No religion endorses homosexuality, says FPI

Padangekspres.net-A spokesman of the Islam Defender Front (FPI) says that residents rejects Canadian liberal Muslim activist Irshad Manji for her angle that Muslims should embrace lesbianism.
FPI spokesman Munarman said Saturday that his group disregarded Irshad’s sexual identity but rejected her way to spread her principle, adding that her liberal standpoint is unacceptable.
“We don’t mind her sexuality as long as she keeps it to herself. However, as she decides to spread her views [that Islam should accept homosexuality], it is a different story,” he told The Jakarta Post.
Munarman was responding to a query over the termination of Manji’s book launch at Salihara venue in South Jakarta, on Friday evening.

While the police were claiming that the disbandment was because the committee had no permit to invite a foreign national in the event, dozens claiming to be residents complained the activist’s sexual orientation.
Munarman, a former activist with the Legal Aid Institute (LBH), said that some residents who were members of the FPI rejected Manji because of her stance that Islam should be open on homosexuality issues.
He insisted that the Muslim community was not the only group who refused Manji’s viewpoint, citing that “not a single religion in the world endorses lesbianism or homosexuality.”
“If there are people who support lesbianism and homosexuality, they are sick people,”he said. “Let’s say that there is someone who promotes corruption practices, wouldn’t people reject him?”
When asked if he was aware whether Manji’s book, entitled Allah, Liberty and Love, was talking about lesbianism, Munarman claimed that he had read the book and reckoned it as “something random.”

“She [Manji] is just like those Jewish people who were described in the chapter of Al-Baqarah in of the Koran as the group who always question Allah’s orders,” he said.
Manji is a Canadian author who advocates a “reformist and progressive” interpretation of Islam.
The New York Times described her as the late al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden’s “worst nightmare”. (asa)