WEB POSTED 07-02-2002

If I walk funny, my foot must hurt!

As I thumbed through the July 24th edition of NEWSWEEK magazine, I was halted and held, fascinated by a picture and a caption. The color photograph occupied a full two-thirds of the page, and the subjects were six Catholic Bishops, one obviously Black. The caption�all white lettering against a black background�read "Day of Atonement." Atonement is one of the principles which we, followers of The Honorable Louis Farrakhan, cherish and seek to practice as faithfully as possible.

These were a part of a gathering of bishops representing the dioceses of Los Angeles and Orange Counties, who were meeting to discuss possible remedies for the sexual misconduct of the church leadership throughout the world. One of the principles agreed upon, called "Ryan�s Law," contained a strict "no fraternization" policy declaring that no priest can meet with children for any reason without another adult present. Many valuable rules were proffered and discussed, according to the article, but none were solidly adopted. Had they been, however, they would have still required the approval of the Mother Church, which few seemed to anticipate.

All points were not agreed upon in this session. They remained divided on what writer David France called "a central demand of abuse victims: to fire priests whom they know have abused, even if it was only once." A disturbing factor to the proponents of progress is their expectation that any real progress toward stopping the sexual abuse "would be nixed by the pope, who must approve the plan to make it mandatory."

The writer concludes that, "Dozens of men and women who were abused by priests are not pleased at all. ... But the most pressing unfinished business is how to punish the bishops, two-thirds of whom have transferred offending priests into unsuspecting parishes."

These latest developments pressed me toward my file, where I found a somewhat parallel article in a two-year-old issue of THE MUSLIM OBSERVER. In the "Letters" section of THE OBSERVER of June 16-22, 2000, a page and a third was devoted to an article entitled "Gay Muslims." I was somewhat leery, thanks to the title, but the contents were quite enlightening. A Doctor Ahmad H. Sakr states, "Honest and sincere people are astonished as to what they want to do (referring to the leaders who promote homosexuality). They are afraid to speak out. Those who practice the unnatural sex life have become very vocal. They try to prove that such sex relations are natural. It has a genetic relationship! There is a gene on the chromosome, which is responsible for such sex indulgence! This means that they put the blame on God who allowed such a gene to be there for such type of sex lifestyle!

"This incident of Homosexuality is not new. It took place in history during the life of Prophet Abraham and Prophet Lot. The Most Merciful God Almighty (Allah) sent Prophet Lot to guide them to the healthy life, and to the natural way that they were created. It seems that the local people refused to listen. They insisted to continue such type of sex life. Finally, Allah cursed them, and then He wiped them out totally from this planet earth. He sent them an earthquake. He made sure that all of them were to die.

"The earth was turned upside down. More so, Allah sent small birds carrying pebbles from Hell. They were burned into ash.

"Prophet Lot and the neighboring people with their Prophet Abraham were saved, and all those who followed them. This incident was mentioned several times in the Qur�an."