Gays in Jerusalem
Over the millenniums Jerusalem has been conquered by many nations. Way back it was the Babylonians then the Persians came. The Romans hung around for a while followed by Byzantines and Muslims Next the Crusaders raised Christianity’s flag only to be kicked out by the Ottoman Turks who in turn were sent packing by the Brits. Now the Israelis hold sway.
Visit the Holy City and you can see that each culture has left its mark. It’s what makes the place historically so rich.
While there’s hardly anything that the various religions who call Jerusalem their spiritual home see eye to eye on, they all agree they’re facing a new insidious threat – gays.
It seems that an International Gay Pride festival scheduled for August resulted in a rare show of interfaith unity when the religious leaders of the Muslim, Christian and Jewish communities met to forestall the 10-day festival.
Abdel Aziz Bukhari, a Sufi sheik, seemed to speak for his fellow clerics when he said: “We can’t permit anybody to come and make the Holy City dirty. This is very ugly and very nasty to have these people come to Jerusalem.”
What is really shocking is that these gentlemen would blend easily into any gay pride parade.