widespread acceptance of gender nonconforming and queer individuals. Later in the Ottoman Empire, there were the köçek who were men who wore women’s clothing and performed at festivals. Formally trained in dance and percussion instruments, the köçek were an important part of social functions. A similar practice was found in Egypt. The khawal were…
Read More