Author: Mathias Ringa
Date: January 24, 2007
Type of article: News
Source: The East African Standard http://www.eastandard.net/archives/index.php?mnu=details&id=1143964006&catid=159

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Muslim clerics in Mombasa have condemned homosexuality and asked the Government not to legalise gay marriages.

Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya (CIPK) Secretary General, Sheikh Mohamed Dor, said homosexuality is illegal.

Addressing a press conference in Mombasa on Tuesday, Dor, CIPK organising secretary general, Sheikh Mohamed Khalifa and Chairman, Sheikh Mohamed Idriss were opposed to a group attending the World Social Forum in Nairobi, who demanded for gay marriage rights. The clerics wondered why police did not arrest the group while such a vice is illegal.

"The Muslim community is against homosexuality because the vice is ungodly. Both Koran and the Bible condemn the vice," he added.

Dor said homosexuality must also be rooted out of the society because it fuels the spread if HIV/Aids. He urged the State to enforce the law and bring to book the group of gays who demanded for their marriage rights.

Khalifa said the Government is to blame for the spread of homosexuality, adding that though the law is clear that homosexuality is illegal, law enforcers have failed to take action against perpetrators. As a result, he added, homosexuality has penetrated secondary schools, especially boarding ones.

Asked what measures the clerics were taking against a surge of homosexuality in the coastal towns, the clerics said they have been using public forums to create awareness among the youth.

They, however, said their efforts might not bear fruit, unless the Government takes action against adults who influence youth to indulge in the vice.

The clerics called on the participants at the World Social Forum to concentrate on important issues of how to tackle poverty, diseases and illiteracy and not homosexuality.