To Big Media, Orlando is 'complicated'

What went wrong in Orlando?

To the Big Media, it's "complicated." It's nuanced. We shouldn't jump to the conclusion that Islam represents a major threat to Western civilization. It's not even clear that a major religion that seeks to annihilate homosexuals and all other infidels represents a danger to the rest of us.

As evidence, I submit NBC News' analysis, "Orlando highlights complicated relationship with homosexuality."

Here's the verbatim lead: "Islam's approach to homosexuality has been in the spotlight since the massacre at an Orlando gay club – criminal or compassionate? Prejudiced or progressive?"

Here's the second paragraph: "While ISIS death squads enforce an extreme version of Islam that punishes gays with death, the religion's history is far more nuanced. And like most relationships, when it comes to Islam and homosexuality – it's complicated."

Complicated?

Oh yes.

The report quotes Ali A. Olomi, an Afghan-American activist and historian who teaches from the comfort of the University of California, Irvine: "There is sexual diversity in Islam. Of course there is homosexuality. Gay people have existed and even been represented in Islam throughout history."

We're told Islamic history is filled with musicians and artists, some of whom survived even in the court of Muhammad.

"Still," the report says in frustration, "Islamic scholars overwhelmingly teach that same-gender sex is a sin. The Muslim holy book, the Quran, tells the story of Lot and the destruction of Sodom – with sodomy in Arabic referred to as 'liwat,' based on Lot's name. Men having sex with each other should be punished, the Quran says, but it doesn't say how – and it adds that they should be left alone if they repent."

Finally, we're instructed: "Gay Muslims say the Quran is not as prescriptive as many imams suggest."

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Let me be blunt: If most imams teach that homosexuals should be killed, and many Islamic governments today smile when homosexuals are dropped from tall buildings or stoned to death, where is the nuance? What is complicated about this? Does it really matter if there were allegedly some homosexuals in the court of Muhammad? Does it really matter what the Quran says?

It seems to me that what matters is what 1.1 billion Muslims in our world today believe and how they act.

Too many of them subscribe to the belief that homosexuals, Christians, Jews and other "infidels," including all American non-Muslims, deserve death and that Allah smiles on those who kill us.

Isn't that what matters?

But, if this is indeed "complicated" and "nuanced," I wonder why it's not "complicated" or "nuanced" when Christians who view homosexual behavior as sinful, as they do all sexual activity outside of marriage, but don't think practitioners should be killed or deprived of their God-given rights as citizens.

I've never seen one Big Media story suggesting that Christians should not be coerced into celebrating what they consider to be sinful behavior. Apparently, that's not a "complicated" or "nuanced" matter at all.

To its credit, the NBC story does point out: "No fewer than 40 out of 57 Muslim-majority countries or territories have laws that criminalize homosexuality, prescribing punishments ranging from fines and short jail sentences to whippings."

Is there even one Jewish or Christian country in the world that does this?

No. The story left out that little factoid.

The "good news" from the NBC report is as follows: "There has been plenty of support for LGBT rights among Muslims. Just over 40 percent of U.S. Muslims said they supported same-sex marriage last year in a survey by the Washington-based Public Religion Research Institute. Lawmakers in Albania recently debated legalizing gay marriage. In fact, Muslims in the U.S. are more accepting of homosexuality than evangelical Christians, Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses, according to a 2015 Pew study."

Why is that? Because Muslims understand that court rulings in favor "same-sex marriage" make it inevitable that polygamy will soon be permitted in the U.S. It's a means to an end.

The bad news is that Islam has been around for 1,300 years. There's never been a "reformation." It has behaved belligerently through most of that history – killing more "infidels" than any other religion, possibly even including the false religion of Communism.

Maybe the time for excuse-making is over.

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