1 Oct 2010

Indonesia’s top Muslim body seeks ban on gay film festival

Weighing in on an already controversial issue, the Indonesian Ulema Council on Thursday has called on the national censorship board to ban any movie that promotes homosexuality and demanded the government ban the ongoing film festival.

The Jakarta Globe reported:

Indonesia’s top Islamic body reiterated on Friday that homosexuality is an abuse of human rights and demanded the government ban an ongoing gay and lesbian film festival.

It also condemned foreign cultural centres for showing the films at private screenings, three days after angry Muslims held protests outside the venues.

“We reject the screening of the films which contain gay and homosexual lives as they are against Islamic and Indonesian cultural values,” Indonesia Ulema Council (MUI) chairman Ma’ruf Amin said. 

... 

Communications Minister Tifatul Sembiring on Wednesday posted comments on microblogging website Twitter blaming “perverted sex acts” for the spread of AIDS, and quoted a Koranic verse about stoning homosexuals. 

In a statement, the Ulema Council said homosexuality was “against human rights because human rights were given by God basically for pairs of men and women to legally marry... Same-sex marriage is haram [forbidden].” 

Amin called on the government’s censorship body to “firmly ban” the festival, echoing similar calls from hard-line extremists.

Indonesia