http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2130668/Male-priests-marry-in-Anglican-church's-first-gay-'wedding'.htmlMale Priests' Civil Partnership Blessed in Church by Rector
This could never happen in a mosque because the Koran specifically states that homosexuality is a sin to be punished, in rather the same manner as adultery.
HOW EXTRA-MARITAL RECREATIONAL SEX IS PUNISHED IN ISLAM
4 witnesses would be required in the case of gay and lesbian lewdness as well as adulterous wives.The relevant verses in the Koran are:
4:15 (lewd acts between women)
4:16 (lewd acts between men)
http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/004.qmt.html24:1 (adultery - punishable by 100 lashes)
Those that defame honourable women and cannot produce 4 witnesses shall be given 80 lashes. If a husband accuses his wife but has no witnesses but himself except himself, he must swear 4 times by God that his charge is true, calling down upon himself the curse of God if he is lying. But if his wife swears 4 times by God that his charge is false and calls down His curse upon himself if it be true, she shall receive no punishment.
http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/024.qmt.htmlYou can't say fairer than that, can you?
In theory extra-marital recreational sex is all forbidden and punishable horribly. In practice, under a liberal interpretation, acts of homosexuality and adultery are tolerated provided it is not flaunted in front of more than 3 witnesses (making a threesome legally unproblematic and, dare I say it, halal, even if any of the three participants were prone to self-accusation). The same could be said of a threesome (of any combination) with no more than three voyeurs, witnesses or observers, call them what you will.
If we now have sharia-compliant investments, then I see nothing haram in organising sharia-compliant threesomes and mini-orgies, whilst adding to the gaiety of the nation and the
umma. It is a shame the Christians didn't quite got round to articulating this sort of thing in a Word of God Book coming from one source, ie Muhammad. Instead, their moral code comes from the Old and New Testament, written by different people over the ages. No wonder schism is endemic and inevitable when Christian ideology is so messily articulated.
Old Testament: Leviticus
http://net.bible.org/verse.php?book=Leviticus&chapter=18&verse=22"Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination."
http://net.bible.org/verse.php?book=Leviticus&chapter=20&verse=13"If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.
"New Testament: Romans 1:26, 27
http://net.bible.org/passage.php?passage=Romans%201:26-31It does after all say in the Old Testament that homosexuality is an abomination, but some New Testamenters seem to think this does not apply to them.
Perhaps it is because New Testamenters like to think that the Old Testament cannot apply to them in any of its literal and illiberal entirety, when so many transgressions we now regard as minor to trifling could lead to the death penalty?
For an impressively long list of sins which Old Testamenters regard as deserving of the death penalty, see
http://www.wvinter.net/~haught/Bible.htmlIn contrast, under a liberal interpretation, the Koran is a model of mercy and clemency.
The Koran restates the Ten Commandments and adds a few more of its own. No rational Muslim would argue that an act specifically stated to be a sin in the Koran could possibly deserve the blessing of any Islamic clergy! The most that could be argued in an Islamic context is the "ask us no questions and we'll tell you no lies" principle, which would be the perfect compromise between puritanical censoriousness and the libertarian ideal.
In these circumstances, homosexuality would be tolerated, provided it is not flaunted. How can anyone reasonable, whether religious or atheist (like me) deny that this is the perfect compromise? Or that the Islam of the Koran is structurally sounder, better-drafted, more coherent and sexually liberated than Judaism or Christianity?
