Commentary by Andrew Prince
Editor, UKBlackOut

LONDON, November 27, 2007 (UKBlackOut)  –  When we think of very homophobic communities we automatically think of places like Jamaica, but recently I have come to know that there are other dimensions to homophobia.....one from the Somali community.

At least in the Jamaican community they are more informed idiots (pardon the pun), but what I have been witnessing over the past few days goes beyond anything one could identify on planet earth.

Recently I was asked to develop a website for a group of gay Somalis in London, www.somaligaycommunity.org. (click HERE for the main page in the Somali language)

This is the first website of it’s kind anywhere in the world and as it happened, it drew a lot of attention during it’s first week online with over 133,000 hits.

To say the least, there have been a lot of excitement and news coverage, with some of the major online news sites, including ones serving the mainly Somali Muslim community, carrying the story and asking for interviews from the Moderator of the website.

Somali gays and lesbians worldwide have welcomed the site as long overdue and although it is only a web presence it will help to unite Somalis online where they can share experiences, learn from each other and at the same time knowing that there are others like themselves out there.

Then the bombshell dropped.

The international Somali community is up in arms and the forums, weblogs, and sites dedicated to Somali news are awash with hate writers.

I mean really vile stuff.

One individual calls for them to be “hunted down in the street and stoned like dogs” while another said, “Allah will punish them”, another, “It's a western illness”, and yet another, “motherfocker if i ever see you on the street, am gonna chop you to pieces then feed ur crap to dogs” – this last one from a Muslim woman.

One Somali woman even mentioned that there was less than 100 gay people in all of Somalia.  How does she know this?  Did she take up a census?

Then there is that old nemesis in African countries that seems to keep rearing it’s head throughout all this – the clan.

North Somalis blames the south Somalis saying that is the part of the country where all the gay and lesbian people come from.

With all the genocide going on in their country and the murder of innocent women and children of which you don’t hear a peep out of them on, I am amazed that they have so much energy hating a group of people who only wants to share their experiences on a website and improve their quality of life.  Where is the threat?

What strikes me in all of this is the fact that most of these people are refugees themselves, living in countries all over the world.

These same countries allows them the freedom to be who they are regardless of which clan or region they are from and yet, they wish to take away that same freedom from their countrymen and women.

If they are such patriots why did they flee their country, why aren’t they still there or in other Muslim countries where their extreme views are more appreciated?

I guess it’s because, according to one person on the SomaliNet Forums, “muslims own the entire world, soon or latter everybody will become muslim, so shut da fock about why did you come to a christian country”.

To this I say, wake up, get your head out of the sand.  It will never happen.

What I would like to know is this: How can a devout Muslim person preach such hate when there is nowhere in the Koran (I am told) that says they should go out and hurt people for not conforming to their idea of what a good Muslim should be? 

As with all cultures, people twist things to suit their needs and then hides behind religion to justify their vile actions.

The saga continues. I was then made aware that my name, address and telephone number was made public on a particular website forum, along with one of the guys from the group.

Someone with a little bit of internet savvy (a woman) did a Domanin Name Whois lookup (Oops my mistake, I should have made it a private listing) and found out some details that one would rather not have flashed around the world on the internet.

But this person thought that they would be harming me.  What she did not realise was that I am one of the most OUT black gay man in London and I’m no stranger to having my face or name in the public domain.

The site was threatened with being hacked so I had to take extra security steps to protect the site so that it stays online to serve the community that it was intended for.

The good thing that came out of all this is the fact that the website was actually promoted around the world by people who are against it, something that these guys could not pay for in the form of advertising.

So next time you think of violent homophobes, don’t all only look to Jamaica, you can find it in other cultures too.

■ Since writing this article, the website with my name and address on their forum has been deleted.  Another forum with really vile threats have been entirely deleted, albeit without our intervention.