The Muslim religious fundies led by Ustaz Noor Deros, NUS lecturer Syed Khairudin Aljunied and Zulfikar Sharif have started a "Wear White" campaign to counter the popular Pink Dot Movement. A movement that not only preaches the freedom to love among the LGBT community but also openness and acceptance across the Singapore society.
Now, the Christian fundies led by Lawrence Khong have joined in to lend their support to the Wear White campaign. He is calling his flock to wear white on 28 and 29 June in solidarity with the Muslims, to show their dissatisfaction with Pink Dot and preach further intolerance against sexual minorities. As expected, the official Muslim body MUIS comes in with a populist conciliatory saying mosques should “not to adopt a confrontational approach or vilify those who are involved in LGBT lifestyles or in events such as Pink Dot”.
In the same breath, it stated hypocritically that it was against the promotion of the LBGT lifestyle, but “support and help” must be given to those who have been leading the lifestyle or have inclinations towards it . Soon after, the PAP mouth piece for Muslim affairs, Minister Yaacob Ibrahim, echoed MUIS' statement saying, "So the approach that MUIS has taken, the advisory, is a right advisory because ultimately, what we want to do is avoid dividing society, dividing the community...Let us find the big-heartedness that we have, to accommodate differences that exist in any society."
Again, more motherhood statements from those who have lost touched with its people. Over the years, MUIS and PAP have done nothing for the LGBT community except for tokenism and patronizing statements. In fact, PAP's refusal to remove S377A is the very basis which allow religious fundies such as Noor Deros, Zulfikar and Syed Khairudin to launch their attack. The law stating that gay sex is illegal lends legitimacy to any movement that seeks to demonize and marginalize the LGBT community.
So what right does Minister Yaacob has to preach "big-heartedness" and "accommodate differences" when it is precisely the PAP that perpetuates discrimination against LGBT through S377A? The truth is the conservative PAP government is using religious fundies to do its dirty job of condemning the LGBT community while instructing state religious organizations to tow the middle line so that it seems the PAP are being tolerant. The truth is the PAP government is afraid of any group that has the ability to organize and inspire mass gatherings, something which PAP has failed to do for the past 30 years because it is quickly losing support among different segments of Singaporeans.
JY