Top Muslim Body Calls On Indonesia’s Government To Ban Gay and Lesbian Film Festival

The Indonesia Ulema Council, the top Islamic body in the country, has  today spoken out against the gay and lesbian film festival that is currently being held in the country and called for the government to ban it.

Also acting to condemn foreign cultural centres for giving private screenings of the films, chairman of the Indonesia Ulema Council, Ma’ruf Amin said:

“We reject the screening of the films which contain gay and homosexual lives as they are against Islamic and Indonesian cultural values,”

“The foreign representatives including the German and French cultural centres must show their respect for our sovereignty. They should not bring their culture which goes against our local values,”

Now in it’s ninth year, Q! is the biggest festival of it’s kind in Asia, and the only in the Muslim world, but has this year seen an increase in protests against it with the Ulema Council stating 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)”.

A month long festival that will see film from more than 20 countries, including France, Japan and the Philippines, the remaining three weeks are likely to see continued protests from hardline extremist groups in the country.

via AFP.