Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Muslims get cross about cross-dressing

Just when you thought there were no mildly deviant but enjoyable activities left for the Islamists to take offence at, along comes the neighbourhood sharia watch committee in the Nigerian city of Bauchi.

Muslim youths in the city rioted after a court granted bail to five of 18 men who had been charged with the ‘crime’ of cross-dressing ­after being arrested in a hotel room (presumably the high heels made escape impossible).

All 18 face harsh punishment when ­– sorry if – convicted. "Any (male) person who dresses... in the fashion of a woman in a public place... will be liable to a term of one year or 30 lashes" said a spokesman for the local sharia police.

By way of explaining this madness, the BBC report informs us that ‘Nigeria, like many African countries, is a conservative society where homosexuality is considered a taboo.’ The BBC would have you think that ‘conservative’ is the operative word here. However, the reason Nigerians in that part of the country flog their cross-dressers, rather than simply picking fault with their choice of outfit, is not because it’s a conservative society, but because it’s an Islamic society.

At some point in the future the BBC and their fellow-travelers on the left are going to have to take sides, and decide whether their enthusiasm for Islam as some kind of imagined counterweight to the US and free market capitalism, and the associated desire to respect and promote it, outweigh their impulse to defend cross-dressers, homosexuals and sexual freedom in general.

However, it has to be said that in the case of Nigeria, Western governments bear a good deal of responsibility too. Just as with the Middle East our relationship with Nigeria is complicated by the fact that it’s a major oil producer, so we tend to give them a pass on human rights abuses.

The sooner we can wean ourselves off oil, and deprive the dictators of Africa and the Middle East of their ill-gotten fortunes, the better life will be for an awful lot of people, not least the persecuted trannies of Bauchi.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well written good sense thoughout all the pieces that appear here. I wonder where else I can read your published work? I was referred here via The Animal Disco Blog, another blogging work-of-art. I have much appreciation for bloggers such as this who are not afraid to share their opinions. I am new to England from Spain where journalisms such as this quality is not so unusual but in the U.K. I have had to rely so far on The Internet to read quality. I will be a regular visitor to both sites.

Mike said...

Hi Siran,

Thanks for the compliments! I'm afraid I am not published anywhere at the moment. This blog is new and I am currently trying to promote it, so please recommend me to any friends of yours who you think would be interested, and to other blogs you visit.

Mike

Anonymous said...

Well said MIKE.

There are more Mikes around the world, in fact we out number the minority power freaks who continue to supress the majority with religious rape and power hungry control of the masses.

The internet is here and here to stay and sooner we ban fundamentalistic religion with its false promises of heaven and its equally false threats of hell if you "break the rules", the better millions of people's lives will be.

TransGender.