(or lack thereof)

One would think that Islam would call for mass executions of gays and lesbians, but there among Muslims there has always been a certain level of tolerance. The Koran expressly frowns upon homosexuality but in some instances comes across as rather ambiguous:

52.24.: "And there shall wait on them [the Muslim men] young boys of their own, as fair as virgin pearls."

76.19.: "They shall be attended by boys graced with eternal youth, who will seem like scattered pearls to the beholders."

The early Islamic theologians demanded death for homosexuals, and in many instances gay men were executed. However, gay men and lesbians, not to mention hermaphrodites and cross-dressers, were tolerated in Muslim society; medieval Westerners would have certainly condemned the same groups, and in this respect the Islam of the past was more progressive than Christianity of the same time period.

Perhaps one of the most ridiculous and well-known taboos in Muslim societies refers to pork. In many parts of the Muslim world, it is forbidden to even say the word "pork." Occasionally, the thought police will raid gift shops and toy stores for images of the famous Muppet Miss Piggy. Any toys or objects featuring this character are publically destroyed. The novel Animal Farm is banned from Islamic countries since it features pigs as characters. The Koran does forbid the consumption of pork but doesn't forbid using the word "pork" at all, or prohibit pig imagery.

5.3.: "You are forbidden carrion, blood, and the flesh of swine; also any flesh dedicated to any other than God."

6.145.: "Say: I do not find, in what is revealed to me, aught forbidden to him who eats thereof except it be carrion, or blood outpoured, or the flesh of swine - that is an abomination - or an ungodly thing that has been allowed to other than God."

The peculiar aversion to pork is puzzling. Wine and other intoxicants are also forbidden by the Koran, yet alcohol is not treated as an obscene and intolerable thing. Pigs are filthy animals, true, but other filthy animals such as scavenging hyenas, hedgehogs, camels and locusts are permitted for consumption. The consensus among modern critics of Islam seems to be that Mohammed created a pork taboo as yet another way of highlighting his religion amongst the competing religions. Mohammed was aware of other tribal and religious prohibitions of pork consumption, and presumably felt that by making this one thing so taboo that even mentioning its name was obscene, he could perhaps gain more acceptance of his cult, sort of like Republicans trying to out-Nazi each other during the primaries.

Copy And Pasted from Islamanics!

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