Valentine’s Day anti-gay flyers ours, says Jakim
FMT Reporters
| February 18, 2015
They are a guide to practise a healthy lifestyle and reduce the spread of HIV’
KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 18 — The Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim) said it distributed controversial anti-homosexuality flyers on Valentine’s Day to promote healthy living and reduce the spread of HIV among Muslims. “The flyers are a guide for Muslims to practise a healthy lifestyle,” Jakim’s director-general Othman Mustapha said in a statement to Malay Mail Online. “Muslims are prohibited from having same-sex relationships, it is forbidden by the religion. The flyer was also to prevent the spread of HIV virus among Muslims.” Snapshots of the controversial flyer distributed by Jakim volunteers have been circulating on social media including Whatsapp. The flyer, titled “10 myths about homosexuality”, claimed, among others, that homosexual couples are less faithful and face more domestic violence than heterosexual couples. Jakim said it has been handing out the flyers which contained similar content by a US-based Christian campaign for the past two years. Jakim did not name the source of its facts or the studies that back its assertions. The Valentine’s Day flyer was strikingly similar to the 2010 Family Research Council (FRC) brochure titled “ The top 10 myths about homosexuality”. FRC is a United States-based conservative Christian lobby group founded in 1983 that is against gay rights, abortion, divorce, embryonic stem-cell research and pornography. There is a campaign in Muslim-majority Malaysia to reject the perceived rise in gay activity, which together with growing calls for greater civil liberties, is deemed to be an assault against Islam.
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