Africa, Op-ed The challenge of secularism and human rights in Africa

African countries have been facing various challenges since independence and one of these major dilemmas is defining the relationship between religion and politics. At independence, African countries inherited multiple faiths, political religions that seek to control state formation and structure.

This challenge is evident in the controversies that have trailed the introduction and implementation of sharia law in places like Nigeria and Somalia, the violent reactions to religious differences in Sudan and Central African Republic, the ongoing campaign against islamic extremism in Nigeria, Kenya, Mali, Cameroon and in the North of Africa, the heated debates and fierce opposition to the enactment of legislations and policies that protect the human rights of persons particularly those human rights mechanisms that are deemed by some segments of the religious establishment as violations of the dictates and dogmas of their faiths.

Drawing from my experiences growing up in Nigeria and years of keenly following the use of religion for political ends or the use of politics religious ends in countries across the region, this piece highlights how mixing of religion and politics undermines secularism and the realization of Freedom of Religion and Belief (FORB) and human rights broadly. I propose models, not a model of secularism because the situation of religion and politics in Africa is not homogenous and often differs from country to country, sometimes within countries to warrant recommending just a model of secularism that may apply to over 52 countries in the region.  Read more via IEET

The vatican’s ban on romantic gay drama ‘Weekend’ appears to have backfired

A Vatican ban on romantic gay drama film Weekend appears to have backfired after the film posted the highest per-screen-average takings as it opened in Italy this weekend.

The independent British film, directed by Looking’s Andrew Haigh and released in the UK back in 2011, was restricted to just ten cinemas in the country after the Italian Bishop’s Conference Film Evaluation Commission branded the story about a burgeoning gay romance “indecent” and “unusable”.

Weekend was consequently shunned by the more than 1,100 Catholic Church-owned cinemas, which make up the bulk of Italy’s network of independent movie theatres – but the ban appears to have backfired after the film pulled in more than $6,221 per screen on its opening weekend, well ahead of the The Divergent Series: Allegiant’s second-highest per-screen average of $4,217. Read more via Attitude

Malaysia: Religious police clamping down on LGBTI Muslims sparks off online debate

A documentary on Malaysia’s religious police to clamp down on LGBTI Muslims in the country has sparked off an online debate on the treatment these individuals receive.
 
The documentary ‘Unreported World – 2016’, produced by London-headquartered Channel 4, is slated to air on Friday night – but the channel has already released a snippet online on its Facebook page.  Watch the video here
 

The snippet has sparked off a fury of online debate. As of press time, the post has received over 2900 reactions and has been shared nearly 7000 times. While some netizens are in support of what the religious police does, some are in vehement disagreement with the act.  Read more via Gay Star News 

How Mormonism is creating an increasingly toxic environment for Its LGBT youth

Last November, the church enacted a worldwide policy that mandates church discipline (the process that precedes excommunication) for all LGBT members married to someone of their same gender; it also bans children of LGBT individuals from certain saving rites, including baptism, until those children turn 18 years old — and only then if they publicly disavow the relationship of their LGBT parents.

Although the new policy provoked thousands of straight and LGBT Mormons to officially resign from the church and untold others to walk away or diminish their involvement, the leadership of the church has persistently doubled down.

While many Mormons obediently (if quietly and little grudgingly) support church leaders, some vulnerable LGBT members are seeing no other way out than to take their own lives. In late January, church-owned Deseret News reported that there were claims of 32 LGBT Mormon youth taking their own lives; the group Mama Dragons (an organization of LDS mothers of young LGBT members) now report that figure may be as high as 43. Read more via Huffington Post

Vatican to replace diplomat who set up Kim Davis meeting

The Vatican is replacing its controversial ambassador to the U.S., who arranged the meeting between Pope Francis and antigay Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis last fall.

Italian Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò will leave the position of apostolic nuncio, the equivalent of an ambassador. Viganò has “often more outspoken in his antagonism to same-sex marriage than others in the church,” the Post reports. The Roman Catholic Church remains adamantly opposed to such unions, but Pope Francis has said clergy members needn’t discuss the issue constantly. 

During the pope’s visit to the U.S. last year, Viganò arranged for him to meet with Davis, the Rowan County clerk, who shut down all marriage operations in her office to avoid serving same-sex couples after the Supreme Court’s marriage equality ruling. After the meeting with Davis, observers wondered if Viganò kept the pope “in the dark” about her situation or just didn’t realize “the off-message media storm that a meeting with Ms. Davis would provoke,” The New York Times reported last fall. Read more via Advocate 

Four LGBT-affirming Islamic teachings

There are many LGBT Muslims and many LGBT persons who embrace Islam as their faith. They address the prohibitive Islamic texts on homosexuality in their diverse ways. LGBT Muslims can draw much spiritual comfort from their faith while gently setting aside norms that do not speak to their authentic selves, for Islam is much more than the story of Lot's people.

Spiritual well being and inner peace are crucially important for gay men to help address low self esteem due to internalized racism and body image issues. This poor self worth also translates to gay men judging their peers very harshly. Indeed, some LGBT spaces that were supposed to honour diversity become breeding grounds for self-contempt and hatred.

However, LGBT Muslims can draw upon several Islamic teachings to effectively address the myriad of problems they face in LGBT subcultures. In doing so they can affirm the worth of human beings irrespective of their race, body shape and mannerism.  Read more via Huffington Post

India: Op-ed, They dare to hate this minority

How is it that a religious objection to freeing India’s LGBT community can pass muster in a democracy? There is a self-contradiction involved in religious bodies objecting to the admission of a curative petition against Section 377. Religious organisations function freely because the Constitution protects the citizen’s right to both freedom of expression and free speech.

Among these is the right to not only adopt the faith of one’s choice but also to propagate it. By denying sexual choice to the LGBT community the ACA and MPLB undermine the source of their own freedoms, the Constitution. Of course, it is not for the first time that we have witnessed the expression of intolerance by purohits, mullahs and padres. Usually they suppress women. This time they have united in their fear of sexual freedom and hatred of the other that dares to pursue it. The more important question is, how it is that we have come to tolerate such intolerance?

The origins of this inconsistency lie in the colonialist’s construction of India. 

Read more via The Hindu
 

Cameroon: Plea to to Pope, Restrain gay-bashing Catholics

In Cameroon, a recent resurgence of anti-LGBTI rhetoric from the Catholic Church has come in for criticism from the Douala-based advocacy group Alternatives-Cameroon, which fights AIDS and supports human rights for sexual minorities.  In this press release, Alternatives-Cameroon asks Pope Francis to intervene:

We recalled that during the Synod on the Family, held a few months ago, the same prelate declared homosexuality to be a threat to the family. Cardinal Tumi [Cardinal Christian Tumi, the retired archbishop of Douala] even declared that homosexuality was a “threat to the human race.” Catholic lawyers depicted homosexuality to be a clinical pathology that should attract the attention of different hospitals.

This Church wants more than ever to set Cameroonians against each other, ignoring its mission to promote love, tolerance and peace. Has history not taught it a lesson? From slavery to the Holocaust to the Rwandan genocide — now it’s the turn of homosexuals. Read more via 76crimes