important!!
This is happening. (BBC link.)
And the inciting incident? There was a concert in Cairo by the Lebanese band Mashrou’ Leila (whose lead singer Hamed Sinno is openly gay and an advocate of LGBTQ rights) where someone waved a rainbow flag.
The Egyptian government has made as of October 3rd 22 arrests according to the BBC and 33 arrests according to the Independent (both also linked above). Both articles as well as the facebook statement made to the Mashrou’ Leila facebook page made reference to “anal examinations” (which the facebook post correctly calls out as rape), and that some of those arrested are minors, as well as the aforementioned Grindr stalking.
Not only has the Egyptian government used this tactic before (from 2016 and from 2014), but it’s the same tactic that has been used in Chechnya earlier this year (and possibly continues to be used; news coming out of Chechnya is rare in the best of times).
While both the BBC and Independent articles endeavor to state that in Egypt homosexuality is not technically illegal, the Egyptian government’s use of laws against “debauchery” and “blasphemy” makes clear that that’s just a pretext and a smokescreen.
This comes on the heels of the US ambassador to the UN Nikki Harley (a Trump appointee) voting “No” on a United Nations condemnation of the death penalty for LGBTQ people.
If there were ever a time to hold our elected officials accountable and demand for an end to the oppression of our LGBTQ Muslim siblings, it’d be now.
Timestamp: October 3rd, 2017, 17:20 EST.
