Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
The three Abrahamic religions - Judaism, Christianity and Islam - have been fighting each other, killing each other and oppressing each other for centuries, a fact that many lament. Which is why it's so heartwarming to see all three religions unite together, joined by their hatred of gays:
Jewish and Muslim religious leaders say that an international Gay Pride gathering set for Aug. 6-12 in Jerusalem could trigger a worldwide Islamic uprising more intense than the riots and bloodshed generated by the cartoons in European newspapers of the profit Mohammed.Representatives of conservative Christian groups joined Muslim and Orthodox Jewish leaders last week in demanding that organizers of World Pride Jerusalem cancel a series of planned Gay Pride events, including a march through Jerusalem's streets.
Queens and dykes and queers, oh my! It's so nice to know that, for a few weeks at least, these idiots will stop hating each other long enough to celebrate their mutual hatred of gays. All of this, of course, is trumped up nonsense. There have been numerous gay pride marches in Jerusalem over the last few years with no violent reaction at all. But this one is international, and apparently that makes all the difference. Israeli gays march, no problem; American or Belgian gays march, all hell breaks loose. There's logic in them there hills, I'm sure, but good luck finding it.
Thankfully, the Israeli government seems to have better sense than these nutballs:
Levin, a New Yorker who founded the U.S.-based Jews for Morality, urged Christian and Muslim leaders in the U.S. and Middle East to call on the Israeli government to take steps to block the gay events from taking place in Jerusalem.David Saranga, a spokesperson for the Israeli Consular Office in New York City, said the Israeli government has no plans to interfere with the planned gay rights march. He said Israeli police and security agencies would provide the gay events the same routine protection given to all political demonstrations and public events.
"The Israeli government treats all of its communities equally," Saranga said. "We have respect for tolerance and pluralism," he said.
And I love this ridiculous reasoning that a march suddenly becomes something different if it goes near some sacred shrine:
Another prominent religious leader, Sheikh Ibrhim Sarsur, an Arab-Israeli member of the Israeli Knesset, or parliament, said that if the Gay Pride participants "dare to approach" Jerusalem's historic Temple Mount during the parade, "they will do so over our dead bodies."El-Ad, the Jerusalem gay community center leader, said the previous Gay Pride marches in Jerusalem did not go anywhere near the Temple Mount, an important religious shrine, and that opponents of the events this year should know the temple is nowhere near the march route.
This all reminds me of my stepmother's "zoomies" theory, that anything bad gives off little cosmic particles of sin that invade a house (yes, she actually told me that once when lecturing my father and I on why we can't bring an R-rated movie into the house). Do they think that if gay people get too close to the Temple Mount that people there are gonna get "the gay"? I've got news for them - lots of gay people have already been there. They've prayed at the Wailing Wall, they've worshipped in the Dome of the Rock mosque on top, and probably much more. Seriously, relax. The walls of the temple won't collapse if a gay person gets too close. For crying out loud, you'd think gay people were made of kryptonite. Could these people possibly get any more ridiculous?
Comments
It must stick in the American fundamentalist's craw to see "God's chosen people" practising tolerance towards gay people, (those same "chosen people" who are supposed to die in their millions should events in Revelation unfold as written).
Posted by: tacitus
| July 1, 2006 11:56 AM
Isn't that sweet. They can stand hand in hand with all different ethnicities and religions as they yell "god/yahweh/allah hates fags" at their neighbors.
Posted by: Matthew
| July 1, 2006 12:28 PM
Actually there was violence last year. An orthodox religous jew stabbed three marchers.
As always, we have the thugs warning against violence they themselves incite.
Posted by: ParanoidMarvin
| July 1, 2006 6:05 PM