Press Release
The LGBTIQ+ and the Consequences for the Muslim Community

The Dutch Senate has approved an initiative to amend Article 1 of The Netherlands Constitution to explicitly mention discrimination on the grounds of disability or sexual orientation. Interest groups have called this a historical victory for the LGBTIQ+ community.

Article 1 of the Constitution currently states that "discrimination on the grounds of religion, conviction, political persuasion, race, sex or any other grounds is not allowed." The words "disability" and "sexual orientation" will now be added to this list, while the existing passage "on any grounds" will continue to include disability and sexual orientation. However, the emphasis is specifically on sexual orientation. This means that the existing article on discrimination will not change in fact, but will receive an additional emphasis on this group.

The emphasis and anchoring of the protection of sexual orientation in the law is not new. For some time, laws have been amended and tightened in the interest of the LGBTIQ+ community. The legal consolidation of recognition, cooperation, and protection guaranteed by the state is only part of a broader campaign being waged by many Western countries.

In addition to this legal assurance, propaganda is being carried out in all layers of society to normalize LGBTIQ+ among the people. This is done, among other things, by approaching the issue as a security issue. For example, by emphasizing violence against this group or by emphasizing the personal stories and sufferings of members of this group in order to generate sympathy and force acceptance from the people.

Those who do not conform are scorned as seen in the football world with the smear campaign over the refusal to wear a special rainbow band for LGBTIQ+ acceptance. The ultimate goal of this campaign is not the protection or dealing with discrimination but the acceptance and normalization of this group.

The fact that the LGBTIQ+ campaign is in full swing is an indication that acceptance and normalization of LGBTIQ+ among the Dutch people has not yet been achieved. There are still large groups of people in society who do not accept and do not want to normalize.

One of the target groups is the Muslim community because Islam presents its own value system that is at odds with this idea. And this is the reason why the government is running a targeted campaign, specifically against the Muslim community. In this context, for example, the city of Amsterdam invited various boards of mosques to sign a support statement in which the mosques explicitly condemn discrimination and violence against LGBTIQ+. And so the following can be read on the website of the Dutch Government under the heading "Acceptance of LGBTIs by bicultural and religious groups": "The more religious someone is, the greater the chance that they will not accept LGBTIs. There is also a lot of resistance among Dutch people with a multicultural background. For example, half of Turkish and Moroccan Dutch people think homosexuality is wrong. The government wants to change this. This is done, among other things, by using role models and spreading personal stories."

It is essential for Muslims to be aware of this ideological attack on the fundamentals of Islam. No one should be in doubt about what the position of Islam is with regard to accepting wrong concepts such as what the LGBTIQ+ lobby fights for.

Islam sees homosexual relationships and the phenomenon of transgenderism as a great sin. What kind of Muslims are we if we accept what goes against the fundamentals of Islam, which causes a person to leave Islam when rejecting it?

Okay Pala
Media Representative of Hizb ut Tahrir in The Netherlands