Canada became the second country in the world to legally permit Gay marriages. Now Britain may be the next country in this wave. Back home in India, the Indian Panel Code contains the provision taken from the old British law of nineteenth century in which homosexuality is punishable by twenty years of imprisonment. But surprisingly no body has either been convicted or punished in India under this provision so far.
The research conducted in 1940’s in USA suggests that approximately 20% of Human population have a tendency towards either homosexuality or biosexuality. So if we believe this research then one out of five amongst us have this tendency. So this works out to 20% vote bank in a democracy like Canada. In Canada, gay groups are very strong and no political party can ignore 20% vote bank.
I had a glimpse of it when I stayed in a youth hostel during my first week in Canada in March this year. I discovered on third or fourth day that this particular youth hostel was a favourite meeting place for gays. I used to see their posters and banners and freely circulating magazines. This was the time when powerful campaign was going on in Canada to legalise the gay marriages. Back home in India, I had read a funny cartoon on this in a Hindi magazine with the message:
“Ladki Hi Ladki Se Gar Isq Ladaayegi
To Ulti Ganga Bahne Lag Jaayegi
Privaar Niyojan Safal Hogaa
Phir To Aabaadi Badhne Na Paayegi”
Few years ago, I had visited the beautiful Khajuraho temples in the central part of India which depicts all possible forms of sex in its beautiful carved stones. These temples were built by a Hindu king at 1050 A.D. (Almost 1000 years ago) when Islam had not arrived in the Indian subcontinent and almost all ancestors of Indian and Pakistanis were followers of Buddhism. The idea was to lure buddhist to reconvert into Hinduism by depicting sexual acts on carved stones. This idea did work and Hinduism sprung back in India after few centuries. In an exactly similar vien, today the Western culture is overwhelming eastern culture because of its sexual openness.
So what I want to say is that the homosexuality is not a new phenomena and it existed since time immemorial as proven by temples like Khajuraho which depicts all forms of sex possible by humans. I had seen sex with animals too on carved stones.
So my question is what is the stand of Islamic law on this subject and how Pakistani society views this controversial issue?
