LGBT people are responsible for natural disasters like the earthquake and tsunami which killed more than 1,500 in Indonesia last week, according to Malaysian lawmakers.
The Selangor Islamic Religious Department, which is responsible for enforcing Islamic law in the state, distributed a sermon on Friday (October 5) which says catastrophes are prompted by queer people’s “vices and sins.”
The pronouncement came just weeks after the director of Pahang’s Islamic Religious Department, Mohamad Noor Abdul Rani, welcomed two women being caned for having lesbian sex and said the punishment could spread to his state.
He also warned that anyone who has gay sex will “incur the wrath and anger of Allah.”
The sermon given to mosques throughout the state of nearly six million people — which encircles the capital of Kuala Lumpur in the Muslim-majority country — drew similar conclusions.
Selangor’s religious lawmakers quoted Quran verses 28:59 and 11:82 to 83 to state that Allah only punishes sinners, and does so often.
More than 1,500 people have died after an earthquake and tsunami hit Indonesia
They included being LGBT on a list of ‘sinful actions’ which brought on Allah’s wrath.
“This verse explains that we are always under the observation of Allah the creator,” they wrote. “Whatever calamity that befalls humans must have its reason whether realized or not.
“What is certain, no ruin is imparted but for humans’ own cruelty.
“This cruelty is defined as idolatry towards Allah, and all forms of vices and sins done by humans.”
“What is certain, no ruin is imparted but for humans’ own cruelty”
They said that these “vices and sins” included “missing prayers, zina (premarital or adulterous sex), LGBT, drinking alcohol, gambling, revealing the ‘aurat’ (women showing skin), taking usury (lending money at high rates of interest), and so on.”
Gay sex is banned across the country, which groups it together with bestiality in a list of offenses which are “against the order of nature.”
Malaysia is currently embroiled in a political furore over LGBT+ rights, sparked by government minister Mujahid Yusof Rawa’s order to an arts festival to remove its portraits of local queer activists in August.
After this inflammatory decision, taken after the new government came to power in May, Malaysian police raided a gay bar in Kuala Lumpur.
Authorities have said the police action was carried out to “mitigate the LGBT culture from spreading into our society.”
Deputy Prime Minister Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail then joined the growing chorus of prominent voices against LGBT+ rights in the country when she said queer citizens should hide, keeping their identities secret in order to be accepted by society.
Latteffah Ali, state chairperson of the women’s wing of the United Malays National Organization, said that if LGBT+ people keep pushing for equal rights, it could destroy the health and ethics of a generation.