Darkside Rainbow

I just read something that wholly sickened me; the only reason I’m not crying right now is because I don’t want to become the next Chris Crocker. I need to stop and take a deep breath before I say anything else. While I do that, I’ll let the article I read speak for itself. I can promise you that it speaks loudly, and quite clearly.

Uganda Cleric Calls for Annihilation of Gays - 365Gay.com

Uganda’s leading Muslim cleric has proposed to President Yoweri Museveni that gays be rounded up and marooned on an island in Lake Victoria until they die.

Sheikh Ramathan Shaban Mubajje told reporters of his plan following a much publicized meeting with Museveni.

“I asked President Museveni to get us an island on Lake Victoria and we take these homosexuals and they die out there,” Mubajje told a news conference.

“If they die there then we shall have no more homosexuals in the country.”

Others at the meeting reportedly said that the president did not respond to the suggestion.

Uganda outlaws male homosexuality, under laws originally imposed by the British colonizers in the nineteenth century. Offenders can face a maximum sentence of life imprisonment

Mubajje’s remarks follow similar threats by other Islamic leaders.

Recently, Muslim Tabliqh youth announced a plan to form an ‘Anti-Gay Squad’ to fight homosexuality in Uganda.

Before we invoke Godwin’s law, I want you to stop. I want you to read that again. Go read the full article. Read about the possibility that the Bush administration has even been funding groups that advocate violence against gays and and lesbians. And then I want you to put another demographic in the place of gays. If you, dear reader, are against gay rights, stumbling by here by some accident or here by purpose and by choice, then pick something else. Pick something that you love. Pick something that you feel strongly about. Pick something that you would fight for, damn you, and then say it again.

Pick women’s rights. Conservative values. Separation of church and state. Hispanic rights. African-American rights. Ending world hunger and poverty. Transgender rights. Breast cancer. HIV/AIDs. Freedom of speech. Pick anything you want, anyone who’s ever had someone speak out against them. Pick someone that you’ve spoken out against, perhaps violently, perhaps quietly.

Say it again.

Say it about the inalienable human right that you hold nearest and dearest to your heart, and then tell me - tell me how you feel.

“If they die there then we shall have no more homosexuals in the country.”

“If they die there then we shall have no more feminists in the country.”

“If they die there then we shall have no more of the terminally ill in the country.”

“If they die there then we shall have no more Hispanics in the country.”

“If they die there then we shall have no more blacks in the country.”

“If they die there then we shall have no more Jews in the country.”

“If they die there then we shall have no more impoverished in the country.”

“If they die there then we shall have no more atheists in the country.”

“If they die there then we shall have no more Christians in the country.”

Do you feel that? That clenching in your chest, that sickness in your throat? Can you say those words out loud and remain unaffected? And so - is it then acceptable to say this of homosexuals, as if we’re somehow animals to be dragged out into the street and shot? How would Mubajje feel if we said this about his sect, if we treated him the same way?

You can say I shouldn’t care about this because I don’t live in Uganda. His fanaticism, his hatred cannot harm me. I’m in no danger of being left to die on an island in Lake Victoria simply for who I am, who I love. But I understand something that Mubajje apparently doesn’t: we are all connected. Even more, we are all people, all human, with the same needs and rights - and that ties us irrevocably together. Every prejudice that you have can be turned back on you in some way. We are all diverse parts of a whole and that whole is always in contention with itself. When you turn your hatred on others, you blind yourself in your righteousness. When you turn your hatred on others, you turn your hatred on that whole, and thus turn your hatred on yourself.

For that reason, I wish I could speak to Mubajje. I wish I could ask him to stop, and place himself in those words.

“If they die there then we shall have no more Muslims in the country.”

You don’t know a man until you walk a mile in his shoes.

So how would Mubajje feel about that?

Uganda, Muslim cleric Sheikh Ramathan Shaban Mubajje, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, Muslim extremists, Muslim Tabliqh youth