Kevin Baldeosingh
Most Muslims and many Christians do not think that religion should be blamed for the massacre at a gay bar last Sunday in the United States. Instead, they think it was the homosexuals' fault.
As Pope Francis said after the Charlie Hebdo murders last year: "You cannot insult the faith of others. You cannot make fun of the faith of others. There is a limit. Every religion has its dignity."
And when 29-year-old divorced shooter Omar Mateen saw two men kissing in public, he felt so insulted that he was driven to get his assault rifle and go to the gay bar and shoot everyone there, presumably in a dignified way. So if homosexuals had not made fun of religion by kissing like heterosexual couples, they might not have been murdered.
Moreover, Mr Mateen did his shooting in a gay bar which serves drinks and, as you know, in Islam alcohol is haram. So not only is drinking a mint julep an offence to Allah, but if homosexuals were teetotallers there would be no gay bars and Mr Mateen would not have had a venue for his massacre. Indeed, since he was killing two sins with one shot–alcoholic homosexuals and homosexual alcoholics–he probably felt he was getting good value per bullet.
Of course, even if homosexuals did not kiss in public or drink alcohol, the likelihood is that they would still go to clubs in sequinned pants: and Islam prefers everyone to dress in tents. But it's even more offensive when gays take off their clothes, because then they want to have sex in the privacy of their bedrooms with each other, which is insulting to every God worshipped by the Inter-Religious Organisation.
After all, as Afrocentric activist Selwyn Cudjoe also declared post-Hebdo: "Unrelenting provocation of another's religion and culture should never be proclaimed as the supreme virtue."
So if homosexuals chose to have sex only with women who they are married to, they would not provoke Islamists and be killed, except perhaps by bandits.
Mind you, Mateen's father told the media that he was surprised his son would have carried out such an act, since he wasn't a serious Muslim. In fact, the father even posted a video in which he said that human beings shouldn't punish homosexuals since Allah will take care of such perverts. However, all countries with Muslim majorities prefer to assist Allah, since the punishment for homosexuality in these places is death by stoning, hanging, beheading or, if you're really good-looking, all of the above.
Admittedly, the Qur'an doesn't specifically prescribe these remedies for homosexuals. Suras 7:81 and 27:55 only reference the Bible story of Lot who, you may recall, protected two male travellers from sodomites by offering his two virgin daughters to the horny crowd.
Because in Biblical times raping females was not so heinous a sin as raping men, whereas nowadays gender feminists hold the exact opposite view.
And, in fact, the group which is most vocal in demonising gays in T&T are not Muslims, but fundamentalist Christians. Indeed, President Anthony Carmona only last week appointed Pastor Clive Dottin as a temporary Independent Senator, and Pastor Dottin along with his Seventh-Day Adventist colleagues spend many Sundays on their morning programme on 102 FM discussing why homosexuality is as great an abomination as prostitution, murder and shrimp cocktail. Which, presumably, is why the Bible instructs that homosexuals be killed and, to judge from comments on social media, many Christians in T&T are very happy that Muslims are carrying out Jehovah's injunctions.
Despite this, there is very little chance of a similar massacre happening in T&T, if only because there aren't any gay bars here.
And, while it is true that a teacher at Naparima Boys College did threaten to deal with any gay students if she had a gun, she probably doesn't have a gun nor, presumably, do any of the 600 heterosexual Naps boys who signed a petition supporting her.
Finally, we must never forget that these kinds of killings are really caused by Western civilisation.
Not only would Mr Mateen not even have been in the US if America hadn't freed Afghanistan from the Taliban, but the efforts by Western nations to champion gay rights upset people like political commentator and Allah apologist Michael Harris, who describes this initiative, along with abortion rights and the elimination of the death penalty, as "the virus of cultural imperialism."
It therefore seems that that virus is best resisted by supporting bigotry, murder and beards.
n Kevin Baldeosingh is a professional writer, author of three novels and co-author of a Caribbean history textbook.